Win tickets to Cambridge Literary Festival lunch, dinner or afternoon tea with leading writers
We have three pairs of tickets to give away to our readers who would like to enjoy a literary chat with some fiction big hitters over lunch, dinner or afternoon tea in the beautiful University Arms Hotel ballroom.
The festival has launched a series of special literary events at the beautifully refurbished hotel, where audience members can relax as they hear from an array of captivating authors while being served refreshments from the pop-up bar as well as the five-star on-site restaurant - Parker’s Tavern.
Literary Lunch
Join speakers Sarah Vaughan (Anatomy of a Scandal) and Jill Dawson (The Bewitching) for a discussion and Q&A while you enjoy a two-course meal and glass of wine as part of the experience at 1pm on Saturday, November 19.
Sarah Vaughan’s third novel, Anatomy of a Scandal, was an instant international bestseller and adapted for screen, airing on Netflix as a hit series earlier this year. Furthermore, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature Jill Dawson’s latest book, The Bewitching, draws on the 16th-century case of the witches of Warboys, exploring how innocent people can be made to believe in their own wickedness.
Literary Soiree
Literary critic Alex Clark will be joined from 8pm on Saturday, November 19 by a selection of special guests, including founding director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and best-selling novelist Kate Mosse, alongside the BAFTA and Emmy award-winning playwright and screenwriter, Abi Morgan.
Joining them will be Sarah Churchwell, Professorial Fellow in American Literature and shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for journalism in 2021. Tickets include a drink on arrival, with attendees also welcome to grab drinks from the bar during the interval.
Afternoon Tea
Two best-selling writers of literary fiction, Francis Spufford and Jo Browning Wroe, will join with audience members for Afternoon Tea on Sunday, November 20, from 4-5.30pm. Jo Browning Wroe’s A Terrible Kindness instantly became a Sunday Times bestseller in January 2022 and has recently been named a Waterstones Book of the Year. The book tells the story of nineteen-year-old William Lavery and his decision to volunteer in the wake of the 1966 Aberfan landslide. Costa Award winner Francis Spufford will discuss Light Perpetual, in which an innovative narrative resurrects five children killed in a wartime bomb-blast, exploring their lost lives.
How to enter
We have a pair of tickets to each of these events to give away.
You will need to answer this question for a chance to win:
Who wrote Anatomy of a Scandal?
Fill in the simple form at cambridgeindependent.co.uk/entercomps/ with your answer, putting either ‘Literary Lunch’, ‘Literary Soiree’ or ‘Afternoon Tea’ in the ‘Competition name’ section of the form, according to which tickets you would like to win. You may enter all three competitions by completing a separate form for each.
The deadline for entry is 9am on Monday, November 14, and winners will be notified by email.
