By CLODAGH HAYES
’The Notting Hill Literary Festival is a literary event simply unlike any other. Its raison d’être is to engage with and inspire new audiences, and it has made a brilliant start in that effort. This is the Notting Hill under the Westway, not the Notting Hill of stucco houses, antique shops and delis. And the literary festival is all the richer for it.’
Barnaby Phillips, Author of The African Kingdom of Gold
‘Surely there’s already a literary festival in Notting Hill?’
My first thought when my old friend Alex asks in November if I’ll help organise the inaugural Notting Hill Literary Festival to be held in May 2026. Alex, a trustee of the Harrow Club, a leading West London youth charity, wants to use the charity’s beautiful, listed mission house to raise awareness of this great local charity while also having some inspired fun.
Alex has great vision – key speakers have already agreed to the date – but the project is currently light on logistics. I am unable to resist the combination of books and my local community plus an opportunity to roll out planning skills (some might say bossiness) honed over years of being a corporate lawyer and an eldest sister.
Planning starts in earnest after Christmas. A team of six volunteers meets weekly to make the inaugural festival a concrete reality. We organise the schedule, draft authors’ contracts, build a website, design a logo (thanks to local artist Charlotte Pearl), set up ticket sales, reserve caterers, sound and lighting suppliers, chairs, booksellers (Daunt’s), assuage publicists’ concerns, prepare ‘assets’ for social media, apply for council permits, order merchandise and banners, deliver flyers, chase friends and acquaintances to buy tickets, share tips on how to manage insomnia as the event speeds towards us…
Notting Hill’s Ultimate Book Group
Friday night is billed as Notting Hill’s Ultimate Book Group. We have attracted three fabulous writers: Santa Montefiore, number one bestselling author of more than thirty novels; Kate Weinberg, whose novel, The Truants, was chosen as a Book of the Year by The Observer and The New York Times; and Eva Rice, author of best-seller The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets. Mild panic when Santa bravely turns up on crutches. Will she be able to clamber onto the stage? Thankfully, she manages with grace, dignity and good humour.
Festivities start at 6pm with drinks and canapés before Eva leads the trio in an eloquent and candid conversation in which they share their passion for books and writing, laced with humour and good will. Key message? Have enthusiasm for whatever you do. The book signing queues are long and effervescent, everyone keen to share an anecdote or a memory with the authors. More wine flows and the committee breathe a sigh of relief as the capacious hall fills with laughter and bonhomie.
Broken Threads
We return at 8am on Saturday to prepare for a day of fascinating talks. The coffee man sets his stall at the entrance. Salwa from a local Lebanese deli prepares her wraps and cakes. The authors’ green room is spruced up. The AV team check sound and lighting. Daunt’s team returns with the next selection of authors’ books for sale.
We open with the wondrous Mishal Husein, Editor-at-Large at Bloomberg Weekend and previously a presenter of the ‘Today’ programme on BBC Radio 4. How the BBC let such a talent slip through their hands is a question for another day. Mishal is also the author of Broken Threads, a tremendous book which, through the lives of her four grandparents, tells the story of the partition of India and Pakistan. Mishal has a marvellous speaking voice, and it is a delight to listen to her conversation with Alec Russell, the FT foreign editor, as they discuss identity and belonging. Finding a copy of her grandfather’s passport while researching the book showing him to be a ‘British subject by birth’ made her reflect on her own status within modern Britain. Mishal graciously signs books and chats with the audience until our session with Andy West and Ciaran Thapar begins.
Youth & Justice
Andy has taught philosophy in over twenty prisons since 2016 and is currently Writer in Residence at His Majesty’s Prison Grendon. He is author of The life Inside: A Memoir of Prison, Family and Learning to be Free which was turned into the acclaimed BBC series Waiting for the Out. Ciaran is Director at the Youth Endowment Fund, a charity focused on preventing violence affecting children, and author of Cut Short: Why We’re Failing our Youth & How to fix it.
