Festival’s 10 books for 10 years
Mon, 23 Nov 2015 02:00:00 GMT
A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Night Circus, The Graveyard Book – what are your stand-out books of the past 10 years?
In the run up to the Huddersfield Literature Festival (HLF)’s preview event on Wednesday 25 November – and in honour of the festival’s forthcoming 10th anniversary (2006-2016) – 10 HLF committee members have each selected one book that engaged, moved, entertained or otherwise inspired them, published from 2006 onwards.
Books by a diverse range of authors were chosen, including Andrea Levy, Khaled Hosseini and Will Self, who recently visited Huddersfield to give the inaugural JB Priestley lecture at the University of Huddersfield.
These have been posted on social media over the past 10 days, starting with 2006 on Wednesday 11 November and ending with 2015 on Friday 20 November.
The list is not intended as a definitive ‘best of’ but to highlight that we all have favourite books, whose influence stays with us long after we have finished reading them.
Free festival preview event
Next year’s Huddersfield Literature Festival runs from 3-13 March and a special festival preview will take place on Wednesday 25 November from 6.00-8.00pm at the Huddersfield Mission on Lord Street.
The preview is free and open to all but festival organisers are asking those attending to book their place at: https://hlf2016preview.eventbrite.co.uk
The Mayor Cllr Paul Kane will give the official welcome and those attending will be among the first to hear about the festival’s exciting line up for March 2016, which will include novelists, poets, children’s authors, an explorer, an Egyptologist, a comedian and a politician.
There will be a selection of free food from 10 countries around the world, including sample dishes from the recently opened local branch of the Turtle Bay Caribbean restaurant chain.
Festival Director Michelle Hodgson said: “We have all read books that stay with us for any number of reasons and we thought it would be interesting to share some of the committee’s favourites and encourage others to talk about theirs on social media – whether bestsellers or little-known works they would like to bring to a wider audience.”
She continued: “We will be exploring this idea further at the festival in our unique ‘Pearls’ project – and we look forward to announcing more about this and other festival events on 25 November at our free preview event. The 2016 festival will offer a wide range of events, including free events such as our popular ‘Family Day’, and we hope that anyone who hasn’t previously attended the festival will come along to the preview and take a look at what’s on offer.”
The ‘HLF Committee Members’ Choice’ list in full:
2006 Arthur & George by Julian Barnes (chosen by Cat Lumb)
2007 A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (chosen by Cheryl Laird)
2008 The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (chosen by Marie Peacock)
2009 D Day by Antony Beevor (chosen by Jim Woodhead)
2010 Room by Emma Donaghue (chosen by Amy Williamson)
2011 The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (chosen by Michelle Hodgson)
2012 Umbrella by Will Self (chosen by Melissa Wong)
2013 Magnificent Joe by James Wheatley (chosen by Pam Chew)
2014 Six Stories & an Essay by Andrea Levy (chosen by Amanda Huxtable)
2015 Weathering by Lucy Wood (chosen by Justine Partington)
