Latitude is delighted to announce the literary line-up for its tenth edition,taking place from Thursday 16^th to Sunday 19^th July 2015 in the stunning grounds of Henham Park, Suffolk.

Tania Harrison, Curator of the Arts Arenas commented: “As we get closer and closer to the festival itself it’s very exciting to announce the Literary Arena and the new additions to the already brilliantly packed programme. I’m always keen to present the best authors, speakers and brightest ideas in our Literary Arena. Every author who appears in this space joins a pretty auspicious roster of talent who have appeared in the arena before so the bar is set high! I’m very pleased that once again the arena is bursting with interesting new dialogue, debate and discussion. From the New Statesman panels featuring Andrew Marr, Kate Fox, Kate Mosse, Dr John Bullan, Owen Jones and more, to Hanif Kureishi’s ‘A Talk with the Audience on Creative Writing’, to Frank Turner talking about his new book ‘The Road Beneath My Feet’ to V&A presenting Savage Beauty- the awe inspiring Alexander McQueen exhibition- the Latitude audience will find something brilliant in the arena any of time of day.

There is a wealth of talent across the festival announced today- I’m pleased that Sadler’s Wells will present the sexy blockbuster show Titanium on the Waterfront stage. In the Theatre Arena Chris Goode & co are premiering STAND with us- which will be a really exciting moment as this new work looks at how we keep moving forward in the face of adversity and asks, what would you make a stand for?

And from must-sees to ones-to-watch there are some new names in the Faraway Forest. Look out for Linda Cockshott (alias Diane Morgan) who’ll be creating bespoke horoscopes and Monica Heisey in The Storyteller’s Club of whom Lena Dunham said, “I truly wish she could be America’s poet laureate. Too bad she’s Canadian’.

If one-of-a-kind experiences is what you’re after then make sure you’re in the Film and Music tent for Sara McCarthy’s talk about her new film ‘Putin’s No.1 Enemy’ in which she follows the story of Bill Browder, once Russia’s No. 1 Investor as he takes legal action against Putin over the death of his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, as Sara shows exclusive never-before-seen-clips from this feature documentary.

“We are thrilled to be presenting a line up befitting of our 10th anniversary – it’s set to be quite the Birthday Weekend!”

With no fewer than ten arts arenas, stages and spaces boasting the biggest names in comedy, theatre, dance, film, cabaret, literature and performance, Latitude is proud to offer its guests a spectacular choice of distinguished shows, star acts and innovative site-specific commissioned pieces. Latitude can now reveal even more names for the Arts Arenas.

This year Latitude is thrilled for the return of Sadler’s Wells, the UK’s leading dance house who will present a diverse programme of world class dance in all its forms. Exploding onto the Latitude stage for the first time is Titanium, an unprecedented fusion between flamenco, hip-hop and breakdance, by celebrated flamenco duo Rojas and Rodríguez of Nuevo Ballet Español. This high-energy show sees an all-male cast of nine dancers bring together three styles that share a history of improvised movement, dance battles, live music and community spirit. Titanium is one of the most ambitious incarnations of urban flamenco, earning critical acclaim across a European tour, and winning a National Dance Award in Spain. Joining the multi-talented cast of three flamenco dancers, three hip hop dancers and three b-boys on stage is a live band mixing flamenco with urban beats, offering audiences a news perspective on the commonality between different dance traditions that are all born and lived in the streets.

Chris Goode & Company present the world premiere of STAND and will join the wide-ranging and eclectic line-up in the Theatre Arena, presenting real life stories of courage and conscience from Oxford residents who stood up for something, or someone, they believed in. In STAND. Also confirmed Ignition is a UK-wide project delivered by Frantic Assembly to provide new, exciting ways for young men to get involved in the arts and this year they present Man Up. 

The West Yorkshire Playhouse will present Tony Award-winning playwright, Eve Ensler and her new play, ‘Avocado’. Every week, thousands travel to new countries, searching for a better life. Some go by plane, clutching a passport. Some by container, gasping for air. Funny and shocking, this solo performance imagines a young woman's perilous journey towards freedom. Eve Ensler is best known for her world famous The Vagina Monologues, performed in over 50 languages and in 140 different countries.

