South Ealing Area Guide

A story written by Bethan Kate Tonkin & Mike Lloyd Five women wake in limbo, with no memory of who they are. As fragments of their past begin to surface, their lives, relationships and struggles are slowly revealed, both to them and to us. Only at the end do we learn their names. A powerful story of hope, pain, love and resilience, honouring five women who should be remembered for far more than the final moments of their lives. This is the story of the lives of the five women who were eventually murdered by Jack the Ripper.

The popular Ealing Book Festival Guided Walking Tour is offered again this year, hosted by local historians Alan Fortune andElaine Wein. Starting at The Questors Theatre we will discover the worlds best-selling detective author, Agatha Christie, visit a building connected with two song writing icons of British rock music, and hear about the eighteenth-century writer who created Tom Jones, and the author of A Town Like Alice . We will see where one of the famous co-founders of the DOyly Carte Opera Company was educated, visit the HQ of the famous Ealing Studios where scriptwriters and books abound, and finally conclude our walk in the Ealing Broadway Centre where the author of the Billy Bunter books once lived. Meeting point: Questors Theatre Duration: 1.5hrs

THE ENGLISH HOUSE 'Cruickshanks enthusiasm for Englands vernacular architecture shines through every infectious sentence of this glorious book... A triumph.' The Times The distinguished art historian and television presenter tells the story of the English house through eight highly contrasting buildings. It's the story of 19 Princelet Street in Spitalfields, built for a Huguenot silk-weaver subsequently becoming a synagogue. It's also the story of a row of two-up, two-downs in Toxteth; a block of flats in London's East End; the house Ideal Home described in 1926 as Britain's 'first modern house' in Northampton; and Chichesters superbly elegant early eighteenth-century Pallant House. Together these buildings reveal the ways in which English homes have developed and changed over the past few centuries and what they can tell us about the lives of their first occupants: their aspirations, their struggles, their place within society and relationship with their local community. Dan Cruickshankis an architectural historian and television presenter. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and has sat on the Executive Committee of the Georgian Group, and the Architectural Panel of the National Trust. His previous work includes the BBC television programmes Civilisation Under Attack (2015) and At Home with the British (2016), and the books A History of Architecture in 100 Buildings (2015) and Spitalfields (2016). Event duration: 1 hour

THE ARTIST 'Dextrous and powerfula hugely accomplished portrait of ambition and self-fulfilment The Guardian 'The year's most lauded debut novelist . . . A sultry, headily perfumed portrait of monstrous male egos and oppressed overlooked women. The Telegraph Travel to sun-drenched Provence in the 1920s as Lucy Steeds talks about her acclaimed novel, winner of the Waterstones Debut Prize 2025 and a book of the year in several newspapers. Through the dynamic between a reclusive painter, his niece Ettie and an aspiring journalist, The Artist explores themes of creativity, gender and overlooked female talent in this dazzlingly sensuous story of art, secrets and ambition. Lucy Steeds is a novelist and a graduate of the Faber Academy and the London Library Emerging Writers Programme. She has a BA in English Literature and a Masters in World Literatures from the University of Oxford. She has lived in London, Paris, Amsterdam and Singapore. The Artist won the 2025 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, the Waterstones Book of the Year 2025 and was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. Event duration: 1 hour

FLY, WILD SWANS Beautiful and moving Elif Shafak, The Observer SUPERB '. Daily Telegraph The Ealing Book Festival are delighted to launch the 2026 programme with a rare chance to hear one of the University of West Londons most esteemed former alumnae Jung Chang talk about her magnificent follow-up to the international bestseller Wild Swans . 35 years ago, Jung Changs ground-breaking memoir offered an essential understanding of Chinas recent history from the final days of the rule of Chinas last emperor through the Cultural Revolution and into the late 1970s, when Jung emigrated to Britain. Fly, Wild Swans picks up where Wild Swans left off, tracing Changs life and Chinas transformation from the end of the Mao era to Xi Jinpings authoritarian rule today. Chang explores how the political and cultural shifts of the last five decades have shaped her life and that of her mother, offering an immersive and deeply moving account of what it is like to live in a communist dictatorship and the threats modern China poses to the international world order. Jung Chang is the bestselling author of Wild Swans , which has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. Her acclaimed works on Chinese history have been translated into over 40 languages and she holds a CBE for services to literature. In conversation withLorraine Heggessey. Event duration: 1 hour

THE PREDICAMENT Storytelling genius. Mick Herron English fictions master storyteller. Independent on Sunday Bestselling author William Boyd discusses the background to The Predicament , a thrilling tale of suspense, danger, love and the dark temptations of spycraft. Unable to resist the allure of his MI6 handler Faith Green, reluctant spy Gabriel Dax (first encountered in Boyd's Gabriel's Moon) , is lured once again into the shadowy world of espionage. Set in the 1960s, Dax travels from Guatemala to West Berlin encountering a chilling web of deceit involving the CIA, the Mafia and a plot to assassinate President Kennedy. William Boyd was born in 1952 in Accra, Ghana, and grew up there and in Nigeria. He is the author of seventeen highly acclaimed novels including A Good Man in Africa , An Ice Cream War , Any Human Heart and Restless . In conversation withMel Giedroyc. This event is supported by St Benedict's School, Ealing [https://www.stbenedicts.org.uk] Event duration: 1 hour