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Lucy Easthope is a leading authority on responding to and recovering from emergency. For over two decades she has challenged others to think differently about what comes next after complex, tragic events. She is a passionate and thought-provoking voice in planning for pandemics, conflict, sudden death, and disaster, and has been a tactical advisor to international emergency responders since 2001.
She is the author of The Recovery Myth and of the Sunday Times Bestseller When The Dust Settles, a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. Her new book Come What May: Life-changing lessons for coping with crisis was published in May 2025. She joins us to talk about her life in disaster and the lessons along the way.
Photo credit: Caitlin Chescoe
Dr Alexandra Loske FSA is a British-German art historian, writer, and Curator of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. She read English and Linguistics at Humboldt University, Berlin, and Art History at the University of Sussex, where she is a Research Associate, working on women in colour history. In 2024 she gave the Mondrian Lecture on colour for the Sikkens Foundation in Rotterdam.
Alexandra has published widely on colour, including Colour: A Visual History, and A Cultural History of Color in the Age of Industry. In 2024 she published the substantial Book of Colour Concepts (TASCHEN), as well as the first monograph on Mary Gartside (Abstract Visions of Colour). Her latest book is The Artist’s Palette (Thames & Hudson). She recently completed work on a book on the Royal Pavilion for Yale University Press, with the title The Royal Pavilion, Brighton: A Regency Palace of Colour and Sensation.
Photo credit: Flora Loske-Page
A celebration of the late and much-loved local children’s author, Allan Ahlberg, whose outstanding body of work has enriched the lives of families for half a century. Local illustrator Alan Baker and Bruce Ingman, who has illustrated Allan’s stories, will give illustrated talks about the writer and his achievements. Noted children’s literature reviewer, Julia Eccleshare (The Guardian) will talk further about his work. The session will include readings from Allan’s autobiography, The Bucket.
Please note this talk will take place at the earlier time of 2pm to 4pm, with doors opening at 1.30pm. Tickets include tea and a slice of cake.
Photo credit: Christopher Jones
Annabel Abbs writes award-winning fiction, memoir, and non-fiction (sometimes under the name Streets), translated into 36 languages. Her first novel, The Joyce Girl, won the Impress New Writer Prize and is currently being adapted for the stage. Her second novel, Frieda: The Real Lady Chatterley, was a Times Book of the Year. Her third novel, The Language of Food, was an international best-seller, optioned by CBS. Her best-selling non-fiction includes The Age-Well Project, 52 Ways to Walk, and The Walking Cure. Her highly acclaimed memoirs include Windswept: Why Women Walk and Sleepless: Discovering the Power of the Night Self. Annabel writes for many newspapers and magazines from The Guardian to The Washington Post and The Paris Review. She grew up in Lewes.
Photo credit: Aaron Hargreaves
Abir Mukherjee is the bestselling author of the Wyndham & Banerjee novels set in colonial-era India. His books have been translated into fifteen languages and won various awards including the CWA Dagger for best Historical Novel, the Prix du Polar Européen and the Wilbur Smith Award for Adventure Writing. His first standalone thriller, Hunted was a Sunday Times Book of the Month and was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the ten best thrillers of 2024. He also co-hosts the Red Hot Chilli Writers – Murder Junction podcast which takes a wry look at the world of books, writing, crime and the creative arts.
Photo credit: Stuart Simpson
Carolyn trained at The Slade, and although originally a painter, she has made Artists’ Books for over 20 years. Her work appears in individual and institutional collections across the UK, Europe, and USA, including the V&A National Art Library, British Library, Tate, USA University Library special collections and Library of Congress, and she shows regularly at the Oxford Fine Press Fair. Carolyn has also written two books, both about women artists. Her first book Art for Life: The Story of Peggy Angus was published in 2004. Her second, her acclaimed book British Women Artists from Suffrage to the Sixties, first published in 2019 is now out in paperback. The Guardian has described the book as: “diligent, detailed and full of surprises”. Carolyn lives and works in Lewes.
Photo credit: Kathryn Burton