Belfast Book Festival 2016 | Page 50

Friday 17th June Henrietta McKervey & Ann O’Loughlin Charles Williams The Third Inkling With Marie-Louise Muir With Roger Courtney Crescent Arts Centre Friday 17 June – 1.15pm Tickets: £7 (Incl. Light Lunch) /£5 (Event only) Linen Hall Library Friday 17 June – 1-2pm Tickets: £6 Henrietta McKervey’s latest novel The Heart of Everything, tells the story of estranged adult children forced to reunite when their mother disappears. An Irish Times Book Club choice, it was described as ‘a tour-de-force’ by Frank McGuinness. Her 2015 novel What Becomes Of Us was the winner of a Hennessy First Fiction Award and the UCD Maeve Binchy Travel Award. This is the first full biography of Charles Williams (1886-1945), an extraordinary and controversial figure who was a central member of The Inklings, a group of Oxford writers that included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. The third member, Charles Williams’s was the strangest, most multi talented, and most controversial member of the group. Sisters Ella and Roberta live in separate wings of their crumbling Irish mansion and haven’t spoken for decades. Torn apart by a dark family secret, they only communicate through bitter notes they leave for each other. With the bank threatening, Ella tries to save the family home by opening a café in the ballroom, which intensifies the war between them. William was a pioneering fantasy writer, who still has a cult following. C.S. Lewis thought his poems on King Arthur and the Holy Grail were among the best poetry of the twentieth century. But Williams was full of contradictions. An influential theologian, Williams was also deeply involved in the occult, experimenting extensively with magic, practising erotically tinged rituals, and acquiring a following of devoted disciples. A leading journalist, Ann O’Loughlin has covered all major news events of the last three decades. Ann spent most of her career with independent newspapers and is currently a senior journalist with the Irish Examiner newspaper. Written by Grevel Lindop, former Professor of Romantic and Early Victorian Studies at the University of Manchester. Lindop draws on a wealth of documents, letters and private papers in this fascinating biography. belfastbookfestival.com 51