BERWICK LITERARY FESTIVAL 2024: BRIDGING THE DIVIDE
Welcome to our Festival website! The 2024 Festival, our eleventh, is rapidly approaching and we are busy with the finer details of the programme. I hope you will find this website helpful in finding your way around the story of the festival, and, before very long – 1 August to be exact – you will embrace the programme and book tickets. It is all very easy from this one site.
As many of those local to Berwick will be well aware, the town is celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the Opening of the old stone bridge across the River Tweed. In most circumstances, that would not excite much interest, but for the checkered history of Anglo-Scottish relations, as the crowns were united, it had a symbolic importance. The Literary Festival has been keen to be a full part of the events, and we are delighted to have secured Michael Palin to speak (twice). But more than that, we have adopted the theme Bridging the Divide for the Festival.
It is a strong and relevant theme wherever you look in the world, and many of our speakers will address it from their perspective. I hope it tells you where we want to locate the Festival. It is rooted in the life and history of Berwick and the Borderlands. It is challenging and it is hopeful, and it offers us the chance to dig deep into the spirit of the region and its people not just in the few days of the festival but working with many others in the area, building positive and creative relationships throughout the year.
Andrew Deuchar
Festival Director