Falmouth Book Festival with Esther Freud on October 23, 2026
Novelists are notorious magpies, stealing from their own lives and families before disguising the evidence as fiction. But where does memory end and invention begin, and what happens when the people closest to a writer recognise themselves on the page?
Esther Freud’s My Sister and Other Lovers returns to the sisters first encountered in Hideous Kinky, drawing on an unconventional childhood to explore love, loyalty and the competing versions of a family’s past. In Love Lane, Patrick revisits Harry Cane, the character inspired by his own great-grandfather, to tell a story of homecoming, buried sexuality and the long afterlife of family secrets.
Two novelists at the top of their games come together for a candid and revealing conversation about transforming lived experience into fiction, the liberties writers take with the truth, and whether every family contains the makings of a novel. They’ll be chaired by Cathy Rentzenbrink.
Their talk will be at the Poly in the heart of Falmouth at 7pm.
To buy your tickets, which range from concessions at £7 to full price at £10, click here.
