THERE is a timely talk – pun intended – at this year’s Bridport Literary Festival (running from 3rd to 9th November) by former prison governor Ian Acheson. With Britain’s failing prison system hitting the headlines again and again, Acheson’s experiences as a Home Office official with expertise in security, safety and reform, should be fascinating. He leads the Counter Extremism Project’s research on Islamist extremism, risk management, deradicalisation, and reintegration of terrorist offenders.

His book, Screwed, is the inside story of the collapse of His Majesty’s Prison Service, told by someone who had a front-row seat to it all. Acheson, whose talk is at The Bull Hotel on 4th November, went from officer to governor in less than a decade, and during that time he witnessed the uniformed organisation he was proud to serve crumble into lethal disarray. His uncompromising account exposes the politics and operational decisions that have driven our prisons to a state where rats roam freely, prisoners are forced to use slop buckets, violence and intimidation are normalised and it is easier to get a bag of heroin than a bar of soap.

In stark contrast, Daisy Dunn, dubbed “the next Mary Beard” by The Observer, has written a history of the ancient world through women’s eyes. The Missing Thread tells the story of how the classical world, so long discussed through the prism of the men who lived in it, can be reassessed through its influential and fascinating women. Dr Dunn is an award-winning classicist and author of seven books, including Not Far from Brideshead: Oxford between the Wars, a classicist’s portrait of the university city. She will be at The Sir John Colfox Academy on Thursday 7th November.

Other speakers in the festival include Charlotte Philby, grand-daughter of the spy and defector Kim Philby, talking about her new book, In The End of Summer, a nuanced literary thriller which exposes the secrets and lies intrinsic to so many mother/ daughter relationships; Andrew Pierce, talking about Finding Margaret, his brave, sad story of finding his birth mother, and Adam Summerhayes and Murray Grainger and Adam’s daughter, the poet Jessie Summerhayes, who have created a collection of folk-poems, woven between and around spontaneously created music.

For more information on BridLit 2024, visit bridlit.com

• Bursaries for students

THE winners of this year’s Bridport Literary Festival student bursary awards are Esmee Rees, who is reading law at Cardiff University, and Morgan Staple, reading archaeology and anthropology at University College, London. Both were at school at The Sir John Colfox Academy in Bridport and have begun their degrees this autumn.

BridLit chairman Deirdre Coates said: ‘It was a difficult decision to make. There were some very impressive applicants. In drawing up our criteria for selection we try to find young people who need the financial help, who have been involved in out-of-school activities which have helped their local communities, who are seriously interested in their chosen subject, and who, we believe, will do well at university and go on to successful careers and lives.’

The bursary scheme is now in its second year and is worth £9,000 over three years for the successful students. The 2023 bursary holders are Medwin Stephen, reading chemical engineering at Cambridge University, and Jessica St Barbe Baker, who is at Yeovil, studying to become a primary school teacher.

“Many of us live contentedly in Bridport with little awareness of how very difficult life is for some of our neighbours,” says Deirdre. “When I went to university in the 1960s all my tuition fees were paid for by my local authority and many of my peers also received their accommodation and living expenses. Sadly, this is no longer the case.

“It is wonderful that Bridlit was able to set this up. But we must not forget the very generous local couple who donated two thirds of the money for the bursaries. Next year Bridlit has undertaken to select two more bursary recipients and award them £3,000 for each of the three years of their degree.”

Further bursaries after 2025 and beyond will depend on the success of future festivals.

Pictured: Bursary winners Esmee Rees and Morgan Staple, with Bridlit director Tanya Bruce-Lockhart. Photograph by Graham Shackleton