They discuss prisons, freedom, social justice and philosophy. Andy’s life was greatly affected by the time spent in prison by close family members, leaving him to wonder ‘Why not me?’ He asks whether we believe our lives are governed by our choices or by luck. Most of us sitting here in the shadow of Grenfell think it’s luck. He speaks movingly about how as a society we turn away from those in prisons. Andy previously worked in schools and notes that, as 94% of the population are educated in state schools, everyone is interested and invested in the outcome of what happens, whereas with prisons, everyone looks away. They speak about the ineffectiveness of prison as a deterrent, given the age (mostly under 25) and demographic (95% male) of the prison population as young male brains are not yet formed to consider the fear of consequences. The power of their talk moves the audience and I notice a few damp eyes (not just mine!).
After lunch, Jacqueline Crooks, a Jamaican-born British writer and community development practitioner whose work explores migration, subcultures and the rhythms of resistance is interviewed by Kisha DeCosta, key youth worker at the Harrow Club, interviews. Jacqueline’s debut novel, Fire Rush, set in 1970s west London, is a story of dub reggae, love, freedom, Black womanhood and revolution. Jacqueline is passionate about the power of words to help people deal with their lives; having worked as a social worker in the past, she believes her work in creative writing workshops with teens in difficulty has made more of a positive difference.
Culture, Empire & Loot
The next session unites Barnaby Phillips, former journalist, and Dr Gus Casely-Hayford, Director of V&A East. Barnaby’s book, Loot, Britain and the Benin Bronzes, looks at colonial loot, museums and restitutions, themes he examines again in his new book, The African Kingdom of Gold – Britain and the Asante Treasure. This tells the story of raids by British soldiers led by Sir Garnet Wolseley in Asante in the late 19th Century where they prowl the palace, looting as much gold as they can find, before burning the palace to the ground. Royalty, aristocracy, the Army and London’s most illustrious museums divide the spoils, including golden masks, swooping eagles and an exquisitely wrought ram’s head.
It is fascinating to listen to such a thoughtful, intelligent and nuanced discussion on issues relating to restitution, ownership and the legacy of Empire and how our museums should respond. The British Museum is constrained by the Museums Act 1963 from giving objects away so long-term ‘loans’ (as they have done with some of the Asante Treasure) can be a pragmatic half-way house. However, as is increasingly the case on almost every topic, people on both sides of the argument want a more absolute solution and deadlock ensues.
I was particularly interested in the Asante gold ram’s head that Barnaby has been forbidden from even viewing by the regimental secretary at the Royal Artillery Officers’ Mess in Larkhill, Wiltshire ‘primarily on security grounds’. I have visited this Mess with my RA husband and have therefore unknowingly seen a very precious treasure hidden from the general population. How can this be right?
People Pleaser
A change of tone next as bestselling author Bryony Gordon takes to the stage with Jennie Godfrey. Bryony, a passionate mental health advocate, has published her first novel People Pleaser. Jennie’s debut novel, The List of Suspicious Things, was inspired by her childhood in West Yorkshire in the 1970s at a time when the Yorkshire Ripper was rampant. Bryony and Jennie have an hilarious and heartfelt conversation about writing, mental health and obstacles they’ve faced in their lives. Bryony admits that the main character in her novel may have some similarities to her own life but is in no way her! Bryony and Jennie confess to getting a delicious revenge on people who have annoyed or hurt them by weaving them into their stories, noting that no one ever recognises themselves.
A Glass of Wine with Jeremy King
We finish a fascinating and thought-provoking day with Jeremy King and Andrew Jones. Jeremy has co-owned and managed some of London’s most famous restaurants, including Le Caprice, The Ivy, J Sheekey and The Wolseley. He recently restored to great acclaim London icon, Simpsons on the Strand. Andrew is the author of a most beautiful and interesting book, The London Club: Architecture, Interiors, Art. He is the perfect gentleman to interview the ineffably dapper Jeremy King, tall and elegant in a beautifully cut suit and immaculate leather shoes, his silver Bristol parked outside.
Jeremy’s memoir, Without Reservation, is a gentle canter through his life in restaurants, filled with wit and wisdom he has learned over the years, some of which he shares with us now. Which restaurant should you take your partner to for a special dinner? The one where you are known best! You will be treated like royalty and will feel relaxed and at ease. When should you refuse an invitation? If you wouldn’t go the event that night, you should say a swift no. No excuses. Just no.
Something for us all to learn, until I invite you to the next Notting Hill Literary Festival, in which case the answer must be a resounding Yes!
