Author of The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry returns to Faversham for the closing event to the festival, in conversation with author and journalist Alex Preston. Her latest novel Enlightenment, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, is a story of love and astronomy told over the course of 20 years through the lives of two improbable best friends. Described by the Guardian as 'luxuriously – defiantly – old-fashioned' it is full of heartfelt wisdom about the stars, faith, friendship and unrequited love. A gem.

Sarah Perry is the bestselling author of Melmoth, The Essex Serpent and After Me Comes the Flood, and the non-fiction Essex Girls. She is a winner of the Waterstones Book of the Year Award and the British Book of the Year Award and has been nominated for major literary prizes including the Booker Prize, the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Folio Prize and the Costa Novel Award.

Alex Preston writes for the Observer and the Guardian. His books include In Love and War; As Kingfishers Catch Fire; and Winchelsea. Alex lives in Kent.