Joseph Robinson and Olly Hoare will be performing ‘Let Pan Be My Judge’. A couple delve deep down into the valleys of their love and imagination. She didn't come back, he did. Let Pan Be My Judge is an intimate and experimental musical experience exploring nature, myth and love through total theatrical immersion. To be performed anytime any place and for anyone. Olly Hoare is an actor musician, lead singer of Frederick and the Noise, Joseph Drake is an actor musician nominated for Southbank and Evening Standard awards.

Created especially for Latitude's 10th Edition. Yann Allsopp & Company will present ‘It Can Be Your Birthday Too’ and gives audience members a chance, one at a time, to have their very own birthday party.Lecoq trained Yann Allsopp & Company present an anarchic birthday experience for one audience member at a time. Get there early as spaces are limited.

Latitude’s Comedy Arena has added Andrew Maxwell, Russell Kane, Jason Byrne’s, Mark Steel, Tom Deacon, Aisling Bea, Elliot Steel, Joel Dommett, Joanna Griffin, Jenny Bede & Spencer Jones.

The Soho Theatre will also join the Cabaret Arena this year presenting Penny Arcade, Panti Bliss, Le Gateau Chocolat, Paul Currie & Lou Sanders. The Soho Theatre is one of the most vibrant venues on London’s cultural scene with a programme spanning theatre, comedy, cabaret and writers’ events. Panti Bliss is one of Ireland’s most famous Drag Queens who recently garnered international support from Madonna and the Pet Shop Boys after Catholic organisations threatened to sue Panti Bliss for libel.

One of the UK’s leading multi-arts festivals, the line up for the 2015 Literary Arena offers a whole host of literary heavyweights, top wordsmiths and up-and-coming talent. Latitude is honoured to welcome esteemed playwright, screenwriter and filmmaker and novelist Hanif Kureshi to the festival. Author of novels including The Buddha of Suburbia, The Black Album and Intimacy, story collections including Love in a Blue Time, Midnight All Day and The Body, plays including Outskirts, Borderline and Sleep With Me, and screenplays including My Beautiful Laundrette, My Son the Fanatic and Venus, audiences will be given the rare opportunity to learning from the master as Kureshi will give a talk on creative writing.

King of crime fiction Mark Billingham will be appearing in collaboration with country band My Darling Clementine, presenting new show The Other Half – a story of love, loss and murder told in music and words. Exploring Latitude’s 2015 theme For Richer for Poorer, For Better for Worse, Kate Mosse, bestselling author of Labyrinth and most lately The Taxidermist’s Daughter will discuss Weddings in Literature: from Shakespeare to Game of Thrones with Dr John Mullan presented by the New Statesman. In addition the New Statesman presents British broadcaster and journalist Andrew Marr in conversation with Kate Fox the social anthropologist, and Fellow of the Institute for Cultural Research as well as author of Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour. Latitude is thrilled to welcome singer songwriter Frank Turner, who is being interviewed by journalist Ian Winwood about the publication of his book, The Road Beneath My Feet, an incredible diary of his tours, ahead of the release of his sixth EP later this year.

Also joining the line-up is Eimear McBride, whose critically acclaimed debut novel, A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing, won the inaugural Goldsmiths Prize in 2013 and the 2014 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. She will be speaking to award winning writer, journalist and broadcaster Anita Sethi.

The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to improving health by supporting bright minds in science, the humanities and social sciences, and public engagement and this year along with Salon London they present a collection of talks. 'Richer Poorer' will bring three incredible perspectives on making your life as rich as possible with three times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize Scilia Ellworthy who is truly inspirational. She set up the UK charity Peace Direct in 2005 to work with local peace-builders and will explain what we can learn from her phenomenal success at meeting violence with peace internationally. As we all spend one full day of our lives each week on line, web-psychologist Nathalie Nahai explains how we can harness their persuasive technologies to enrich our digital time, followed by Sarah Corbett founder of the Craftivist Collective who will demonstrate exactly how you can change the world one stitch at a time.

