‘The Queen’ author, two UK MPs and local historian sign up to speak at Gibraltar Literary Festival in November

A ROYALS writer, two UK MPS and a local historian are the latest authors to take their places at the Gibraltar Literary Festival from November 17-19.

The festival will feature some top names from the British literature scene on the weekend after local authors hold public and school talks and workshops during the week.

The annual event has been running for nearly a decade, attracting some of the UK’s top writers to the Rock and a healthy following of tourists too.

This year will be no different especially after the COVID-19 pandemic officially ended earlier this year.

Cooking fan Mary Berry, Ukrainian child writer Yeva Skalietska, dementia campaigner Wendy Mitchell and former Olympian Mary Peters all recently signed up to give speeches.

And now four more writers got the nod to take part at the festival set in historical locations around the British territory.

Dame Andrea Leadsom, who famously put her name forward to be Prime Minister after David Cameron resigned and is now the government’s advisor for early years will talk about her book ‘Snakes and Ladders’.

There will also be Matthew Dennison, who wrote the international bestseller, ‘The Queen’ and regularly appears on TV to talk about the Royals.

Dennison has written biographies of children’s authors Roald Dahl, Beatrix Potter and Kenneth Grahame, as well as two works of Roman history.

The Oxford University graduate also wrote about Queen Victoria’s youngest daughter Beatrice called ‘The Last Princess’.

Another Oxford graduate, current Labour Shadow Minister without a Portfolio Thomas Symonds will speak in Gibraltar about a book he wrote on ‘Atlee: A Life in Politics’.

It is his third biography of Labour politicians after Aneurin Bevan and Harold Wilson, published in 2014 and 2022 respectively.

Finally, Richard Garcia will be talking about the first local man to become Catholic bishop in Gibraltar, Edward Rapallo.

The prolific author has written biographies of top local men like John Mackintosh and Kishin Alwani.

He has also produced TV programmes and is the editor of the Gibraltar Heritage Trust Journal.

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