Hastings Book Festival appoints new patron

The writer, poet, television and film producer, Henry Normal has been named as the new patron for the Hastings Book Festival.

Spokesman Wayne Berkeley Herbert said: “On February 28 Henry will be in Hastings hosting a special event to launch his new collection of poems The Fire Hills, inspired by the East Sussex countryside where he now lives. The directors of the festival will also be formally welcoming Henry to his new role during the evening. Tickets are free but registration is advisable.

“You will almost certainly have seen and enjoyed much of Henry’s work. He co-wrote both the multi-award-winning Mrs Merton show and the first series of The Royle Family. In 1990 he set up Baby Cow Productions and produced all, and script edited many, of their shows. These include the Oscar nominated film Philomena, Gavin and Stacey, Marion and Geoff, Nighty Night, The Mighty Boosh, Red Dwarf and Alan Partridge. In 2017 he was honoured with a special BAFTA for services to television.

“But his first love is poetry. Having attended a writers’ group in his local library in Nottingham as a teenager, he went on to perform his poems wherever he could – factories, hospitals, libraries and even the top deck of buses. And he started doing gigs – opening for groups such as Blur and performing with other poets including John Cooper Clark and Roger McGough.”

Henry was also founder of the Manchester Poetry Festival (now the Literature festival) and co-founder of the Nottingham Poetry Festival.

Henry retired in April 2016 and since then has written and performed several shows combining comedy, poetry and stories of family life for BBC Radio 4. He has also produced many volumes of poetry and performs at literary festivals all over the country.

Henry is now a local resident – living just outside Hastings, close to Fairlight with his wife, the screenwriter Angela Pell, (TV Close to Me; film Snow Cake) and their son Johnny.

Wayne added: “Henry is an amazing man – a great raconteur with a poet’s take on the world. He is a wonderful interviewee… talking about his life, his poems, the importance of libraries for fostering creativity and his recent move to the Hastings area from Brighton.”

Henry said: “I am honoured and delighted to be asked to be patron of the Hastings Book Festival. It is already such a well-loved, prestigious event and the plans for the future of the festival are incredibly exciting. I'm looking forward to helping build upon the great work already done to celebrate Hastings as a vibrant and diverse centre of literature.”

His Hastings event is Henry Normal presents… The Fire Hills, 19.00, Hastings Library, 13 Claremont, TN34 1HE.