THE Daily Mail Chalke Valley History Festival is going to be entertaining visitors with its "most varied" programme yet as the full line-up has now been revealed.

It features talks and panel discussions given by leading thinkers and speakers, and the best historians in the land, as well as living history displays, historical performances and interactive experiences.

Taking place in Broad Chalke, the history festival is back to a full seven days and runs from June 20 to 26.  

Festival director Jane Pleydell-Bouverie said: “Our 2022 programme is looking like our strongest and most varied yet. We have some really fabulous talks lined up, including Dan Snow talking about his epic journey to Antarctica to find the Endurance, Ian Hislop discussing Spike Milligan’s War Against Hitler and the BBC, and Lea Ypi explaining what it was like to grow up in communist Albania.

"And we are also thrilled that both Chris Patten and Sebastian Faulks, always popular with the crowds, will be returning. We could not do this, however, without the generous backing of our sponsors and donors as well as the tireless support of our many volunteers. Putting together a festival like this is a big team effort, and we are immensely grateful to everyone involved.”

The festival will open with The Duchess of Cornwall's Reading Room - a hub for literary communities around the world which celebrates literature in all its forms.

On the Monday afternoon this will be the very first time that the Reading Room channel will be collaborating with a festival. Taking part will be historical novelist Philippa Gregory, who will be attending the history festival for the first time, and historian and author Alison Weir. They will be taking part in the ‘Rediscovering Women in History’ discussion.

An Iron Age round house and settlement has been built specifically for this year’s festival and using the very tools and materials that would have been used.

There will also be a speakers’ corner, vintage fairground, historic fast food outlets and two bars.

The weekend’s Restoration Pageant - the return of the monarchy and King Charles II in 1660 - will also feature Restoration-era horse racing over a specially developed race course.

Channel 4’s Matt Frei will be discussing the situation in Ukraine and reporting from the front line while David Owen will discuss 200 years of British-Russian relations, and General Sir Richard Shirreff will talk about War Against Russia.

Bill Browder returns to the festival, telling the true story of Russian money-laundering and state sponsored murder, as does Antony Beevor, this time discussing the Russian Revolution and putting the current situation into historical context.

Russian expert Dominic Lieven will talk about empire and autocracy.

For children and families, The History Tellers will be back and Foreign Field will also be putting on a range of shows, demonstrations and re-enacting dark tales throughout the week; and the Acrochaps Edwardian jugglers, acrobats and jesters will also be entertaining festival-goers.

Bestselling children’s writer Michelle Paver will also be talking about Wolfbane, and Francesca Simon, known for her Horrid Henry series, will deliver a talk for younger children about world’s very worst Vikings.

The Trench is back by popular demand. This time the scene is Cassel, in late May 1940, and it will feature the heroic defence by a small detachment of British infantry who were trying to stem the German advance.

The extended music line-up features seven different acts playing music from the Jazz age of the twenties all the way through to contemporary music.

Tickets are now on sale visit: cvhf.org.uk

 

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