Welcome to Lowdham Book Festival 2008, Nottinghamshire’s biggest literature event. This is our ninth festival and we are hoping to avoid the sandbags this year and bask in some summer sun after last years floods!

As always we hope to delight and surprise you with our varied programme of author talks, music and drama. We begin with a weekend of Art, Architecture and Photography themed talks chaired by Colin Hazelden from the BBC East Midlands Today team, and with a Reading Group Day featuring three debut novelists, sponsored very generously by Bloomsbury Publishing for the second year running. We are very happy to welcome a band of Guardian cartoonists to Lowdham to entertain us with their art, and to offer you controversy with Jonathan Meades and family fun with Tim Quinn.

The week continues with an exciting mix of large and small events to suit all tastes and ages, from the current affairs hero George Alagiah to theatre legend Steven Berkoff, from spy expert Ben MacIntyre to pub crawler extraordinaire Ian Marchant and literary guru D.J. Taylor. From afternoon discussions in the festival café to the music and drama of Lark Rise to Candleford, we will close the week with 1960’s music icon Joe Boyd...

Using the usual lovely mix of venues we look forward to seeing old friends and new faces at the festival and hope you enjoy the events as much as we’ve enjoyed the planning!

Jane Streeter
Ross Bradshaw