Ahead of November’s Winter Festival, we reflect on a major milestone for the Cambridge Literary Festival with founder and artistic director Cathy Moore
They say it takes a village to raise a child, and I believe that it takes a community to build a festival.”
Over the past 20 years, the Cambridge Literary Festival (CLF) has evolved as a respected fixture of the national cultural calendar and a must-visit event for bibliophiles everywhere.
From its grassroots beginnings as a one-woman passion project, CLF has drawn in excess of 250,000 audience members over the years and routinely features an esteemed roster of authors and literary speakers – from Nobel Prize winners to media personalities and Poet Laureates – across its two annual festivals.
For Cathy Moore, CLF’s founder and artistic director, the event’s origins are firmly rooted in her own contagious love of literature. Indeed, the idea was sparked while working at Waterstones after moving to Cambridge with her young family.
“I’ve always been passionate about books and sharing them with people who might be interested,” she continues. “While at Waterstones, I fell into an event manager role by default, since I was always inviting people along for events or book signings!”
One such person was revered Scottish author and CLF honorary patron Ali Smith, who had been invited for a signing of her newly released novel Hotel World. Both women soon got talking about the success of the recent Hay Festival and its importance as a literary event. For Cathy, the seeds had been sown.
“Cycling home that night, I spent the whole journey thinking Cambridge needed something like that. By the time I arrived, I was just questioning: ‘How hard could it really be?’”
FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS
Feeling inspired, Cathy set to work approaching booksellers, venues and the University of East Anglia, getting in touch with several key authors before launching the inaugural Cambridge Wordfest, as it was then known, in March 2003.
A resounding success, the initial instalment was very much a collective effort, with various players offering their services to contribute to its success. Heffers agreed to act as bookseller, the Arts Theatre ran the box office, while the three original venues lent their spaces for free – including the Arts Picturehouse, CB2 Cafe on Norfolk Street (now Thrive), and Borders bookshop (now TK Maxx).
With the core components in place, all Cathy needed was an enthusiastic band of local friends to help as volunteers. “It felt like a real community project,” she recalls.
Following the success of the Spring Festival, the Winter Festival was added to the calendar in 2008 as CLF organically grew – incrementally furthering its footprint throughout Cambridge.
VARIED VOICES
In 2014, Cambridge Wordfest became CLF and entered its new incarnation as a registered charity, while continuing to uphold its core beliefs of providing a platform for diverse voices, debate and discourse by sharing a love of books.
“Our charitable remit is all about education, but the festival aims to inspire a passion for the written word – it’s equally for enjoyment,” shares Cathy.
Although CLF leverages its location in a city described as ‘the bedrock of academic life’, with many patrons and speakers from that background, it’s also a cultural event that caters to both town and gown. Each year, great effort goes into curating a programme that is culturally diverse, inclusive and accessible.
“Equality is so important to us, and from the beginning we’ve tried to give a voice to minority groupings,” she comments. “This hasn’t always been easy, working with an industry that’s historically white and male-dominated.”
Thankfully, the festival has grown alongside an ever-maturing industry that is becoming more of a level playing field in terms of promoting equal opportunities for voices beyond the traditional publishing landscape. This runs parallel to CLF’s mandate of showcasing new and exciting figures on the literary scene. “Ever since we started, we have hosted a debut writers’ panel for that very reason,” she continues.
This year’s Winter Festival panel will feature multi-award-winning journalist and author Yomi Adegoke; former editor of the London Review of Books and debut novelist Tom Crewe; plus author Helen Macdonald, as she promotes her first work of fiction.
PAUSE FOR THOUGHT
On this milestone occasion, Cathy looks back fondly on a multitude of standout moments in the rich tapestry of CLF’s history. These include some incredible occurrences, from hearing the Belarusian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich discuss her groundbreaking endeavours in two-way translation, to accidentally rooting around in P D James’ handbag in search of a missing roving microphone.
Turning to the Winter Festival ahead, Cathy highlights several speakers who are at the top of her personal radar, including the former British prime minister Theresa May discussing her new release, titled The Abuse of Power; former cricketer turned psychoanalyst Mike Brearley; as well as honorary patron Bee Wilson launching her first cookery book.
“We’ve had a roll call of astonishing people on the stage; these aren’t voices you get to hear every day,” she enthuses.
Now operating as a charity with a ‘hugely supportive’ board and a small, dedicated team behind it – all of whom share the same passion for literature that sparked its inception – CLF has a fruitful future ahead.
“My ambition has long been to ensure the festival has a life beyond me, and I’d say we’re at that stage,” closes Cathy.
View the full programme and book your tickets at cambridgeliteraryfestival.com.
