Book for the Newbury Spring Festival

newbury spring festival.jpg

published 11 March 2014

The First World War is proving fertile ground for imaginative events this year, the latest of which is the Newbury Spring Festival in Berkshire (May 10-24), for which bookings open tomorrow (March 6). The festival, founded in 1979 by Jeanie, Countess of Carnarvon, opens on May 10 with Mozart's Requiem.

* Subscribe to Country Life and save

Jeremy Paxman will discuss his new book, Great Britain's Great War, at Englefield House on May 22; the tenor Joshua Ellicott is giving a lunchtime recital on May 24 at the Corn Exchange, Newbury, telling in song the story of his great-uncle's war through the letters he sent home. This is followed by a symposium with military historians such as Sir Max Hastings entitled ‘A Tragic and Unnecessary Conflict?'.

More big names include Catherine Bott, James Bowman, Eric Whitacre, Maureen Lipman, Anne Reid and the soprano Ruby Hughes, a John Lewis Young Star (0845 521 8218; www.newburyspringfestival.org.uk).

* Follow Country Life magazine on Twitter

Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by His Majesty The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.