See this month's edition for full coverage of the Sevenoaks Literary Celebration
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Jill Webster, chair of the Sevenoaks Literary Celebration, tells VINE how the annual event got started
Literary festivals have grown like mushrooms around the country over the past ten years, but there are still only two in Kent, of which Sevenoaks is one. Jill Webster chairs a small committee of local booklovers which begins planning each annual event as soon as the last one is over.
‘The actual beginning was in 2002 when Denise Sims telephoned the late John Smedley, the organiser of Sevenoaks Summer Festival, to complain of the lack of literary events. John Smedley asked Denise why she didn’t do something about it. So Denise with one or two other friends organised four or five events. I remember we had Edna Healey and Nigel Nicolson.’ The following year there were 14 literary events during the Summer Festival. ‘I was the coordinator and John Smedley was very formative in supporting us and giving us lots of encouragement.’ Most events were held at Sevenoaks Library and the emphasis was very much on local writers and local groups.
In 2004 the committee decided to become independent of the Summer Festival and launched the Sevenoaks Literary Celebration, with a grant from the Town Council and its own brochure. ‘But we realised we were not getting the audiences that we could, because there were too many conflicting events. So in 2005 we switched the date to September.’
Jill recalls some ‘terrible publicity’ when Jeffrey Archer was invited, provoking headlines about the ‘ex-jailbird peer.’ ‘Since 2004 we’ve managed to have a series of really good novelists such as Hilary Mantel, Penelope Lively, Lionel Shriver and Sarah Waters.’ Penelope Lively is coming back this year for the second time. Jill, who describes herself as a lifelong reading fanatic, says she has learned that literary tastes in Sevenoaks are very diverse. So the committee always tries to find a historian and a biographer, and to put on some kind of event for young people. ‘We have learned that we are fishing in a relatively small pool, though we do get interested people who come from further afield. Most people will come to three or four events.’
This year’s featured local author is Frank Barnard, an expert on the world of the World War II fighter pilot. Once again there’s a literary walk around Weald, followed by readings and tea. For the first time there’s a special event for local book groups with publisher Nicola Beauman, whose distinctive grey-covered imprint Persephone Books has brought back to life the forgotten works of many 20th century women writers. One of them is Winifred Watson, whose novel Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day has just been turned into a film.
Jill is particularly pleased to have secured appearances this year by three authors who should go down well with Sevenoaks readers – Salley Vickers, Selina Hastings and Hester Davenport. ‘Salley Vickers is one of those novelists who became very popular by word of mouth, not because she was being hyped up by the publishers. Miss Garnet’s Angel became an absolute runaway success because so many people and book groups recommended it. She’s a psychoanalyst and a lecturer as well as a novelist, and her new book Where Three Roads Meet is about the Oedipus complex and Freud’s interpretation of it.’
Selina Hastings has written three highly praised literary biographies of Evelyn Waugh, Nancy Mitford and more recently Rosamund Lehmann. ‘The Mitfords remain an object of fascination for readers, and Nancy’s books Love In A Cold Climate and The Pursuit Of Love remain favourites with a lot of people.’ Fanny Burney’s biographer Hester Davenport will be talking about the 18th century diarist and novelist’s time at the court of King George III. Jill is also a Fanny Burney devotee and says: ‘Her diaries are absolutely wonderful and we’re lucky that Hester will be accompanied by actress Karin Fernald, who will read the extracts.’
John Morrison kicks off a new series looking at transport in and around Sevenoaks
Were you out and about in Sevenoaks in August? Did you notice an improvement in the place? Full marks to anyone who spotted how much nicer it was with fewer cars on the streets. With no school run and half the town away on holiday, it was like time-travelling back a few years before the twice daily rush-hour jams.
Vine likes to be upbeat about Sevenoaks and celebrate the advantages of living in what the Town Council website calls the happiest town in Britain. You’d have to be a real curmudgeon not to do so. But we should keep our eyes peeled for clouds on the horizon, and one of them is the relentless growth in road traffic in and around the town. Because it’s relentless, just a few percentage points each year, we tend not to notice it, and that’s why it’s only when August comes along that we notice the change.
