AS the White Hart of Wytham gets ready for the start of its Week of Wit and Words, literary agent Joanna Frank and the pub's proprietor Mark ‘Baz’ Butcher are inviting literature lovers to snap up tickets for a boutique festival of food and books
HAVING acquired the freehold to The White Hart last spring, after six years of trading, and following the success of our vaxxers literary dinner with Dame Sarah Gilbert, Catherine Green and Dr Rachel Clarke in the autumn, we were inspired to consider the possibility of future author events.
Read more: Covid vaccine hero Sarah Gilbert gives approval to White Hart's cool dining pods
With the brilliant acoustics offered by our all-weather observatory, the quality of food from our kitchen, Baz’s hospitality, and my background in book publishing, we realised we are well-placed to host literary lunches and dinners, and we knew we had a discerning customer-base who would respond positively to such events.
In the first instance, we offered the pub as a satellite venue to the Oxford Literary Festival but, understandably, they want to stay within the city centre. So we thought: why not have our own boutique festival – and The White Hart Week of Wit and Words was born.
As it’s our first year, we’ve decided to keep it small and selective so that we can provide maximum attention and visibility to each author, and we’re hugely honoured to welcome those who are taking part.
Clover Stroud
The week kicks off on Monday, March 21, when the Oxfordshire journalist and acclaimed writer Clover Stroud joins us for dinner, where I will interview her about her latest book The Red of My Blood. It is a raw and lyrical memoir about surviving the loss of her sister, Nell Gifford – founder of the much beloved Gifford’s Circus – and embracing death as an essential and enriching part of life.
Read more: Clover's story is a heartfelt tale of resiliance after tragedy
As with her previous books, The Wild Other and My Wild and Sleepless Nights: A Mother’s Story, Clover writes with unflinching honesty but also full of hope about the wonder of being human.
Jay Rayner, the flamboyant food critic and host of Radio 4’s The Kitchen Cabinet, has been to Wytham twice before in his capacity as a jazz pianist with The Jay Rayner Quartet, and he’s returning on Wednesday evening, March 23, as an author.
Jay Rayner. Picture by Levon Bliss
It’s your last meal on earth – what are you going to have? Jay’s latest book, My Last Supper, had its genesis in having been asked this question so many times, and in setting out to answer it he’s also created a barnstorming one-man show. He examines our fascination with last meals and tells the often very funny stories behind the choice of ingredients in what would be his last supper.
He’ll relate how he was introduced to oysters by his mother, the agony aunt Claire Rayner, and how he almost torched a hotel through his love of snails.
We’re very lucky to be to be joined on Friday, March 25, by the BBC’s World Affairs Editor, host of BBC2’s new unvarnished version of the week’s global affairs’ programme, Unspun World, and Oxford resident, John Simpson.
The stylish weatherproof covered courtyard of the White Hart Wytham. Picture by Ed Nix
John calls upon his unmatched journalistic experience in his fiction and will be joining us for a literary dinner to talk about his latest novel, Our Friends in Beijing. He will discuss how cathartic he finds it to write creatively after half a century covering some of the world’s most devastating conflicts and how liberating he finds storytelling through the lens of his main character. There will be an audience Q&A after dinner and John will be signing copies of his books.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey and James McConnel will play the White Hart of Wytham
For the week’s finale, on Saturday, March 26, we present Kit & McConnel with their glorious, no-holds-barred satirical cabaret. Kit Hesketh-Harvey is a regular on Radio 4’s Just A Minute and James McConnel studied music in Oxford under Stephen Sondheim. These comic geniuses with peerless musical talent aim their satire at everything from politics to celebrity culture, for an evening of cry-laughing wit and song, accompanied by a 2-course dinner.
One of our customers recently observed that The White Hart is starting to become something of a cultural salon. Without wishing to be pretentious, it’s a label we have no wish to resist.
- Tickets from the White Hart website: whitehartwytham.com/events, by email: info@whitehartwytham.com, or by phone: 01865 244372
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