Join Essex Book Festival for a day of author events under the banner of Restless Brilliance. Linking up with the J.A. Baker exhibition running at Chelmsford Museum until 3 November, the focus will be on all things nature and ornithology.
The event runs alongside our Open Estate Day, making it a perfect day out for the family and a great way to celebrate dad on Father’s Day.
11.30am: Mark Cocker, One Midsummer’s Day
Join Mark Cocker, one of our greatest nature writers, as he discusses his most ambitious and wide-ranging book to date. Drawing deeply on science, history, literature and a lifetime of close observation, One Midsummer’s Day: Swifts and The Story of Life on Earth, is a dazzling celebration of the natural world and how we are all inextricably connected.
This event will include an audience Q&A. After the event there will be an opportunity to get your book signed by the author.
1.30pm: Andrew Millham, Singing Like Larks 
Join local nature and folk history writer, Andrew Millham, for a joyous celebration of song, the seasons, and our love of birds. Andrew will be in conversation with David Simmonds and they will be discussing Andrew’s book, Singing Like Larks, and also the legacy of J.A. Baker’s The Peregrine and what it means to Essex.
Singing Like Larks by Andrew Millham is an important repository and treasury of bird-related folk songs. It opens a rare window onto the ancient song traditions of the British Isles, interweaving mesmerising lyrics, folklore and colourful nature writing to uncover the remarkable relationship between birds and traditional folk music.
Book tickets for Andrew Millham
3pm: Joanna Glen, Maybe, Perhaps, Possibly
Joanna Glen, author of the Costa Prize shortlisted debut, The Other Half of Augusta Hope, explores her latest novel.
Two introverts with turbulent pasts and wary hearts take individual comfort in swimming in the ocean, birdwatching, books and the sounds of the sea. Sol and Addie are both drawn to nature far more than to people – until they catch sight of one another in the wild. Maybe, Perhaps, Possibly is a beautifully observed and life-affirming story about finding yourself, and then allowing someone else to find you.
This event will include an audience Q&A. After the event there will be an opportunity to get your book signed by the author.
