Sir Walter led the LitFest

Author Anna Beer visited Fairlynch Museum’s Raleigh 400 exhibition before her Literary Festival talk to admire Sir John Everett Millais’ masterpiece The Boyhood of Raleigh.  The museum exhibition ends on 31 October.

It seemed only right that the first talk of Budleigh Salterton’s 2018 Literary Festival dealt with the complex character of Sir Walter Raleigh in the weeks leading up to the 400^th anniversary of the East Devon hero’s death.

For historian Anna Beer who spoke to a packed audience in the Temple Methodist Church on  Wednesday 19 September it was her second visit to Budleigh, following the publication of her acclaimed 2004 biography of Raleigh’s wife Bess.    

Patriot or Traitor: The Life and Death of Sir Walter Ralegh is Anna Beer’s latest book. It’s an authoritative but highly readable study of a man who, as the author writes, ‘lived more lives than most people of his time, of any time’.

His patriotism was clear, she told the audience, including his deep attachment to his home county.  ‘And a traitor?’ she asked. ‘You’ll have to read the book.’  

Patriot or Traitor: The Life and Death of Sir Walter Ralegh by Anna Beer is published by Oneworld Publications ISBN 978-1-78607-434-8

Find out more about the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival at https://budlitfest.org.uk