Kendal Mountain Book Festival 2023
Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor
Kendal Mountain Book Festival runs alongside the multi award-winning Kendal Mountain Festival each November.
Kendal Mountain Book Festival promises four days of inspiration, discussion and creativity taking place in venues around Kendal, including Brewery Arts Centre (also the base of the Brewery Poets and Verbalise; see our Guide to Literary Places in Cumbria for more). Brimming with events that explore our natural world through words, music and poetry, the festival will bring together avid explorers and adventure seekers with loves of nature writing to share their experiences and celebrate the best in mountain literature. Appropriate, as Kendal was the home of Alfred Wainwright, the British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator known for his seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells.
Prepare to be captivated by the presence of acclaimed Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, enchanting musician Jenny Sturgeon, and celebrated writers Robert Macfarlane and Tristan Gooley. Joining them is the engaging BBC Breakfast presenter Louise Minchin, with tales of fearless female adventurers. Additionally, be inspired by the remarkable cyclists Mark Beaumont, Jenny Graham and Lee Craigie alongside renowned climbers Leo Houlding and Sasha Diguilian. Together, these exceptional individuals promise to deliver a festival experience like no other, celebrating the spirit of adventure and creativity that defines the Kendal Mountain Festival.
On our radar is Elizabeth-Jane Burnett reading from Twelve Words for Moss, making her way through wetlands from Somerset to County Tyrone and looking closely at the living carpet beneath her feet. “Glowflake, Rocket, Small Skies, Kind Spears, Marilyn” are just some of her favourite species of moss rediscovered and renamed as she recovers from her grief at her father’s death and draws inspiration from the resilience and tenacity of her plant – and human – friends.
We’re also looking forward to hearing about the strange and mesmerising nature of A Flat Place from Noreen Masud, whose earliest memory is of a wide, flat field glimpsed from the back seat of her father’s car in Lahore, Pakistan. As an adult, she has taken a pilgrimage around Britain’s flatlands – Orford Ness, the Cambridgeshire Fens, Morecambe Bay, Orkney – seeking solace and belonging, she weaves her impressions of the natural world with recollections of her own early life, to explore the depths of the histories hidden there.
Kendal Mountain Book Festival encourages you to explore the landscapes around us through music, prose and poetry, tracing the connections between nature and sound – prepare to be transported on a journey through mountain passes, meandering rivers, uncharted territories and more…
