Festival patron Esther Freud will interview Natasha Walter, whose memoir – Before The Light Fades – is not only a compelling reconstruction of her mother’s life as a child of refugees and a passionate anti-nuclear protestor, but also an examination of the right to take one’s own life. It was her mother’s unexpected decision to end her own life that sent the shocked and grieving author on a search for what is valuable in the legacy of a family who lived through some of the great crises of the twentieth century.
Natasha Walter read English at St John’s College, Cambridge. She has worked as a reviewer, columnist and feature writer at the Independent, the Observer and the Guardian and as a broadcaster on BBC2’s Newsnight Review and BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. She is the author of The New Feminism, and Living Dolls: the Return of Sexism. She is a passionate advocate for the rights of women and children who seek asylum in the UK, and in 2006 she founded the charity Women for Refugee Women, which campaigns for the rights of refugee women.
photo by Clara Lattimer
