"One of our best line-ups ever" - Lewes Speakers Festival

Organiser Marc Rattray, who lives in Bosham, is delighted with the result: “It usually takes me about three or four weeks to put it all together and then a week of marketing and then the event itself but I think it's all come together really nicely this time.” (January 19-21)

It has been great to see how the festival has expanded: “The lovely thing is that I get to meet incredible people and I have some choice as to who is going to appear. We've also had cooking and wine-tasting and music. I always try for something a little bit different and I think this time we've got more comedians than we've ever had before.”

Marc also tries to address what is going on in the world: “One of our speakers dropped out and I managed to get someone pro-Israel and someone pro-Palestine to speak. They won't be in debate with each other. They will be in different slots but hopefully they will show both sides of the argument.

“I started doing these festivals in 2011 when I was a teacher. I had a very good headmaster at the time. I was at Bede's School, and I started organising talks. And then some of the parents were quite well-known people and another friend of mine knew Sandy Gall. So I put these festivals together and I asked if I could do more. The headmaster said no but I asked if I could do it as a little sideline from teaching and he said yes and so it carried on from there. I had a little bit of experience. I had worked in conferencing and business before but the model that I went for is very unlike other festivals. It goes from morning until evening. Most festivals will have two or maximum three speakers but for instance at this latest one, on the Saturday, we have eight talks.”

Some years ago, Marc did do a Chichester Speakers Festival and he definitely would not rule it out in the future: “But I've got other businesses I'm involved with and they do take up a lot of my time, and the six weeks doing a festival is really pretty intense. I'm doing just the two a year these days, both in Lewes but many people have asked me would I ever do a Chichester one again. I have not had the time or the energy yet but maybe I should. Maybe I should consider going back to Chichester sometime.”

The festivals have certainly got their own momentum: “Once you have got a list of well-known people then it does become a bit easier to get more people to come along and I do always try to make it very neutral, for instance with the pro-Israel and the pro-Palestine speakers talking about the conflict, and I hope I will be able to get both ends of the spectrum represented in terms of what they say. And I do try to get as much variety as possible but it is also determined by who has got a book out at the moment to some extent.”

Tickets on 0333 666 3366 or www.lewesspeakersfestival.com. Speakers this January include two of the UK’s best-known comedians: Dom Joly, creator of the global-smash-hit comedy series Trigger Happy TV, and Geoff Norcott, political comedian and TV presenter.

Also speaking are Laura Bates, Baroness Catherine Ashton, General Sir Richard Shirreff, Professor Sir David Omand, Sir Max Hastings and Polly Toynbee among others, plus Andrew Monaghan, Simon Heffer, Sir Vince Cable, Helen Fry, Julian Baggini. Tania Branigan, Anna Murphy, Sir Chris Bryant and Steve Bell.