Tony Benn brings his battles to York (From York Press)

Tony Benn brings his battles to York

11:34am Saturday 21st January 2012 in Features

Veteran MP Tony Benn, pictured outside York Minster in 2010, will be back in the city for its annual literature festival in March

Veteran Labour politician Tony Benn will be in York at the end of March to take part in the York Literature Festival. He spoke to STEPHEN LEWIS

IF there is one thing Tony Benn has learned in a lifetime of doing and talking about politics, it is that there’s really not that much new under the sun. “Every age has to fight the same battles again,” he says, in a voice that is both distinctively patrician and yet somehow not snobbish.

That is really the theme of the show – The Writing On The Wall – that he will be bringing to this year’s York Literature Festival at the end of March.

The veteran Labour politician – who famously gave up his hereditary seat in the House of Lords so he could become an MP – presents the show with folk singer Roy Bailey.

“It’s a sort of history programme, really,” he says. “We look back over the last 1,000 years. I read some extracts of what was said at the time when people were campaigning for votes for women and for peace, and then he sings songs about the peasant’s revolt and the English Revolution.” By English Revolution he presumably means the events leading up to and including the Civil War: but then he always has been a man to call things as they are. It really was a revolution: just not one that lasted.

Mr Benn met Roy Bailey in 1976 at a “celebration to commemorate the English Revolution. I was asked to give a lecture, and he was singing about it. I became a great admirer of his music”.

Mr Benn subsequently wrote a book, Writings On The Wall, which was an anthology of radial and socialist writings from the Magna Carta in 1215 to the present day. When he and Mr Bailey subsequently started performing together, they adopted a version of the title for their show.

They have been performing it together occasionally ever since. “When I’m free and he’s free,” Mr Benn says. “I enjoy doing it. I enjoy the audience. People discover for the first time that everything they have thought and done has been done before.” Which brings him to that line about every age having to fight the same battles again.

Just because we have fought similar battles before, however, doesn’t mean that we mustn’t fight them again. “If we want to make a change, we must fight for it,” he says.

In his mother’s day, it was votes for women. “When she was born in 1897, nobody would have thought women would ever have the vote.”

Today, it is the Arab Spring which is sweeping North Africa – and being resisted in Syria. Here, meanwhile, it is the cuts that are galvanising a “tremendous campaign to hopefully change policy. That’s something which is bringing out a lot of campaigning spirit”.

It is hugely important that we never lose that willingness to stand up and campaign for what we believe in, he says. The pessimistic view that we can’t make a difference is one he finds deeply worrying and depressing. “If you feel strongly, go out and say something.”

He’ll certainly be saying something when he comes to the Tempest Anderson Hall in Museum Gardens on March 31. It promises to be a date not to miss.

• Tony Benn and Roy Bailey, The Writing On The Wall, Tempest Anderson Hall, York, 5-7pm, Saturday March 31, as part of the York Literature Festival.

Tickets priced £18.50 from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 01904 623568.

york literature festival

The York Literature Festival – which runs from Thursday, March 29 to Sunday, April 1 – is back this year, after a year’s absence.

Originally funded by City of York Council, the festival has since 2010 been run by volunteers. There are fewer events at this year’s fifth festival than in previous years, over fewer days. But the emphasis is on quality, says festival committee chairman Miles Salter.

There is certainly a good range of events over the four days: from an appearance by poet, broadcaster and raconteur Ian McMillan with his son Andrew, to guided tours of literary York, a discussion of the life and times of Charles Dickens and a storytelling event in a tent for children.

Here we have room for only a few highlights.

For the full festival programme, visit yorkliteraturefestival.co.uk

Thursday, March 29

York Walk – A Guided Stroll Through Literary York

A fascinating look at authors and books inspired by York from Anglo Saxon Alcuin to the Brontes, Dickens, Robinson Crusoe, WH Auden and Kate Atkinson.

10.30a.m. Meet at Museum Garden Gates, Museum Street.

Tickets: £5.50 adults, £5 Yorkcard, students and disabled. Tickets available from Visit York, Museum Street, York.

Also on Sunday April 1 at 10.30am.

Neil Hanson – Escape From Germany: The Greatest POW Break-out of the First World War

The acclaimed writer of popular history, who has eight books to his name (including The Dreadful Judgment about the Great Fire of London) and is currently royal literary fellow at York St John University, will talk about his book Escape From Germany, a thrilling tale of courage and resilience. Audience questions welcome.

Venue: Waterstone’s.

Time: 3pm.

Tickets free but to reserve a place, call Waterstone’s York on 01904 628740.

Friday, March 30

Yorkshire Voices - in Association with York Poetry Society

An evening of poetry with Oz Hardwick, Pat Borthwick and Ian Duhig. Venue: Jacob’s Well.

Time: 7.30pm – 10pm.

Tickets: £5/£3.50 for York Poetry Society Members. Pay on the door.

Saturday, March 31

Telltale Tent: Bringing Stories to Life

Inspire your children by stepping with them inside York’s magical, mobile story venue, the Telltale Tent. Find a cushion and listen to a wonderful story, then bring it to life by dressing up, moving to music and acting out the characters and their world through drama and play.

Venue: Café No. 68, Gillygate (The Tent will be in the café’s garden).

Time: Show 1 starts at 10am; Show 2 starts at 11am.

Tickets: £3.

Matt Haig: To Be A Cat

Matt Haig is the author of three novels, including the bestselling The Radleys, about Vampires living in Bishopthorpe. At this event, Matt will read from his new book for children, To Be A Cat, published in March 2012. Matt isn’t a cat, or a vampire, but he does live in York.

Venue: Waterstone’s.

Time: 3pm.

Tickets: Free, call Waterstone’s on 01904 628740.

Tony Benn and Roy Bailey: The Writing on The Wall

Venue: Temple Hall, York St John University.

Time: 5pm – 7pm. (Doors open at 4.30pm).

Tickets: £18.50 from York Theatre Royal Box Office / 01904 623568.

Sunday, April 1

The Dickens Enigma – John Bowen In Conversation

John Bowen, the author of Other Dickens: Pickwick to Chuzzlewit, discusses the life and work of Charles Dickens for the bicentenary of the Victorian novelist’s birth. Audience questions are welcome. Compered by Miles Salter. Venue: York Central Library – Garden Room.

Time: 11.30am – 1pm. Tickets: £4 From York Theatre Royal Box Office – 01904 623568.