Luke Thompson
Born in Cornwall surrounded by animals (monkeys, parrots, frogs, dogs, bugs, mice, pigs, chickens and whatever else turned up) Luke now finds myself back in Cornwall writing about animals.
In 2016 he co-founded Guillemot Press, a very small publisher of beautiful books, with Sarah Cave.
He is a senior lecturer at Falmouth University, teaching non-fiction, poetry, publishing and collaboration.
Helen Mort
Photo: Emma LedwithHelen Mort is a poet and novelist. Her collection Division Street is published by Chatto & Windus and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize.
Her second collection No Map Could Show Them was shortlisted for the Banff Mountain Literature Award.
She’s a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and teaches at Manchester Metropolitan University.
No Map Could Show Them is her first memoir (Ebury, 2022).
Emma Warren
Photo: Camilla GreenwellEmma Warren has been documenting grassroots music culture for decades.
She is the author of ‘Make Some Space: Tuning Into Total Refreshment Centre’ (Mojo Top Ten book of 2019), ‘Steam Down: Or How Things Begin’ (an Irish Times read of the year) and ‘Document Your Culture’.
Emma was a founding contributor to Jockey Slut magazine, worked on staff at THE FACE, and spent six years as an editorial mentor at Brixton youth-run Live Mag.
She has a monthly radio show on Worldwide FM and runs her own Sweet Machine publishing.
Terri White
Terri is a journalist, author, broadcaster and event host based in Manchester.
She is a columnist for The Sunday Times and The Big Issue and freelance writer specialising in culture, class, mental health and VAWG for titles including The Guardian, British Vogue, New Statesman, Elle UK, Mr. Porter, EMPIRE, Sight & Sound and The Observer magazine.
With twenty-one years’ experience in magazine publishing, Terri was most recently Editor-in-Chief of EMPIRE and prior to that, Editor-in-Chief of Time Out New York. Terri was recently named Culture Magazine Editor of the Year (British Society of Magazine Editors 2022) and awarded the lifetime achievement award for contribution to magazines, The Mark Boxer.
Terri was named one of the 150 Female Leaders redefining the creative industries (The Dots) and a Folio Top Woman in US Media. Terri has spoken at events around the world, including Social Media Week New York; the Magazine Design Conference in Oslo; The Modern Magazine conference in London and Ad Week Europe, for which she conducted live interview sessions with Former Vice President Al Gore, actors Stanley Tucci and Richard E Grant and director Edgar Wright.
She was made a Fellow of the RSA (The Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), in recognition of her work in journalism and the magazine industry and is a BAFTA member.
Her book, ‘Coming Undone: A Memoir’ was published by Canongate in July 2020.
It was named a Guardian Book of the Year, The iPaper's pick for Memoir of 2020 and is currently being developed for television by Bad Wolf, the production company behind His Dark Materials and I Hate Suzie. Terri is currently working on her first novel and second work of non-fiction.
Hazel Press presents Alys Fowler, Jess McKinney and Helen Mort
Hazel Press is a truly independent publisher that only sells through independent bookshops and publishes texts with a focus on the environment, the realities of climate change, feminism and the arts.
We’re very proud to welcome three of their poets — Alys Fowler, Jess McKinney and Helen Mort — to Camp Good Life 2022.
Helen Mort & Anna Fleming
Friend of the River Helen Mort is a poet, a mum and an avid rock climber.
Here, she talks gripping the great outdoors with Anna Fleming, author of Time On Rock: A Climber’s Route into the Mountains.
Bob Stanley
Bob Stanley’s follow up to Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop is a prequel that charts the birth of said modern pop music, from back before The Beatles, Elvis and even the 7” single.
Bob talks to Emma Warren about the brilliant and authoritative Let’s Do It!
Amy Liptrot
The Instant is the follow-up to Amy Liptrot’s 2015 classic The Outrun.
It’s a frank and luscious look at the addictive power of love and lust and also an exploration of the cycles of the moon, the flight paths of migratory birds, the mesmerising power of Neolithic stonework and the trails followed behind by a generation who exist online.
Amy is in conversation about the book with author Terri White.
Welsh (Plural): writers on the future of Wales
Welsh (Plural) sees Welsh writers Darren Chetty, Cerys Hafana, Grug Muse and Andy Welch offer imaginative, radical perspectives to take us beyond the clichés and binaries that so often shape thinking about Wales and Welshness — rugby, sheep, rolling hills and the 3 Cs (castles, coal, and choirs).
Ali Millar
Photo: Penny WincerAli Millar was born into the Jehovah's Witnesses in a town in the Scottish Borders.