“Worse – Finding Great Things in Dark Places” presents new ideas to find great things in dark places. Be taken on a star safari with Susanna Hislop as she explains how our favourite constellations (Great Bear, the Plough, Orion) picked up their names. Understand how to handle the urban jungle if civilisation collapses from survival expert Lewis Dartnell who will give you the knowledge you’ll need to rebuild the world. Finally hear from the legendary sound recordist Chris Watson as he presents his audio soundscape of the most hidden places on the planet. Chris has travelled the world extensively as David Attenborough’s sound recordist, and believe us there’s nowhere in the natural world Chris hasn’t put his microphone.

And “Better – Better You” as Salon London presents a Salon which explores your options for a better you! Hear Prof Tim Spector explain the fascinating world of epigenetics, including how the path to a better physical you could have been decided by the actions (and the diet) of your grandparents. Turn yourself in to a much better photographer with director Christian Banfield. His 30 minute masterclass teaches you exactly how to create magic with the camera on your phone, and finally hear author and social media expert from the think tank Demos Jamie Bartlett explain exactly what we can learn from those who live and work hidden from view on the dark net.

Also supported by the Wellcome Trust will be Dr Tamara Russell: presenting The Art of Mindfulness: I wonder where my mind wandered? and The Art of Mindfulness: a mindful walk in the woods. Dr. Tamara Russell has taken meditation flash mobs onto Brixton streets, conducted Mindfulness sessions on the Barbican stage and the National Gallery, and has been in dialogue with his Holiness the Dalai Lama. Her forthcoming book, ‘Mindfulness in Motion’ explores the links between movement, mind and the brain. Tamara is the Mindfulness training for The Art of Mindfulness - an umbrella a project for all things Arts and Mindfulness – dedicated to inspiring Mindfulness in everyday life through a creative program of courses, workshops, live events and other artistic projects and The Wellcome Trust also present Henry Marsh CBE FRCS, one of the most senior and experienced neurosurgeons in the United Kingdom. He pioneered the use of cortical mapping under local anaesthetic in the UK and remains one of Europe's most experienced surgeons in this field. Author of ‘Do No Harm’ an elegant series of meditations at the closing of a long career. This is a beautifully written, humane, moving and darkly funny memoir by a senior consultant neuro-surgeon.

Dr Robin Carhart-Harris of Imperial College University is one of a few scientists on the pursuit to bring a more scientific approach to modern psychedelic research and this year he will be in conversation with the founder of the Club Drug Clinic, an NHS service at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London and Consultant in Addiction Psychiatry, Dr Owen Bowden-Jones in a discussion entitledDrugs; Medicine for the Soul?

Kate Bethune, Senior Research Assistant at the V&A presents Alexander McQueen 'Savage Beauty', an insight into the incredibly popular exhibition currently running at the V&A which showcases the extraordinary talent of Alexander McQueen, undisputedly one of the greatest British fashion designers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Guardian columnist John Crace will bring his hugely popular Digested Read column live to Latitude, providing incisive pastiches of the most popular writers, and bestselling author of The Last Family In England, The Humans and The Possession of Mr Cave Matt Haig also joins the line-up, and will be talking to Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, medical doctor and neuroscience researcher, Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Division of Brain Science at Imperial College and the current co-recipient of Medical Research Council grants in the area of decision-making and impulsivity.

Also joining the line-up is Guardian national history writer Patrick Barkham, discussing his new book Coastlines, published by Granta Books to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the National Trust's campaign to save the British coast.The Psychologist and Wellcome Trust present Fiona Neill, The Times columnist and author of The Good Girl, in conversation with Sarah Jane Blakemore (Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL), discussing Being Young Never Gets Old - Teenagers Debunked. The event is chaired by Jon Sutton of The Psychologist.

London Conchord Ensemble, one of Europe’s leading chamber ensembles will be performing their show Rhythm of Silence consisting of Woolf’s The Waves, her self-termed ‘playpoem’, and Britten’s haunting Phantasy Quartet are married in this musical and physical exploration of the power of silence and solitude. Stand-up comedian and founder of the innovative improv company The Spontaneity Shop Deborah Frances-White will be inviting special guests into the Literary Arena for The Beau Zeaux - improvisation with characters you will remember and stories you will find hard to forget. Latitude will also be welcoming her Voices In Your Head show, putting some of comedy's finest performers head to head with 'the voice' who provokes & cajoles them to create improvised comedy mayhem.BBC Radio 4's Viv Groskop (Funny Women Finalist and Maestro Impro winner) presents her stand-up show Say Sorry to the Lady, about the challenges of everyday life when everything annoys you.

