Emmy-winning wildlife cameraman to visit Westbury library

EMMY-winning and BAFTA nominated wild-life cameraman, James Aldred, who has previously worked with Sir David Attenborough, will be visiting Wiltshire libraries this September as part of a regional tour – and Westbury is up first!

James specialises in filming at height in the rainforest canopy and other wilderness regions. He has worked with Sir David on several award-winning documentaries, including The Green Planet and Our Planet. He is the author of ‘The Man who Climbs Trees’ and ‘Goshawk Summer’, and recently released ‘The Canopy’ which was written for children.

Westbury Library is hosting a Nature Writing Workshop on Thursday 21st September at 3.30pm, where James will discuss how he takes inspiration from the natural world into his writing. This event is suitable for all – from beginner to advanced.

James will also visit Trowbridge Library later in the day, where from 6pm, he will host a reading group session of his book ‘Goshawk Summer’. The book is a lockdown diary about his summer spent filming a family of Goshawks in the New Forest. From 7.30pm, join James for a ‘meet the author’ live talk and Q&A session to talk about his career in filming and writing about nature and the environment.

Cllr Ian Blair-Pilling, Wiltshire Council cabinet member for libraries, said, “Having James Aldred visiting Westbury and Trowbridge libraries as part of the Word Live in Libraries tour is very exciting and I would encourage people to come along and take part. The nature writing workshop will be for those with a keen interest in writing about the natural world and it will be fascinating to hear about his award-winning career in filming during the question-and- answer session.”

The Word Live in Libraries tour, which is funded by Arts Council England and organised by South Western Regional Library Services in partnership with Literature Works, introduces diverse writers and creative workshops to 20 different libraries from Wiltshire to Cornwall. Each library involved will host a creative workshop followed by a talk from an author, poet or spoken word artist.

Details about each event plus ticketing information is available at https:// www.swrls.org.uk/projects/word-live-in-libraries-a-regionwide-tour-of-sw-libraries

More information about Wiltshire Council’s library services can be found at https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/libraries-home.