Farm and Food Literature Festival 2023

Farm & Food Literature Festival 2023

Join us for the second Farm & Food Literature Festival, co-curated with Chelsea Green Publishing - a celebration of words, stories and experiences from the wonderful world of agroecology, regenerative farming and sustainable food.

Last year’s inaugural festival was a sell-out and we’re delighted to return with a great line-up of guest speakers. 

Expect inspirational talks and debates from a dazzling line-up which includes…

Nick Acheson -  During a time when many of us faced the prospect of little work or human contact, renowned naturalist and conservationist Nick Acheson found a sense of peace and purpose in his pursuit of the wild geese that filled his beloved Norfolk skies, on their seasonal visits from Iceland and Siberia.The Meaning of Geese is a beautiful tribute to the wild geese and their great athletic migrations – an expertly detailed account of how their sound and spectacle shape our winter landscape and what it might mean to lose them forever.

Adam Alexander - Adam Alexander is a consummate storyteller thanks to forty years as an award- winning film and television producer, but his true passion is collecting rare, endangered but, above all, delicious vegetables from around the world. He lectures widely on his work discovering and conserving rare, endangered garden crops and is a board member of the national charity Garden Organic. In The Seed Detective, Adam shares his tales of seed hunting and the stories behind many of our everyday vegetable heroes.

Hannah Bourne-Taylor - Hannah wrote her acclaimed nature memoir, Fledgling in the hope people will notice their wild neighbours and connect to the nature that surrounds us all.

Lynn Cassells - As seen on BBC 2’s This Farming Life! Lured by their desire for a simpler, more sustainable existence, Lynn and Sandra left their friends, family and jobs as national park rangers in England to travel north to Scotland to find a small piece of land they could call their own. They had no money, no plan and no experience in farming but they fell in love with Lynbreck Croft – 150 acres of wild Scottish Highlands filled with opportunity and beauty, shrouded by the Cairngorms mountains.

The Ethical Dairy - David and Wilma Finlay - A Dairy Story is the full, no holds barred story of their journey from conventional dairy farming to an organic, 100% pasture, regenerative, cow-with-calf dairy that’s now at the forefront of a global movement to transform an industry. Deeply personal and searingly honest, A Dairy Story is the story of a marriage, a farm, a business, and a fierce determination to change things for the better.

Derek Gow - Derek’s first book, Bringing Back the Beaver, was a riotously funny and subversive account of his single-handed reintroduction of the beaver in Britain. Birds, Beasts and Bedlam, a natural successor to Gerald Durrell’s A Zoo in My Luggage, tells the story of Derek’s rewilding journey and his work to save many more species by transforming his Devon farm into a wildlife breeding centre.

Roger Morgan-Grenveille - Fed up with bleak headlines of biodiversity loss, acclaimed nature writer Roger Morgan-Grenville sets out on a 1,000-mile walk through a British spring to see whether there are reasons to be hopeful about the natural world. His aim is to match the pace at which the oak leaves emerge, roughly 20 miles north each day. 

Stephen Moss -  Naturalist and author  Stephen Moss is senior lecturer at Bath Spa University, and course leader of the MA Nature and Travel Writing.  Stephen will lead a session Writing in the Field, a brief Introduction to Nature Writing. Writing isn’t just about Writing – it's also about what happens before and after you write: 'Writing is not the aftermath of fieldwork. Fieldwork is writing'. So, before you start to write, you need to experience what you are writing about – and experience it in the right way… That’s what writing in the field is all about!

Claire Ratinon - Claire is an organic food grower and writer who has worked in a range of roles from growing produce for the Ottolenghi restaurant, Rovi to delivering growing workshops and talks to audiences including East London primary schools, community centres and educational institutions. Unearthed: On Race and Roots, and How the Soil Taught Me I Belong is a work of nature writing, storytelling and memoir. It explores how, in coming back to the earth, Claire has found a sense of homecoming, defiant ancestry and deep purpose in the company of the roots, leaves and fruit she grows.

Alick Simmons - Alick Simmons spent most of his career in public service promoting animal and public health and welfare involving disease control at the national and international level.  He served as the UK Government's Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer (2007-2015) and the UK Food Standards Agency's Veterinary Director (2004-2007).He sits as an independent member of both the RSPB’s Ethics Advisory Committee and the National Trust’s Wildlife Management Advisory Group.His book Treated Like Animals: Improving the Lives of the Creatures We Own, Eat and Use was published by Pelagic Publishing in 2023. 

Joe Stanley - Food is our most intimate and vital commodity, yet too many of us have lost touch with the reality of where it comes from and how it is produced. In Farm to Fork, A Seasonal Tour of a Traditional Farming Year, passionate livestock and arable farmer Joe Stanley seeks to bridge this knowledge gap and inform the reader about the journey their food takes before it gets to the plate, revealing the realities of modern agricultural life for a British lowland farmer.

James Strawbridge - In Salt and the Art of Seasoning Award-winning Cornish chef and sustainable living expert, celebrity chef and TV Presenter, James Strawbridge, is on a mission to celebrate salt and change long-established views on how it impacts our health. His new book Salt and the Art of Seasoning will help you to reimagine how you cook, cure, and work with salt in your kitchen—elevating your flavours to a whole new level.

Writing Competition - FarmED and Chelsea Green are launching a writing competition for youngsters aged 16-30. The winner and runners up will be announced at the Farm & Food Literature Festival and prizes will include a ticket to attend the festival, plus a selection of books from Chelsea Green. Their writing will be published on the FarmED and Chelsea Green websites and shared on social media etc. All details can be found here. 

Festival book stall will be run by our local bookshop, Jaffé & Neale - Bookshop & Cafe.

Delicious and nutritious refreshments and lunch from the FarmED Cafe are included in the price of your ticket.

Full programme can be found here. 

Ticket Prices

Delivery of our mission is a collective effort and our values embrace inclusivity and diversity. We don’t want price to be a barrier to anyone visiting FarmED or attending our events. Read more about our tiered pricing policy here.

If cost is a barrier to you attending, then please do ask us for financial support. The FarmED Bursary offers free or subsidised places to those that will benefit most.

We like to take photos and occasionally videos of our events to use on our website and social media, please let us know if you do not want to be photographed.