A new four-day reading festival inspired by the diaries of filmmaker Derek Jarman will be held in November in place of the Folkestone Book Festival.

Autumn Reads will be a socially distanced festival running from Thursday, November 19 to Sunday, November 22 and run by Creative Folkestone .

The new festival has been inspired by filmmaker Derek Jarman's diary collection, Modern Nature, which includes entries he made after moving to Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, facing a future of uncertainties, having been diagnosed HIV positive.

He grew a garden in the barren landscape at the home, which has recently been acquired after a fundraising campaign.

In the build up to the festival, Creative Folkestone will be making a short film featuring extracts from Modern Nature, Folkestone Reads: Modern Nature.

Autumn Reads: Modern Nature will take place this November instead of the usual creative Folkestone Book Festival, which has been postponed until June 2021.

The new, shorter event aims to bring people together over a love of books and the joy of reading while focussing on a singular book.

Creative Folkestone are also encouraging the whole town to read Modern Nature and discover this special book. A full programme for Autumn Reads will then be announced early next month.

Organisers are looking for 21 people from the Folkestone, Hythe and Romney Marsh area to take part in the Folkestone Reads: Modern Nature project that will chart the 21 months spanned by the journal. Participants will be invited to read extracts that encompass themes from gardening and plants to art, film, sexuality, pandemic, illness, and death. If you would like to take part contact louellaward@creativefolkestone.org.uk.

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