POPULAR food blogger Anisa Karolia will be cooking up a storm at this year’s Derby Book Festival – demonstrating her recipes and serving up her tasty treats for the audience.
Anisa, who is one of the UK’s most popular Muslim food bloggers, with a community of more than 240,000 followers across the world, will be appearing at ArtCore, in Osnabruck Square, on May 20.
She will be live cooking some of the 80 recipes featured in her first book The Ramadan Cookbook and explaining why food is an integral part of the festival from the early morning meals for Suhoor and hearty meals for Iftar to celebratory dishes during Eid al-Fitr.
Anisa, who was brought up in Leicester and is a mum of three, said: “I’ve shared live recipes at food festivals before but this will be my first time at a Book Festival and in Derby so I’m super excited to meet fellow foodies, book lovers, some of my followers and of course some amazing authors at one off the Midland’s largest book festivals.”
This year’s book festival gets underway on May 19 with a visit from former journalist and spin doctor Alastair Campbell, who will be interviewed in Derby Theatre.
Other well-known authors appearing at the festival include Patrick Gale, Blake Morrison, Henry Dimbleby and poet Brian Bilston, while local authors Joanna Cannon and TM Logan will also appear.
Costa First Novel prize winner Caleb Azumah Nelson will also be visiting the city, talking about his second novel, Small Worlds.
His first novel, Open Water, won the Debut of the Year at the British Book Awards, and was a number-one Times bestseller. It also won the Bad Form Book of the Year Award, a Betty Trask Award and a Somerset Maugham Award, and was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award.
Caleb, who is British-Ghanaian writer and photographer, will be appearing at Quad on May 25 presenting a good opportunity to hear from a writer who has an exciting future.
Organiser and founder of the festival, Sian Hoyle, said: “We have a really exciting line-up this year with a cross section of authors and some fantastic young talent. If you are interested in aviation, we have former Concorde pilot Mike Bannister, who is originally from Burton, while political animals will enjoy hearing from Lisa Nandy MP, who has written a manifesto for the future of Britain.
“We have authors who are experts on birds, gardening, Henry VIII and even cross-dressing – we are sure our programme of events has something for everyone.
“We also have a book fair this weekend (13 May) at the Museum of Making, Sunday paper reviews and writing workshops and I would urge everyone in Derby to support our Festival. It’s growing each year and with the support of the people who live in our city. We hope it will one day be as popular as Cheltenham or Hay.”
· To find out more, or book tickets, please visit www.derbybookfestival.co.uk
