From the bestselling, prize-winning author of Golden Hill, comes Light Perpetual, a novel of the miraculous, the everlasting and the everyday.
November 1944. A German rocket incinerates a South London household goods store and five young lives are atomised in an instant. A tragedy. But what is lost is not just the children’s present existence. It’s all the futures they won’t get to have. All the would-be’s, might-be’s and could-be’s of the decades to come. Light Perpetual lets an alternative reel of time run, resurrecting as it does five souls to live through the extraordinary, unimaginable changes of the bustling immensity of twentieth-century London. Ingenious and profound, full of warmth and beauty, it is a sweeping and intimate celebration of the gift of life.
This event is only available as part of the Folkestone Book Festival Digital Pass. By booking a Digital Pass you'll be able to access all the talks and events and revisit anything you missed for up to a week after the festival.
You will need to order your pass at least 24 hours before the start of the first event you wish to attend.
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Francis Spufford’s debut novel, Golden Hill, won the Costa First Novel Award, the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize. His non-fiction includes Red Plenty, I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination and a memoir, The Child That Books Built. He teaches at Goldsmiths College.
The novel's overarching feat is to resurrect with marvellous vitality not just its central five figures, but six transformative decades of London life.
- Peter Kemp, Sunday Times
This event will be chaired by Carlo Gebler.
A copy of their book can be found on the CCCU website (canterbury.ac.uk)
This year the Festival will be presented online and in person wherever possible and in line with the latest government guidance. You can find more information about the Festival here.
This event is a Folkestone Book Festival screened event at Quarterhouse. Speakers will be streamed live from their homes to our auditorium for a limited audience. All events can also be enjoyed online as part of our Digital Pass.
Creative Folkestone Book Festival is made possible thanks to the generous support of our funders and partners. We are proud to welcome the return of NewsNow as our Principal Partner for the Creative Folkestone Book Festival.