Join an ex-Apple genius James Veitch for misguided forays into online dating, unrequited love and what it's really like to work for Steve Jobs in Genius Bar. Expect music, mischief and the Legend of Zelda; iCloud, Macbooks and 80's nostalgia. Writers of the hit BBC show QI will be bringing their hugely popular podcast No Such Thing As A Fish live to Latitude, to discuss their latest non-discoveries.

2015 also sees experts in their field sharing their wealth of knowledge in various workshops and interactive sessions.

London based illustrator and papercut artist Poppy Chancellor will be demonstrating her skills in her Papercutting Workshop. She will guide people to make beautiful masks and make a mask to wear to the Grimm’s Faerie Tale Ball in the Farraway Forest that evening, providing guidance and top tips on this crafting phenomenon. Renowned Agony Aunt and Sex Doctor, Dr Pam Spurr is hosting a Love and Sex workshop.

In the Literary Arena will be the comedians Ian Smith with his immensely affable charm and Stuart Laws, who will bring his trademark ‘boundless energy’, telling stories that weave material in with improvised audience interaction; Lloyd Griffith who combines an infectious sense of fun with a flawless singing voice, plus up and coming talent, the endearingly self-deprecating Fin Taylor.

Joining the stellar line up in the Poetry Arena this year is Jaz Coleman presenting his antithesis of a conventional rock biography Letters from Cythera. Killing Joke singer and Classical Music legend Coleman writes his intensely personal memoirs through Killing Joke, Music and Mysticism. Letters From Cythera was written between years 2007 - 2008 in the South Pacific and outlines how the occult sciences shaped Jaz Coleman's philosophical outlook expounding on his preferred system for a personalized renaissance.

The Shed of Stories Arena will play host to a heady mix of bestselling authors, groundbreaking artists and important voices. Bestselling fiction writer and literary critic Wendy Holden will be talking about her new novel Wild & Free, based on a boho boutique festival held in the grounds of a West Country stately home. Stand-up poet, creator of the Poetry Takeaway, author and musician Tim Clare will discuss his fiction debut The Honors, and author and Guardian writer Ben Johncock joins the line up to present his debut novel The Last Pilot. Ali Ray will get the audience’s taste buds going as she cooks up a storm from her new book Pitch Up, Eat Local followed by a talk discussing the joys of eating and sourcing local food whilst travelling in the UK.Acclaimed artist Karrie Fransman hosts a graphic novel workshop around the release of her latest publication Death of the Artist, a love letter to the wonderful possibilities of visual storytelling and experiments with the very form of the novel. William McLellan will talk about his new memoir ‘How I Got into Art School (and out of prison)’ The true story or how one man overcame his demons and unleashed his creativity.

Sarah Bennetto will be bringing her much-loved cult Storytellers’ Club, with special guests and comedy stars lined up to tell hilarious true stories (and sometimes secrets) Including Tom Bell, Ben Van Der Velde, Garrett Millerick & Nat Luurtsema and Monice Heisey a Canadian writer and comedian - recently published 'I Can't Believe It's Not Better' A Woman's Guide to Coping With Life. Which Lena Dunham described as ‘The only humour book I ever want to own’. It made me keel over with laughter and recognition.'

Also appearing in the shed with her new show, ‘As Funny As Cancer’ is hugely talented actress and comedy performer Beth Vyse, whose previous show 'Get Up with Hands' was repeatedly named one of the best shows of the Edinburgh Fringe. Time Out had this to say about her: ‘Vyse has an insane, chaotic and stupidly funny mind. She’s a superb comic actress. Allow yourself to be swept away in her weirdness and you’ll have a blast’. Vyse is back and this time it’s personal! A bodacious and ballsy look at her battle with breast cancer. Hear the tale of her Stoke-on-Trent family; The Waltons on Alcohol, her time with Nelson Mandela, acting and thieving at the Royal Shakespeare Company, settling down with Michael Jackson and finding cancer. Not to mention her producing two football teams from her womb. And all before the age of 30!

