Porlock Arts Festival

Porlock Arts Festival will run from 8 - 11th September in 2011.

On the Thursday evening we start with an Explorers' Evening! Local author and keen Festival supporter Sir Christopher Ondaatje will open the evening discussing his new book The Last Colonial: Curious Adventures and Stories from a Vanishing World. He will be followed by Stanley Johnson, author, raconteur and former MP, whose family has farmed on Exmoor for 60 years, who will tell of his recent climb up Mount Kilamanjaro in aid of the Gorilla Organization and discuss his new book Survival: Saving Endangered Migratory Species.

On Friday night we have The New Scorpion Band, one of the best traditional music groups around today, who provide a superb mix of close harmony songs and ballads, instrumental tunes, poetry, stories and folk drama. Their programme John Barleycorn is Dead is a musical celebration of farming and the land and including folk songs from Somerset

On Saturday night we have an amazing trio of contemporary writers - Ali Smith, Philip Hensher and Jackie Kay. Other nights include the New Scorpion band and Sir Christopher Ondaatje and Stanley Johnson.

Ali Smith's first novel Like, was published to critical acclaim in 1997 and her second novel Hotel World (2001) was short-listed for both the Orange and the Booker Prize for Fiction. Her latest book There But For The will be published in June 2011. Ali is a playwright and a regular contributor of articles and reviews to newspapers and journals.

Philip Hensher is a regular broadcaster and writes for newspapers and journals including The Independent, Mail on Sunday and The Spectator. He is the author of several novels and short stories and his 2008 novel The Northern Clemency was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction and he has recently published a new novel King of the Badgers. Philip also wrote the libretto for Thomas Ades' opera Powder Her Face.

Jackie Kay published her first volume of poems The Adoption Papers in 1991and her first novel Trumpet was published in 1998. Her Maw Broon Monologues were short-listed for the 2010 Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry and her autobiographical The Red Dust Road featured as Radio 4's Book of the Week earlier this year. Jackie has also published collections of short stories, works for children and also writes widely for stage and television.

In addition to the regular Festival features - Glenthorne Literary Museum, the Poetry Picnic, Art Exhibitions and Open Studios, there will be another Local Authors' Day, and a Writers' Forum following on from the successful 2010 events. Other events include a Choral Workshop and a Sunday afternoon Tea Dance, plus the regular Competitions and Pub Quiz.