Llangwm Lit Fest

When I was born there was just one, founded in 1949 in Cheltenham. Another one started in Yorkshire in 1973 and in the 1980s they proliferated. Could be country house operas or building societies but no cigar.

I have only been to one and it was so good I went twice. They are Lit Fests. There will be one near you if you live in the British Isles. Now the originator, Cheltenham, has thought of a new angle. In November they are having a floating, trans-Atlantic Lit Fest on the Queen Mary 2 (QM2). It reminds me of Nathan Detroit’s “oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York”.

But I think you’d enjoy a smaller affair. How about somewhere indubitably off the beaten track but at the same time on a track, namely the Pembrokeshire Coast Path? It is the fourth year for the Llangwm Literary Festival in August. Beware there are two Llangwms in Wales so be sure to go to the one near Pembroke.

The programme is a bit of a mixed bag and only two speakers appeal to me. Ferdinand Mount will talk about his book Prime Movers.

“Ferdinand Mount’s most recent book, Prime Movers, examines the proposals for a political theory from a number of widely different historical figures. Twelve key people, from the great orator and statesman of Ancient Greece (Pericles) to the inspiration of the founding of the state of Pakistan (Muhammad Iqbal) we take a colourful and rip-roaring journey through the historical figures who have both inspired and provoked Mount in equal measure.

The lives of men such as Jesus Christ, Rousseau, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and Thomas Jefferson are discussed and comparisons are drawn between the various approaches each figure promoted in their works – whether philosophical, or political theories.

For those wishing to be guided by Mount’s choices and be swept along by his brilliantly erudite prose, this will be a particularly enjoyable read. Lots of colour, humour and passion governed all these people’s careers and Mount brings them to life like no one else can.

He was editor of the Times Literary Supplement from 1991 to 2002 and Head of the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit from 1982 to 1984. Ferdinand has had a cottage in South Pembrokeshire for thirty-five years and is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.”

He’s bound to be amusing and if his book is anything like as engaging as his memoir Cold Cream it will be well worth reading.

The other speaker that may elucidate, educate and entertain is Isambard Wilkinson.

“Spellbound by his grandmother’s Anglo-Indian heritage and the exuberant annual visits of her friend the Begum, Isambard Wilkinson became enthralled by Pakistan as an intrepid teenager, eventually working there as a foreign correspondent during the War on Terror. Seeking the land behind the headlines, Bard sets out to discover the essence of a country convulsed by Islamist violence. What of the old, mystical Pakistan has survived and what has been destroyed? We meet charismatic tribal chieftains making their last stand, hereditary saints blessing prostitutes, gangster bosses in violent slums and ecstatic Muslim pilgrims. Navigating a minefield of coups, conspiracies, cock-ups and bombs, Bard is reluctant to judge, his ear alert to the telling phrase, his eye open to Pakistan’s palimpsest of beliefs, languages and imperial legacies. His is a funny, hashish and whisky-scented travel book from the frontline, full of open-hearted delight and a poignant lust for life. Like a cat with nine lives, Bard travels and parties his way to the remotest corners, never allowing his own fragile health to deter him.”