Clare Mulley

PASSION, murder, espionage, political activism and the Calendar Girls are all in the line-up as the Words in Walden Festival gets underway next week.

The ‘Jam and Jerusalem’ stereotype will be firmly debunked on Tuesday September 25 when Jane Robinson talks about the history of the WI, formed by some of the feistiest social crusaders of the 20th century and still one of this country’s most powerful lobbying organisations.

On Saturday Sept 29, award-winning biographer and local author, Clare Mulley explores the extraordinary life and loves of Christine Granville, ‘the Spy Who Loved’, one of Britain’s most daring secret agents, murdered in a fit of passion by one of the many men she had mesmerised during her short life.

The following Saturday (October 6), the spotlight turns from the real-life high drama of a wartime spy to an imagination teeming with almost unending crimes passionels. Agatha Christie’s life was almost as eventful as her stories and she drew on her experiences in her writing. Her grandson, Mathew Prichard, chairman of Agatha Christie Ltd and former chairman of the Arts Council in Wales, comes to talk about the Queen of Crime, still the best-selling novelist in history.

Still to come novelist Karen Maitland’s medieval mysteries (October 12), Robin Ince’s Bad Book Club (October 19), historian Ross King’s account of Leonardo’s Last Supper (October 20) and the Uttlesforde Orchestra with much-loved children’s writer James Mayhew and a triumphant Carnival of Animals for children (October 14).

Full details of the festival programme and how to book tickets can be found on the Harts Events website at hartsevents.co.uk or pick up a festival programme from the Saffron Walden Tourist Information Centre.