free fringe acts

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 Diana Shakti Bliss 

Sat, May 25  • 11:00 AM 

Chapter Two Bookshop

Shakti Bliss is a non-fiction author, poet and photographer focusing on well-being and empowerment, in particular for girls and women.  

She believes in the power of literature, to address debilitating attitudes and help raise self-belief to create better futures, communities and societies. 

Her book, Please Paint Me Caramel, published in 2023, exposes the destructive effects of Colourism on girls and women. It is her story. It is her plight for being born too dark skinned for her family and culture.  

Set in Mauritius, a tropical island that in his book Following the Equator (1897) Mark Twain called the template from which Heaven was created, Please Paint Me Caramel meanders into the life of a country creating its identity after independence. Historical and cultural heritages collide as people, food and traditions dance together on this island in the sun. British, French, Creoles descendants of slaves, Hindus, Muslims and Chinese weave what United Nations hailed as exemplary of cosmopolitan life. Who are they? What make their hearts sing? Why do they cry? Alongside, a young girl tries to find acceptance and worthiness.  

Please Paint Me Caramel exposes a plight that is largely unknown to most Caucasian people. Yet it is rife right here within British shores in Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, African, Latin American, Chinese and so many other minority and ethnic communities. 

Perhaps this will change one day …

Robin Ince: Weapons of Empathy

Sat, May 25  • 12:30 PM 

Chapter Two Bookshop

Award-winning comedian and bibliomaniac, Robin Ince, takes audiences on a celebratory tour of the places books can take us, and of the ideas that can make wonder and widen the sky. Robin was the Bookseller's Association 2022 Author of the Year. The Times Literary Supplement described Bibliomaniac as 'joyous, irreverent – liberating and life-affirming' while Eric Idle said 'one of the most delightful books I have ever read... always making me laugh'.

Expect a chaos of words and ideas, love and delight. And also a very long reading list.

Adam Bloom:  Finding Your Comic Genius

Sat, May 25  • 4:00 PM 

Chapter Two Bookshop

Last year, comedian Adam Bloom wrote a book about stand-up comedy called ‘Finding Your Comic Genius’ that has since been globally acknowledged as the most insightful book ever written on the subject. It has led to him holding book masterclasses all over the world. Adam is coming to Chesham to talk about the book, followed by a Q&A with his audience. Although ‘Finding Your Comic Genius’ is aimed at stand-up comedians, it has also made a huge impact on writers, poets and public speakers.

 Lyn Jenkins

Sun, May 26  • 11:30 AM 

The Drawingroom

 An amateur violinist though play to a reasonably high standard. I have recently finished playing the Bach Dmi Chaconne in twelve local churches as a fundraiser challenge for Cruse Bereavement Support (made £2,500) and am shortly to give a recital of Bach's music for solo violin, violin and voice and two violins at St Mary's church, Chesham - again for Cruse. 

Ian Stone:  To be Someone (A Memoir about one Teenager's Obsession with The Jam)

Sun, May 26  • 12:30 PM 

Chapter Two Bookshop

To Be Someone is part social history, part autobiography and part love letter to Paul Weller and The Jam. I first heard the Jam in 1977, not a happy year. There was industrial unrest, violence and racism on the streets. There was also huge amounts of prejudice and furious anger. And that was just in my house. My parents hated each other and in order to avoid having to listen to them fighting, I used to retreat to my room and listen to John Peel's late night radio show on Radio One. He uttered the phrase 'The next record is In The City by The Jam'. Paul’s edgy guitar started up, Bruce came in behind with the bass and Rick kicked in with the drums. I was fourteen years old and I felt like I’d been smacked in the head. That energy, that power, that noise. Nothing has ever come close. I was hooked. I still am.

From that moment on, I bought every record they ever released and every magazine with their picture on the front. I had Jam badges on my jacket, Jam posters on my wall. I played their singles and albums constantly. I knew every word, every hook, every beat. I travelled up and down the country to see them live and watched as they grew into one of the biggest bands in Britain. The songs were great of course, they wrote some of the best tunes I’ve ever heard. The look was cool as fuck, the attitude was defiant and angry. They played fast and they were not much older than I was. The lyrics were beautiful and honest and they seemed to be about, and for me. It was a turbulent and divisive time to grow up in Britain and Paul made sense of the world I was living in. Through The Jam, I started to see more clearly what was actually going on. 

Five years later, I was nineteen and ostensibly a grown up. I shaved. I knew my collar size for shirts. I had an aroma, chest hair and opinions. I still hadn’t lost my virginity but that wasn’t for the want of trying. When Paul Weller announced that the band were splitting up, it was the first major trauma of my life. I was devastated. I’m just about over it now.

This book is my story of those five years from 1977 to 1982. The five years when three young lads from Woking stretched my hitherto limited horizons way beyond anything I’d previously imagined. The five years when I was, when we all were, in the presence of, as John Weller correctly put it ‘the best f***ing band in the world”.