Joey Page whohas spent the last few years blustering around the comedy circuit, supporting the likes of Josie Long and Noel Fielding and appearing on shows such as BBC 3’s comedy marathon, ‘Nevermind the Buzzcocks’ and Noel Fielding’s Luxury comedy. Joey is a clown in the most traditional sense: happy, baffling, playful and creative. His absurdist comedy is clearly inspired by the work of classic kings of whimsy Vic Reeves and- to a lesser extent- Eddie Izzard. It’s also important to note that he bills himself as the world’s first unobservational comedian, since he’s uninterested in telling the truth.

Lucy Neal presents her ground-breaking Playing for Times - a resource for artists, community activists and anyone wishing to reach beyond the facts and figures of science and technology to harness their creativity to make change in the world.Described by Anthony Horowitz as ‘an important and timely book ‘and Chloe Combi discusses her incredible project Generation Z, an emotional, illuminating, sometimes dark, sometimes hilarious odyssey through the lives of this generation told in their own voices following interviews with hundreds of teenagers and children born between 1994 and 2005.

Galley Begger Press is a company specifically set-up to act as a sponsor to writers who have struggled to either find or retain a publisher, and (most importantly) whose writing shows great ambition and literary merit and they will be presenting the incredibly helpful Galley Begger Press: Last Pitch Attempt! (From Slush Pile to Bound Book).And why not visit Linda Cockshott, acclaimed astrologer, medium and intuitive healer, who will chart your incredibly specific horoscopes in the shed this year. You may recognise Linda from her work (as her alias Diane Morgan) from Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe and BBC3’s Live At The Electric and her work with Joe Wilkinson in Two Episodes of Mash.

Concert goers and record holders will have heard him play with greats such as Van Morrison and Paul McCartney, and Latitude is thrilled to announce that Geraint Watkins & The Mosquitos will be performing in the Film & Music Arena, as part of Mark Lamarr’s God’s Jukebox this year. Joining them this year, The Congo Faith Healers are like nothing you have heard or experienced before. Combining down and dirty swamp infested gypsy blues with wild savage guitar playing, voodoo vocals, latin american drum and trumpet grooves with rockabilly swing double bass and hooks that you will be singing for days, they have one of the most intense and utterly compelling live shows around!

Sheffield Doc/Fest brings the international documentary family together to celebrate the art and business of documentary making and this year they present Sound of the Cosmos, a breathtaking voyage to the outer limits of the universe as Gustav Holst’s ‘The Planets’ is performed by the Sheffield Rep. The live orchestra will be conducted by George Morton and accompanied by images of interplanetary odysseys and newly commissioned visuals by Sheffield creative design agency Human and a commentary from astronomer Paul Crowther. Joining them will be Emile Bernard, London-based songwriter and producer who offers quirky poetry with tints of post rock and dark electronic.This modern/vintage mash up aims for a unique sound with stripped down romance and quality like Villagers, and a raw voice joining ranks with the likes of Woodkid. Dommett is an outstanding storytelling comic and this is a feel-good show with lots of laughs.

Performing on The Waterfront Stage will be Kate Simko & The London Electronic Orchestra, Kate Simko has carved an international career as an electronic music producer, film composer, live performer, and DJ. Hailing from Chicago, Kate’s music reflects the influences of the city’s underground sounds, as well her background in classical piano and jazz music. Her main creative project for exploring this is the London Electronic Orchestra. Formed from the resources she’s been able to draw on at the Royal College of Music, as well as a cast of live players, they’ve already performed their first show at London’s National Gallery.

British-Norwegian singer-songwriter and acclaimed neoclassical pop auteur Sasha Siem joins the line-up this year and is the talk of the town thanks to her song cycle Most Of The Boys, a 12-song love story set to frantic orchestral shifts and swells. Siem, who has studied at Cambridge and Harvard, composed the project in Berlin and has performed it with the London Symphony Orchestra. When the time came to properly record it, she decamped to Reykjavík’s Greenhouse Studios to work with producer Valgeir Sigurðsson (Sigur Rós, Bjork, Bonnie Prince Billy, Feist). Judging by her lead single “So Polite” — a rhapsodic Fiona Apple-meets-Joanna Newsom rave-up that references crotch-grabbing along the way — the resulting record is as visceral and engaging as her live shows.

