Author Sebastian Barry has been announced as the Golding Speaker at the 2023 Marlborough Literature Festival. The Golding speaker opens the festival each year, and is sponsored by William Golding Ltd, in recognition of Golding’s links with the Wiltshire town. Golding grew up in Marlborough, attended Marlborough Grammar School, and later used Marlborough (renamed as Stillbourne) as the setting for his novel The Pyramid.
Sebastian Barry has written more than ten novels, poetry collections and numerous plays. He won the Costa Book of the Year prize for Days Without End and The Secret Scripture, with the latter novel also winning the James Tait Black Memorial prize (won in 1979 by William Golding for Darkness Visible). Barry was Laureate for Irish Fiction, 2019–2021.
The Marlborough Literature Festival is scheduled 28th September–1st October. Tickets will go on sale later in the year.