London SE1 > News & Features > July 2000

New literature festival for revitalised Southwark

Southwark is to have its first ever Literature Festival. The week long event will open on 26 October - the 600th anniversary of Geoffrey Chaucer's death when the focus will be on Borough High Street, where his Canterbury Tales begins, and Southwark Cathedral.

The Literature Festival is the idea of Southwark Festival Director Michele McLusky who has won the backing of Tim Waterstone, Lord Rees-Mogg and Patrick Garland. Publisher Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson has agreed to be Artistic Director.

"This will add a rich new dimension to the already established arts festival which has taken place in Southwark every year since 1989" says Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson. "Southwark is the ideal setting and a part of London rich in literary associations which has been revitalised in recent years and will become even more vibrant with this new literary festival."

Highlights of the Southwark Literature Festival include a talk by a former BBC defence correspondent on spies in London and a debate at St George's Cathedral on the merits of the old and new translations of the Bible. The film Under Milk Wood will be shown at Cottons Atrium.