Local traffic has hit the headlines this year because of Sevenoaks District Council’s (SDC) new parking scheme. This has been seen by some as an overdue attempt to create some order out of chaos in residential streets near the station and the town centre, and by others as an outrageous attempt to top up the council’s coffers by holding innocent motorists to ransom. As Tony Hancock so memorably put it, ‘Magna Carta! Did she die in vain!’ But car parking, though it’s the only transport policy area where the district council has full control, is only one symptom of our transport problems.
Most transport matters affecting Sevenoaks are handled by Kent County Council, which has been working with SDC on a transport strategy for the district, to be published later this year. We should all be interested, because the choices made will affect every individual and family. I always think of transport problems as a great leveller; you can buy better education, housing and healthcare, but short of hiring a helicopter, you can’t buy your way out of a traffic jam on the M25 when you’re late for the airport. And buying a first class rail ticket won’t help you if the train doesn’t arrive or if the air you breathe is polluted.
So now’s the time to have your say. Vine wants to hear what you think about the future of transport in Sevenoaks. Are you a pedestrian, a cyclist, a motorist, a rail commuter, a bus traveller? Do you let your children cycle on the roads, or is it too dangerous? Does your school have a Walking Bus?
Do you ever Kiss and Ride? Do you wonder why there’s no bus service to the airport? Do you think government and local councils should do more to make life easier and cheaper for hard-pressed motorists? Or do you think rising fuel prices mean it’s urgent to go green and find alternatives to the car? Do you drive a gas-guzzling 4x4 or an eco-friendly vehicle?
Do you lie awake at night worrying about the polar bears in the Arctic, or do you think your carbon footprint is like your sex life – nobody else’s business? We’d like to hear from you, but first of all, here are a few surprising facts to get the debate going:
Sevenoaks depends very heavily on its transport links. Frequent trains to London and proximity to the M25 are key factors for people who move here. More than half of the workforce commutes to jobs elsewhere, leaving nearly half the jobs to be filled by people from outside the district
According to a consultancy study for Sevenoaks District Council (SDC) in 2007, congestion across the district is ‘not exceptional’, but there are several hotspots around the town, including the High Street, Bat and Ball junction and Sevenoaks station
Census figures from 2001 show that fewer than 15% of the population have no access to a car, compared to 19% in the Southeast and 27% in England as a whole. But 45% of people in Sevenoaks have access to two or more cars, compared to 38% for the Southeast and 30% for England. The 2008 figures are almost certainly higher
Around 60% of people commute to work by car, close to the national average, but 16% use the train – four times the national average. Travel to work by bus is negligible at only 2%, compared to 4.4% in the Southeast and 7.5% nationally
Last year’s study described air and noise pollution in Sevenoaks as “a severe threat to public health and the quality of life” but gave no figures. SDC is now closely monitoring air pollution, which experts say mostly comes from motorway traffic
Consultants say improved public transport is essential to cut congestion and predict that because more of us are living longer, more of us will depend on it. Bus services are described as poor, with many services only running once an hour. There’s one dedicated bus for rail commuters, running a limited timetable between Sevenoaks station and Chipstead in the morning and early evening. The last bus to Seal and Kemsing leaves Sevenoaks station around 6.30 pm – too early for most London commuters. And there are no buses at all from Sevenoaks to Maidstone, Ebbsfleet or Gatwick airport
In England as a whole around 3% of people cycle to work, but the figure for Sevenoaks is only 0.9%. The census figures show Sevenoaks has the highest car ownership of any district in Kent, while the number of people cycling or walking to work is the lowest in the county. The nearest off-road cycle route is between Tonbridge and Penshurst
Kent County Council’s new transport plan to 2011 aims to restrict road traffic growth to under 2% a year, encourage more cycling and walking and achieve a 10% rise in the number of children using sustainable transport to school. It also aims for a 10% cut in vehicle speeds in residential areas. What these policies mean for Sevenoaks may become clear by the end of 2008
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It’s conference season. Instead of returning to Westminster after our holidays, MPs head for the seaside all over again.
By long-established custom the political parties have each autumn held their main conferences in some far off coastal town. The Lib Dems go first, then Labour, and finally the Conservatives. We always have the last week; I don’t know why – perhaps because we are the oldest party.
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