Nigella opens Literary Festival with a big spoonful of love

The 20th edition of the Henley Literary Festival opened on Friday evening with multi-award-winning writer and broadcaster Nigella Lawson.

In conversation with Gaby Huddar, Nigella talked about taking on Bake Off and the positive balm the programme can be, learning to cook from her mother, how her love of food grew from loving being in charge in the kitchen, her lifelong love of fiction, and much more.

She told the audience she does like to read a lot.  “I need to read like I need to eat. So for example, I try to do 2 early nights a week and I put these in my iCal in my phone so that if someone says are you free I don’t make the error of saying yes.  Obviously sometimes I will give up my early night.”

“I read novels mostly. I read them now more as e-books. I kind of carry a library with me and read on a mini iPad.  But the difficulty about digital reading is that you never see the cover and you often forget what you are reading.  I read something that human beings remember things much better when we can locate it in an actual physical space.”

This year’s Literary Festival will see speakers from 18 nations across many genres and features a line up of authors, sports personalities, comedians, chefs, artists and musicians.

The Herald has been to two events so far…

Rugby, royalty and plenty of laughs at Henley Literary Festival

Rugby, royalty, family stories and plenty of colourful language were on the menu at Henley Literary Festival on Friday evening when The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast team took to the stage to talk about their new book Unleashed.

England rugby legends James Haskell and Mike Tindall, alongside former Sky Sports broadcaster Alex Payne, were interviewed by Shiplake College headmaster and former British & Irish Lions and Ireland international Tyrone Howe.

The trio have built a hugely successful working relationship through their weekly podcast, and James described their dynamic as being “a bit like a bar stool – you need all of us to make it work.”

With their previous book Reloaded already on the shelves, Tyrone asked why they had decided to write another.

James was characteristically blunt, joking: “Divorce, bills to pay … my ex-wife even wanted half the fee for today.”

Mike, meanwhile, appeared to have a rather more comfortable retirement plan. Having married Princess Anne’s daughter Zara Tindall, James joked that Mike had gone “from coalmines of the North to corgis at Windsor”. Mike’s life was certainly rather different to the others, with Mike revealing that he had “dinner with Leonardo DiCaprio last week.”

The conversation became more personal when the subject turned to family. James spoke warmly about his late father and the lessons he had learned from him, before recounting a typically irreverent story about his ashes.

His brother had apparently been concerned that their mother’s dog might knock the ashes off the cabinet, while her robot vacuum could then hoover them up – leaving their mum having to sieve through the dust to retrieve him.

Mike also spoke about family life and his competitive nature, joking about his children: “If they turn out like their mother, we’re all f*****!”

There was a more thoughtful tone when the discussion turned to former England teammate Jonny Wilkinson, who Mike has known since they were both 16. He described Wilkinson as “not the best natural player”, but someone who “worked endlessly and put the time in.”

Tyrone also asked whether England head coach Steve Borthwick could lead the team to World Cup success.

Mike defended Borthwick, saying: “He’s not there to be entertaining and not the focal point.” He argued that England’s discipline problems could not simply be blamed on the coach and were ultimately down to the players.

His advice to Borthwick was to relax, adding that he was never going to be the sort of coach who “tells funny stories in the press interviews”.

The discussion ranged well beyond England’s current fortunes, covering the future of rugby, making the sport safer, British & Irish Lions tours, the rules surrounding players playing overseas, money in professional rugby and the importance of grassroots clubs.

And, of course, there were stories that probably should never have made it into print.

Asked which story had been left out of Unleashed, James recalled an incident from 2023 when he was DJing at a club in Marseille.

A very drunk man was clutching a Welsh dragon and told a steward that it had attended the 2015, 2019 and 2023 World Cups and wanted to meet James.

James became increasingly suspicious as the man got drunker and eventually took matters into his own hands.

“He taps me on the shoulder and I snatch the dragon from him and threw him in the sea,” he recalled.

James then delivered the punchline: “Listen mate, if he gets to Australia in 2027 then that’s a f****** story!”

It was a fitting end to an evening that showed why The Good, The Bad & The Rugby has become such a popular podcast – a mixture of rugby insight, honest conversations, family anecdotes and plenty of irreverent humour.

Mel Giedroyc brings second chances and theatrical chaos

Comedy, community theatre and a rather unusual cosmetic procedure were among the topics when Mel Giedroyc took to the stage at Henley Literary Festival to discuss her second novel, Come Back.

Set in Leatherhead, where Mel grew up, the novel centres on Gill Piper, who sets out to stage a spectacular anniversary production to mark almost 100 years of the town’s theatre. Her ambition is to give the theatre a comeback while bringing the community together, with every character in the book offered the chance of a fresh start.

Mel explained that she always begins writing with her characters rather than the plot, allowing their personalities and stories to shape the narrative.

Theatre is clearly close to her heart. “I loved the theatre with all my heart. It was a big part of my life,” she said, recalling how her childhood love of performing began.

Her mother, whom she adored, had little time for extracurricular activities as Mel was the fourth child. “She was a lovely woman but she was tired after three children, so I showed off to get my parents’ attention,” she explained, pointing out that Mary Berry, sitting in the front row, was nodding in agreement.

Pantomime was a particular passion, and Mel recalled how she would seize any opportunity to get on stage. When the Dame invited children from the audience to join her on stage, she knew it was her moment and rushed forward.

Her own theatrical career has included a starring role in Stephen Sondheim’s musical Company, which ran from 2018 to 2019. Despite having no formal musical theatre training, Mel was offered the part after the director saw her performing at a comedy gig. The experience brought her face to face with the legendary Sondheim, who was still alive at the time. Mel described him as both terrifying and extraordinary.

She recalled introducing herself and explaining that she was appearing in the show, only for him to respond: “Why?” When she explained further, he told her that she wasn’t in it. Mel’s response was to bow and slowly retreat backwards.

Writing a novel, she explained, offered a very different kind of creative freedom from performing or writing scripts. However, she admitted that “it’s hideous to sit in a room on my own”, despite enjoying the freedom to take a story in whichever direction she chooses.

Her writing routine involved a trip to the library, where she makes sure she is waiting outside 15 minutes before opening time to secure her favourite spot – a comfortable blue swivel chair.

Although she enjoys the freedom of writing fiction, Mel confessed that she probably ought to be better at coming up with the plot first, rather than letting the characters take the lead.

The audience was also treated to a glimpse of the wonderfully eccentric humour that runs through her work. One character in Come Back is a major Hollywood star who has been offered a role in a blockbuster as a half-man, half-dinosaur creature, requiring him to wear a full body stocking.

Convinced that he needs a scrotal lift before taking on the part, he discovers that there are only two places in the world where he can have the procedure: Dorking or Azerbaijan.

Mel was quick to clarify that she had not researched the procedure on Google and exclaimed “If anyone has had one it would be in Henley!”

Away from writing, Mel revealed her love of physical books, independent bookshops and second-hand book shopping through World of Books. She has even deleted her Amazon account, although she admitted she was hardly in a position to take the moral high ground, having appeared on the streaming platform’s comedy series Last One Laughing.

Photo credit: Scarlet Page