Michael Ball Pops Up in Henley
Henley Literary Festival just keeps on delivering with this outstanding bevy of authors for their November pop-up including Michael Ball, Wayne Sleep and Martin Keown.
Having starred on stage in the West End and Broadway and at venues as storied as the Royal Albert Hall, the Coliseum, the O2 – and now Henley Town Hall – who better than Michael Ball to take you backstage for a behind-the-scenes drama?
After his fantastic Festival finale event last year with his memoir Different Aspects, the Olivier and BRIT award-winner returns to Henley just days before his latest book A Backstage Betrayal is published. We return to the scene of his Sunday Times bestselling first novel The Empire, with tough times for the titular theatre – can a talent contest and the annual panto get things back on track?
Don’t miss an hour in the charming company of the Radio 2 host, singer and writer on Sunday 3rd November at 6pm in the Town Hall.
Also on the same day at Henley Town Hall at 4pm Wayne Sleep, legendary ballet dancer and entertainer looks back on the extraordinary times he’s lived through: dancing with Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, partying with Freddie Mercury, performing with Princess Diana and having to jump twice as high as the Royal Ballet’s shortest principal. In the moving but also laugh-out-loud Just Different: My Outrageous Life he reveals the difficulties for a working-class, gay man in handling prejudice and living through the Aids epidemic
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On Monday 4th November at Christ Church Martin Keown, a Premiership era football icon, first on the pitch and now as a highly respected BBC, Mail and talkSPORT pundit, joins the festival with his eagerly awaited autobiography. Born in Oxford, Martin won 43 caps for England and played for Aston Villa, Everton and Reading. But it was his Arsenal career – over 400 appearances, a hattrick of Premier League titles and FA Cups, the unbeaten-season Invincibles team, a European Cup Winners Cup and the ‘Battle of Old Trafford’ – where he made his biggest impact.
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The remainder November pop-ups with Marcus Wareing, David Olusoga, Reverend Richard Coles and Martin Clunes are sold out, but you can add your name to the waiting list by emailing info@henleyliteraryfestival.co.uk