Performance poet Ross Sutherland will be presenting ‘Standby for Tape-Backup’. Inspired by the 1980s teenage experiment of matching up The Wizard of Oz with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Ross Sutherland draws out a series of stories from his life, synchronising words, second-for-second, with the images behind him, using nothing but found-footage from the videotape belonging to his Granddad.

Winner of The Grand Jury prize at the 2014 Venice Film Festival in 2014, Director Josh Oppenheimer presents The Look of Silence, a powerful companion piece to the Oscar®-nominated The Act of Killing. Through Oppenheimer’s footage of perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors discovers how their son was murdered, as well as the identities of the killers. The documentary focuses on the youngest son, an optometrist named Adi, who decides to break the suffocating spell of submission and terror by doing something unimaginable in a society where the murderers remain in power: he confronts the men who killed his brother and, while testing their eyesight, asks them to accept responsibility for their actions. This unprecedented film initiates and bears witness to the collapse of fifty years of silence.

‘Putin’s Number One Enemy’ is a political thriller which tells the story of Vladimir Putin through his murderous feud with a man who was once the largest foreign investor in Russia, Bill Browder. Browder’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was murdered by the Kremlin and Browder was able to mobilize the US legislature to pass a law, avenging his lawyer’s death, and paving the way for governments to stand up to Putin as he drives a tank over the existing world order. Filmmaker Sarah McCarthy (previous films include The Sound of Mumbai for HBO and The Dark Matter of Love for NETFLIX) shows exclusive never-before-seen-clips from this feature documentary, and shares her experience of generating, developing & financing a political film in the hope it might help budding filmmakers out there learn from her numerous mistakes.

Heehaw have teamed up with Manchester based director Chris Hughes to produce their first feature, a documentary about the legendary Hacienda Nightclub called Do You Own The Dance Floor. After closing its doors in 1996, the club was ripped down and pieces were sold off at a charity auction. Bricks, floorboards, girders, bollards and steel urinals were taken away by DJs, Hacienda regulars and fans alike, Do You Own the Dance Floor tracks these people down in order to tell the complete story of the Hacienda experience from those that were there.

And in an exclusive preview for Latitude before its general release, Eden is the “largely autobiographical” film about the rise of the French electronic music scene in the 1990s, written by DJ Sven Love, co-founder of the duo Cheers. Along with scenes of the house parties and underground clubs that helped establish an entire sub-culture, the film features portrayals of several real-life DJs, most prominently Daft Punk’s own Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter.

Visitors to The Faraway Forest will get the chance to engage directly with this year’s theme, For Richer For Poorer, For Better For Worse with design artists Morning, David Shillinglaw and Sam Wyer & Laura Drake- Chambers creating a special art installations over the course of the festival. In The Little House within the Faraway Forest, A Curious Invitation present The Faerie Tale Ball, A grim faerie tale world of the creatures only whispered about after dark, that do really lurk under your bed and not only in your imagination. Featuring promenade theatre, live music, interactive creatures, puppetry, art installations and more and following on from its success at the Old Vic Tunnels, Islington Metal Works and SEOne Club. The Faerie Tale Ball is an experiential party exploring the darker side of fantasy. Stonewall will also be in the forest this year with, ‘No Bystanders’ A campaign asking people to pledge what they can to create a kinder, fairer world.This will then be presented at the festival with imagery.

Pandora’s Playground, will host Dylans Mobile Bookstore again this year promising to feed your need to read. The words on wheels experience, specialising in books associated with Wales and Dylan Thomas, has visited festivals, markets and cultural events all over the UK and have been quite literally spreading the words. They sell a wide range of books, including used, rare, fine and antiquarian. In addition to selling books they offer a space on the bus for mini readings and signing sessions with performers from the festival, and welcome people aboard to browse, hang out, chat, listen to poetry and enjoy the simple pleasures of reading.