Fans of Radio 4’s Book Club and Today programmes will have the opportunity to hear veteran broadcaster James Naughtie discuss his most recent documentary series The New Elizabethans when he headlines the opening night of this year’s Aspects Festival on Wednesday, 26thSeptember 2012 at 8.30pm (tickets £11 / £9 concession).
The New Elizabethans which has been created for the Diamond Jubilee year considers the period of The Queen’s reign thus far and profiles 60 key people whose achievements have helped define this era and are likely to stand the test of time. Those profiled run from Edmund Hillary to Vivienne Westwood, from Billy Connolly to Margaret Thatcher. Northern Irish figures feature prominently in the list, including George Best, John Hume and David Trimble and leading astronomer Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell.
James’ journalistic career has seen him travel the world, most notably to the United States where he has covered every Presidential election and garnered a wealth of US political trivia, though he is perhaps most infamously known on the Today programme as the presenter who had a rather unfortunate mispronunciation slip over the name of Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt!
This is a fascinating opportunity to look at our recent history in a different way, led by a man whose guiding principle is that journalism is “…about telling stories straightforwardly, as interestingly as you can, and as accurately as you can manage.”
Other authors and events at Aspects include Colin Bateman’s Crime Night, this year featuring Colin Brookmyre, Bernard MacLaverty, Chief Football Writer for the Guardian, Kevin McCarra, poetry and comedy from Owen O’Neill, Glenn Patterson, our Young Aspects Headline Guest Derek Landy (author of the Skulduggery Pleasant series), David Park, Gerald Dawe and an evening devoted to Flann O’Brien’s novel The Third Policeman, featuring narration by Stephen Rea and music by Colin Reid.
Author Bernard O’Donoghue has described the Aspects Irish Literature Festival as “one of the great gatherings”, so what are you waiting for? Head to Bangor and we’ll see you at the festival!
Tickets are available at www.northdown.gov.uk/bookings, from the festival Box Office at North Down Museum (028 9127 1200) and from Bangor Tourist Information Office (028 9127 0069).