Fifteen New Authors Added to Chiswick Writers Trail |
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Carla Lane, Lynn Redgrave and Edgar Wallace among names in enlarged edition
June 2, 2023 The Chiswick Writers Trail has been enlarged to include fifteen more authors who have lived in the local area. There were already 21 novelists, dramatists and poets on the trail but this has been increased to 36 to mark this year’s 15th Chiswick Book Festival. New names on the list include Carla Lane, creator of three of TV’s most popular comedies, The Liver Birds, Butterflies and Bread; Lynn Redgrave, who wrote Shakespeare for My Father and other plays about her famous family; Samuel Richardson, called ‘one of the fathers of the English novel’ for Pamela and Clarissa; Geoffrey Household, author of Rogue Male; and Edgar Wallace, creator of King Kong and one of the most prolific and filmed writers of the 20th Century. The trail has been steadily growing since it was started five years ago with Dylan Thomas and James Berry and humourists Michael Flanders and Stephen Potter added last May and six more poets added in September 2022, including William Morris and the two earliest names, Lady Mary Sidney and John Donne, Prebendary of Chiswick, both born in the 16th Century. Chiswick writers on the original 2018 Trail include WB Yeats, Harold Pinter, Dame Iris Murdoch, John Osborne, WM Thackeray, Alexander Pope, EM Forster, JG Ballard, Anthony Burgess, Nancy Mitford and Robert Bolt. The trail now boasts one Booker Prize, two Nobel Prizes for Literature, three Oscars, five plaques and a Poet Laureate. The enlarged map, sponsored by The Chiswick Cinema, can be picked up in local bookshops, St Michael & All Angels Church and The Chiswick Cinema or downloaded here. The launch event for the new trail at the Chiswick Cinema was attended by many of those who helped compile the list or live in houses and roads featured on the trail as well as theatre and film directors, local councillors and the designers of the Writers Trail maps.
Torin Douglas, director of the Chiswick Book Festival, said, “When we created the Chiswick Writers Trail in 2018, I was delighted to have found 21 acclaimed writers who had lived here. After assiduous research, we have added 15 notable dramatists, novelists and poets and enlarged the map. We hope local residents and others will enjoy exploring the Trail and finding out more about the writers who made Chiswick their home. “I’m very grateful to those who have helped us establish Chiswick’s remarkable literary heritage – and particularly to Val Bott of the Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society, who has unearthed many names and kept me on the straight and narrow! Thanks too to Chris Parker of The Chiswick Cinema, for sponsoring the new edition, enabling us to keep it free of charge. And my particular thanks go to Karen Liebreich of Abundance London, who created the Chiswick Timeline mural which inspired the Writers Trail; to Sarah Cruz who designed the 2028 Trail map; and Jennifer Yen, who has built on Sarah’s work to create the beautiful new 2023 edition.” The Writers Trail forms part of the Chiswick Timeline of Writers & Books, an online archive of more than 400 writers who have lived in Chiswick - or are linked with the area - and written a book. It is listed chronologically and by genre. The 15th Chiswick Book Festival will take place from 6 to 13 September 2023. For latest programme details and updates, visit the festival website.
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