15 writers, 15 minutes, 7 Venues
One Free Book Festival
Best Sellers • Hidden Treasures • Local Heroes
The Feral Writers Crawl is a free mini festival clearing the way for Hastings Book Festival (10-20 September). We have fifteen incredible writers, poets and authors from best-sellers to unknown treasures.
Their writing covers life and death, history, poetry, mystery and criminality, horror and humour, folklore and breaking the law. Plus some strange celebrity cooking and a lot more.
Feral writers include bestselling writers Cathryn Kemp on witch trials, Evie King and Jake Arnott as well as local heroes Henry Normal, Tim Barlow, The UnTruth Seekers, Della Reynolds and Geoff Martin.
Hosting them are seven magnificent independent venues across Hastings, from 1200 Postcards on Queen’s Road and Grey Skull Coffee in , Pissarro’s Brasserie on South Terrace, The Seadog, Station Road, The Good Place, Havelock Road plus Barnaby’s Lounge and French’s Bar on Robertson Street.
French’s Bar, 24 Robertson Street Hastings TN34 1HL
Barnaby’s Lounge, 46 Robertson Street Hastings TN34 1HL
The Good Place, 53-54 Havelock Road Hastings TN34 1BE
The Seadog, 32 Station Road Hastings TN34 1NJ
Pissarro’s Brasserie, 10 South Terrace Hastings TN34 1SA
Twelve Hundred Postcards, 80 Queens Road Hastings TN34 1RL
Greyskull Coffee Hastings, St Andrew’s Square, Waldegrave Street, Hastings TN34 1SJ
Witches. Hastings Gothic. Life & death. Comedy & poetry. Sussex Folklore. Breakin’ the Law. Enter the House of Usher. The natural & supernatural. The Poet in Pyjamas. Hastings historical rom-com. Rhyming detective novel. Food & Starsky & Hutch. Gory bizarro fiction.
THE FERAL WRITERS
Cathryn Kemp
Cathryn Kemp, bestselling author of A Poisoner’s Tale reads from her latest novel They Can’t Burn Us All, based on an infamous Icelandic witch trial.
Evie King
Evie King arranges funerals for those without family or money. Find out who ends up on her desk, what she does when they get there, and what we can all learn from it.
Geoff Martin
Fear of Last Orders member Geoff Martin writes gritty, working-class books with a political edge rooted deep in the darkside of the road, inspired by Robert Tressell and Joe Strummer.
Henry Normal
Henry Normal is a writer, poet and TV and Film producer. He co-created the first series of The Royle Family. He has written and performed many BBC Radio 4 shows combining comedy, poetry and stories about bringing up his autistic son.
Jake Arnott
Jake Arnott is an award-winning novelist and dramatist. He will be reading, and talking about, his latest novel, the Hastings based modern gothic Netherwood.
UnTruth Seekers
Join the Untruth Seekers for a forensic, funny and subversive exploration of why Sussex ghost stories and folk traditions are more historically revealing, and more relevant to the modern world, than anyone gives them credit for.
Antony Clayton
Antony Clayton discusses Netherwood, the last days of Aleister Crowley in Hastings, and Mansions of Gloom, the continuing cultural impact of Poe’s, The Fall of the House of Usher.
Tim Barlow
Tim Barlow is a poet, writer and a Director of Hastings Book Festival. In 2024 he won its annual open mic poetry competition. He hosts the regular A Load of Poets meet-up in Hastings.
Jenny Hammerton
Jenny Hammerton will be talking about food in the legendary TV shows Starsky & Hutch and Poirot and sharing the signature dishes of the actors who played the starring roles.
Mel Atkinson
A writer with a caustic sense of humour and a twisted imagination – paranormal, gory, sci-fi, monster and bizarro short fiction. Her books include The Last Night in Amsterdam and Work? Shmurk!
Jude Montague
Jude Montague discusses her graphic novel about her grandfather, a pioneer of radio in Manchester, one of the first musicians with 2ZY before the BBC, and reimagines how he met Jude’s grandmother.
Chris Limb
After years on the edges of the music industry Hastings-based author Chris Limb realised this world is as fantastical as anything supernatural and combined the two in the novels Comeback (2021) and Ghostdance (2025).
Della Reynolds
Della Reynolds, aka the Poet in Pyjamas, is a published performance poet and songwriter. She writes humorous, engaging content reflecting everyday life. She will be reading a short story and possibly a poem
Hannah Dolby
Hannah’s first job was in the circus. Her historical rom-com novel’s How to Solve Murders Like a Lady and No Life for a Lady follow the Hastings based Victorian detective Violet Hamilton.
Ed Bingham
Ed Bingham is the author of Broadlake, a rhyming literary detective novel, published by Thinkwell Books.
There is no need to book; however, it would be great if you could register your interest as it will enable us to keep you updated on the event.
