NOTORIOUS screen villain and celebrated playwright Steven Berkoff will be the opening guest at the first of this year’s star-studded Words In Walden festivals.
The event, which is held in spring and autumn every year, boasts a range of talks and cultural events on everything from classic novels, poems and plays to present-day concerns like science and politics.
Although best known for his Hollywood roles, Berkoff – who is launching the event next Saturday (March 3) – is also a respected figure in the theatrical world.
During his evening at Walden’s Friends’ School, the outspoken and often controversial figure will be discussing his career both in front of the camera and in the director’s chair.
Best known to mainstream audiences for going head-to-head with Roger Moore’s James Bond in Octopussy, as scheming Soviet provocateur General Orlov, the 74-year-old more recently played prosecutor Dirch Frode in David Fincher’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo remake.
Aside from his Hollywood dabblings, which also include stints in Beverley Hills Cop and Rambo: First Blood Part II, he has written dozens of critically-acclaimed plays including adaptations of works by Franz Kafka and Edgar Allen Poe.
Also among the big bookings is Ruth Padel; a name not familiar to many, but Ruth is the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution.
On March 9, Ruth – who is an expert on poetry and a former chairwoman of the Poetry Society – will be reading selections of her own verse including several penned in memory of her celebrated ancestor.
When writer Rebecca Stott comes to town, she will also discuss the great man. In her talk Darwin’s Ghosts on May 27 [CORR not March], she will look at eminent thinkers of earlier eras who dared to hint at the ideas Darwin would publish.
And they’re not the only guests with a scientific theme; stand-up and Radio 4 presenter Robin Ince, who brought his show Happiness Through Science to this month’s Bishop’s Stortford College Festival of Literature, is coming to Walden on May 11.
Fellow BBC broadcaster and journalist Peter Hennessy, who appears on May 26, will be looking back on his 40 years on the airwaves and the important political and constitutional issues the country has grappled with during that time.
There will also be talks by nature writer Richard Mabey (May 25), an exploration of Charles Dickens’ personal correspondence by Prof Jenny Hartley (March 23) and plenty more.
Words In Walden runs at various venues throughout Saffron Walden during March and May. See http://hartsevents.tbpcontrol.co.uk or ring (01799) 510109.