Growing up in a frightening, cloistered world, she started to question the ways of the Witnesses, and their control over the most intimate aspects of her life, finding herself tormented by one question: is it possible to escape the life you are born into?
Ali will be reading from The Last Days, her incredible memoir about life inside, and outside a religious movement.
Ted Kessler
Ted Kessler has been a friend and supporter of Heavenly and Caught by the River for as long as we can remember.
His book Paper Cuts is the autobiographical story of the last days of the British music press, or the memoir of “a delinquent doofus” whose life was both rescued and defined by music magazines.
Ted will be in conversation with his friend and former colleague Terri White, author of Coming Undone.
The Stone Club with guest Rhys Mwyn
The Stone Club describe themselves as “a place for all stone enthusiasts to congregate, to muse and most importantly to stomp to stones”.
King and queen of the stone age Matthew Shaw and Lally MacBeth will discuss people’s fascination with Britain’s megaliths. They are joined by the former singer and guitarist of Welsh punk legends Anhrefn, Rhys Mwyn — an archeologist and expert in the standing stones of Wales.
Oh, And of course don’t forget the rules of Stone Club:
First rule of Stone Club is tell everyone about Stone Club.
Second rule of Stone Club is Stone Club is for everyone.
Third rule of Stone Club is Pack a mac & Pack a snack.
Jude Rogers: The Sound Of Being Human: How Music Shapes Our Lives
Writer and broadcaster Jude Rogers’ fantastic first book, The Sound Of Being Human, explores the reasons "why music plays such a deep-rooted role in so many lives, from before we are born to our last days”.
Jude will be in conversation with Emma Warren, talking about music’s power to help us tell stories.
Read an extract from Jude’s book, Caught by the River’s April 2022 Book of the Month, here.
Richard King
Photo: Elijah KingLongtime Caught by the River contributor Richard King’s essential new book, Brittle With Relics, is a landmark history of Wales between the early ’60s and late ’90s.
He returns to the Gladstone Estate to talk about the roots of modern Wales with writer and editor Darren Chetty.
Richard’s other work includes Original Rockers (shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and a Rough Trade, The Times and Uncut Book of the Year), How Soon Is Now? (the Sunday Times Music Book of the Year) and The Lark Ascending (a Rough Trade, Mojo and Evening Standard Book of the Year, shortlisted for the Penderyn Prize), all published by Faber & Faber.
He was born into a bilingual family in South Wales and for the last twenty years has lived in the rural county of Powys, Mid Wales.
Lucy Cooke: Bitch! A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal
The CBTR crew first booked ace zoologist and broadcaster Lucy Cooke to talk about her favourite animal — the sloth — back in 2015.
This time, she’s talking about her fascinating book on sex and the female animal, described by telly’s Sue Perkins as “the evolutionary reboot us bitches have been waiting for.”
Lucy will read from and discuss the book as part of our lineup for this year’s Camp Good Life. Read an edited extract from Lucy Cooke’s revolutionary guide to sex, evolution and the female animal, on the Caught by the River website, here.
“From lemurs to spiders, this gleeful exploration of female sexuality in the animal world overturns a host of outdated assumptions.”
Read the wonderful review here.
Peter Riley
Author of a recent CBTR book of the month, Peter came to our attention when we were pitched a copy of Strandings: Confessions of a Whale Scavenger — an illuminating and fascinating book about a deeply strange obsession.
Peter is in conversation with author Ali Millar.
Zaffar Kunial
Zaffar is a former Faber New Poet (from the same vintage intake as Will Burns) and a familiar face at many Caught by the River events.
Us (Faber, 2018) was shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award and the T. S. Eliot Prize. His second poetry collection, England’s Green, is forthcoming from Faber in September 2022.
Eels with Michael Malay and Luke Thompson
The perfect opening to any Caught by the River weekend, as a pair of avowed eel enthusiasts — site contributor Michael Malay and Guillemot Press founder Luke Thompson — share their enthusiasm for everybody’s favourite snake-like, catadromous fish.
About Michael.
Michael Malay is a writer and teacher based in Bristol. He was raised in Jakarta, Indonesia, before moving to Australia with his family at the age of ten. His writing has been published in various journals, including The Clearing, Caught by the River, and The Willowherb Review. He is currently working on his first book about migration, extinction and uncharismatic creatures.
About Luke Thompson.
Born in Cornwall surrounded by animals (monkeys, parrots, frogs, dogs, bugs, mice, pigs, chickens and whatever else turned up) Luke now finds myself back in Cornwall writing about animals.
In 2016 he co-founded Guillemot Press, a very small publisher of beautiful books, with Sarah Cave.
He is a senior lecturer at Falmouth University, teaching non-fiction, poetry, publishing and collaboration.