Lewes Speakers Festival 2023: Vince Cable and Andrea Leadsom to speak at historic event

The literacy event will take place at the All Saints Centre on January 21, 22 and 23, featuring talks from seventeen different authors.

Opening the event will be Lady Carnarvon and she discusses Highclere Castle – aka the ‘real Downton Abbey’. She gives the stories of the treasures within Highclere Castle's grounds, untold secrets from the castle's archives and much more.

Alongside history and anecdotes, Lady Carnarvn also details sumptuous recipes for dishes inspired by local, seasonal produce, such as Heritage Tomato Tart, Highclere Baked Figs with Goats Cheese, and Honeyed Winter Vegetable Salad.

Then, at 7pm, the former Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable will discusses his book How to be a Politician: 2,000 Years of Good (and Bad) Advice, providing an education in the dark arts of politics.

Opening on Saturday morning will be Professor Angela Gallop, one of the UK’s most eminent forensic scientists. In this talk, she describes some of her own and her colleagues most intriguing cases and the wide range of skills and techniques used to solve them.

She will be followed by entrepreneur Joe Zammit-Lucia, who will use his talk to explain the lack of familiarity of the business community, even at the most senior levels, with political thinking. He demonstrates how businesses that develop effective political antennae can enhance their performance.

Dame Andrea Leadsom will discuss her book Snakes and Ladders from 12:50pm, tracking the ups and downs of a political career and particularly some of the challenges for female MPs. The former Leader of the House of Commons gives a real insight into the daily goings-on with ministers, parliamentary colleagues, civil servants, special advisers, the media and constituents.

At 2:20pm, Professor Kerry Brown examines China’s president Xi Jinping, explaining the impact that his rule is already having on the West.

Following Professor Kerry, Olesya Khromeychuk gives a deeply moving and thoughtful about the story of her he story of her brother Volodymyr – who died on the frontline in eastern Ukraine. Olesya picks apart the ways political violence shapes everyone and everything it touches and depicts with extraordinary intimacy the singular and complicated bond between a brother and sister.

On Saturday evening, broadcaster Robert Hardman explores the full, life of our longest reigning monarch in his biography Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II.

Mark Thomas will then provide a fast and furiously funny journey through our national memory, discussing 50 Things About Us: What We Really Need to Know About Britain.

On the final day of the festival, Professor Anil Seth will open the Sunday with a talk based on the book which was: a top 10 Sunday Times Bestseller; a New Statesman, Economist, & Bloomberg Book of the Year; and a Financial Times and Guardian Science Book of the Year.

Being You: A New Science of Consciousness challenges our understanding of perception and reality, doing for brain science what Dawkins did for evolutionary biology.

Then, Diana Darke offers a unique overview of the Ottoman Empire’s cultural legacy one century after its dissolution. She investigates the crucial role that commerce and trade played in supporting the empire and increasing its cultural reach, highlighting the significant role of women, as well as the diverse religious values, literary and musical traditions that proliferated through the empire.

Author Peter Stothard will be interviewed by Norman Baker about his book Crassus - The First Tycoon, in which he tells the story of Rome’s richest man, who died a humiliating desert death in search of military glory.

Ian Williams will provide a thought-provoking and alarming talk examining China’s cold war’s many fronts – from Taiwan and the South China Sea to the Indian frontier, the Arctic and cyberspace.

Professor Mark Galeotti will follow with a talk providing an overview of the conflicts in which Russia has been involved since Vladimir Putin became prime minister and then president of Russia, from the First Chechen War to the two military incursions into Georgia, the annexation of Crimea and the eventual invasion of Ukraine itself.

The penultimate talk will feature expert archaeologist Ben Robinson discussing England's villages throughout the ages. Discovering how landowners, governments and communities have shaped villages, why village greens, village pubs and village halls exist, and the real meaning behind names like Bunny, Yelling, Lover, Great Snoring and Slaughter.

Finally, Christina Lamb talks about how the Prince Rupert luxury hotel spent months locked down with their new guests, many of them traumatised, addicts or suffering from mental illness amid the pandemic.

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There will be a Q and A following each of the talks and tickets can be purchased from the Lewes Speakers Festival website.

Speaking on the festival last year, Vince Cable said: “I’ve been to the festival once before for one of my earlier books and I have been to Lewes several times with Norman Baker to campaign in Lewes. So I'm reasonably familiar with the place.

"The last time I came to the Speakers Festival it was really good, it was very well attended and interactive. If you are an ex retired politician like me, book festivals are wonderful places because people have paid to come, they're engaged and you get given good questions. I love the literacy circuit and Lewes is one of the better ones."