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The 2023 festival will take place from the 28th September to 1st October 2023 in various locations in Berkhamsted (please see below for the exact day-to-day programme). The 2023 festival will be directed by Professor Richard Greene of the University of Toronto.
Eighty years ago, Graham Greene was working at the headquarters of MI6 in London. His superior and drinking companion was the double-agent Kim Philby. At this year’s Festival we will be thinking a good deal about that friendship, as we will have a presentation from Kim’s granddaughter, the novelist Charlotte Philby, and a discussion of his career by the historian Scott Newton.
This year’s line-up includes two top American authors, Michael Mewshaw who has written a memoir of Graham Greene, and Jay Parini, who has written a novel about him.
The historian Matthew Butler will speak to us about the real ‘whisky priest’ who inspired The Power and the Glory and who left behind a surprising collection of letters.
We will watch the 1958 film of The Quiet American and hear from the historian Kevin Ruane on its making, and from Shirley Day on Graham Greene and film adaptation.
Creina Mansfield and Mike Hill will try to unravel the quarrel between Graham Greene and Anthony Burgess. Jon Wise will interview Graham Greene’s nephew the bookseller Nick Dennys.
These are just a few of the things happening this year. As always, there is also the popular Festival Dinner on Saturday evening in the Old Hall of Berkhamsted School. We hope to see you there.
On the Graham Greene Birthplace Trust website (https://grahamgreenebt.org/events/) you will find further details of the talks, interviews, films, tours and speakers, the online ticketing service, and information on any changes that may arise. Tickets will be on sale at the door for all events other than the meals, but it would be preferable if you could book in advance via the website. Season Tickets, which offer a discount, are available for those who plan to attend all talks and films.
Please see below for the exact day-to-day schedule with individual event prices listed. The overall Season Ticket for all events (except meals) is £122.
Thursday, 28 September 2023:
Afternoon session
Court House, beside St Peter’s Church
£6
2:15 – Graham Greene’s Common: A Battlefield Guide: (two-mile woodland walk; includes uphill and uneven stretches and WWI trenches) led by Richard Shepherd and Judy Mead, with readings from A Sort of Life and The Human Factor. Assemble outside the Court House for introduction. Cars/lifts and stout walking shoes required for the start of the walk at Inns of Court War Memorial, New Road Car Park. If wet, illustrated talk with readings in the Court House.
Evening session
The Town Hall
£31.50
5:30 – Opening Night Supper: 5:30 – meet for drinks at pay bar. 6:30 – waiter-served two-course supper with coffee; vegan/vegetarian option.
Evening film
Civic Centre
£13
8:00 – Film: The End of the Affair (Columbia, 1999, 101 mins) written and directed by Neil Jordan and starring Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore and Stephen Rea. Introduced by Quentin Falk.
Friday, 29 September 2023
Morning session
The Town Hall
£21
9:45 – Graham Greene, Adapting for the Cinema: Shirley Day (Florida State University) will discuss how Greene’s works were adapted for the screen, and how he adapted the works of others.
10:45 – Break for tea and coffee
11:15 – Who was the Real Kim Philby?: Scott Newton (University of Cardiff), will consider how the smiling villain of modern British history may be understood as a more nuanced and sympathetic figure than conventional wisdom has allowed.
Break for lunch
Afternoon session
The Town Hall
£21
2:30 – Interview: Jon Wise interviews Nick Dennys, who was Graham Greene’s nephew. As a prominent bookseller, Nick Dennys handled the transfer of his uncle’s books and archives to American universities, and has rare insights into the way his uncle’s mind worked.
3:30 – Break for tea and coffee
4:00 – From Greene to ‘Greene’: The Challenges of Biographical Fiction: Jay Parini (Middlebury College), a leading poet, biographer, and novelist, discusses his forthcoming novel which imagines Graham Greene in his wartime posting as MI6 officer in Sierra Leone.
Evening session
The Civic Centre
£13
8:00 – Film: The Quiet American (Figaro / United Artists, 1958, 121 minutes), written and directed by Joseph L Mankiewicz and starring Audie Murphy and Michael Redgrave. Introduced by Mike Hill.
Saturday, 30 September 2023
Morning session
Deans’ Hall, Berkhamsted School (Castle Street)
£22.50
9:45 – ‘Shooting Alden Pyle: Graham Greene’s The Quiet American on the Big Screen’: Kevin Ruane (Canterbury Christ Church University) will consider the two cinematic treatments of Graham Greene’s 1955 novel.
10:45 – Break for tea and coffee
11:15 – The Real Macario: Through the Mexican Archives after Graham Greene’s ‘Whisky Priest’: Matthew Butler (University of Texas at Austin) will discuss how Father Macario Fernández Aguado left behind a rich, clandestine correspondence.
Break for lunch
Afternoon session
Deans’ Hall, Berkhamsted School (Castle Street)
£30.50, including Birthday Toast
2:30 – Edith and Kim: Charlotte Philby will discuss her new novel based on her grandfather’s friendship with Edith Tudor-Hart, who introduced him to his controller. Charlotte has memories of her grandfather in Moscow and returned to his flat while researching this book.
3:30 – Break for tea and coffee
4:00 – My Man in Antibes: Michael Mewshaw, the celebrated author of eleven novels and eleven works of non-fiction, knew Graham Greene for many years, and will be speaking to us about his new memoir of the man.
5:15 – The Birthday Toast
Evening session
Old Hall, Berkhamsted School (Castle Street)
£48.50
8:00 – Festival Dinner: three courses with wine and coffee: vegan/vegetarian option.
Sunday, 1 October 2023
Morning session
Old Hall and Careers Centre, Berkhamsted School (Castle Street)
£21
9:00 – A tour of the School Archives: including a look at the Exhibition Room, the green baize door, Old Hall and the School Chapel. (Meet outside Old Hall.)
10:00 – Guarding the Fourth Power: Fictional Representations of Journalistic (Mal)Practice in Graham Greene’s Fiction: Dr. Beatriz Valverde Jiménez (Universidad de Jaén) will discuss how Greene’s fiction becomes essential in our understanding of contemporary information control and dissemination.
11:00 – Break for tea and coffee
11:30 – ‘Literary Giants in a War of Words’: Anthony Burgess and Graham Greene: Creina Mansfield and Mike Hill will describe the relationship between the two authors from its happy start to the very public falling out. What did they really quarrel about?
Lunch
Old Hall, Berkhamsted School
£32.50
1:00 – Farewell Lunch: two-course cold buffet, wine and coffee; vegan/vegetarian option.