A Bristol literary festival is putting politics, protest and national identity at the heart of its programme this November — with former MP Caroline Lucas, broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby and Green MP Carla Denyer among the headline names.
00:00Well, we're sitting outside Clifton Library, which I love telling people it's the only public building left in Clifton.
00:06It's a very important resource to a huge number of our citizens.
00:12I was one of the founding members of Focal, which is the Friends of Clifton Centre and Library.
00:16That was set up in 2015 when libraries were under threat.
00:20And over the years, it has grown into a really lovely organisation that provided great service
00:26because I think often people think that everybody in Clifton is loaded and that Clifton doesn't need any resource.
00:34But in fact, actually, there are a lot of people here who are, I often like to say, they're asset rich, but, you know, cash poor in many cases.
00:41So we offer great resources here that, you know, but when we had the Warm Rooms initiative, you know,
00:49when the cost of living crisis happened, a huge number of people came in and we run films on a Wednesday afternoon.
00:55The film is free. People come in, they get a cup of coffee and a biscuit and they get to chat to other people.
01:01You know, it's a great way of stopping social isolation.
01:03I think it's a really important thing that we offer here.
01:06And libraries, you know, they create safe spaces for discussion on everything, really.
01:14And you've got something coming up that's really going to highlight that this year. Tell us.
01:18Yeah. So as a sort of subsidiary of the Friends, we set up this LitFest.
01:24This is the sixth year of the LitFest and it has grown wonderfully over those six years.
01:28This year we're offering over 50 events with 70 speakers over a very vibrant weekend.
01:35We say it's a weekend of ideas, discussion and stories.
01:39We're always amazed at how generous people are with giving their time because we don't pay huge fees.
01:47We just pay a sort of stipend to people to attend.
01:50And yet we get really big names, people who can charge a lot of money elsewhere, come here and do it.
01:56And I think because people understand that libraries are important and it's a resource that they want to maintain.
02:03It's also important to give people a platform to discuss, especially in this climate.
02:08There's been a lot going on in the news and a festival like this gives people a safe space to talk about their opinions and hear other people's, doesn't it?
02:17Tell me a little bit about that.
02:18Well, very true. I mean, this year we've got very topical speakers.
02:23We've got Caroline Lucas as our keynote speaker. She's speaking on the Friday night.
02:27And it's not so much about her political career, although I'm sure people will want to ask her questions about that.
02:31But it's about her book, Another England.
02:33And that's very much about the flag of St George and flags and symbols and how we reclaim what it is to be English.
02:42And I'm very pleased that on that night as well, we're going to have a choir singing some wonderful old pastoral English songs.
02:49So I think I think that would be a really nice place for people to be able to safely discuss issues where it seems to be just quite, you know, people are very polarised.
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