Lucy Steeds: The Artist

This event has finished and has been made available as a digital recording. Available to purchase above or as part of the Digital Pass. 

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Lucy’s debut novel has garnered many awards in 2025, including Waterstones Book of the Year, and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Set in Provence in 1920, it is a beautiful, haunting story of a young art critic who secures an interview with the reclusive painter, the great Edouard Tartuffe. 

He lives alone in a remote farmhouse with his mysterious niece Ettie, who silently creates the conditions that make her uncle’s genius possible.

But she has secrets which have been hidden for years and are finally revealed over the course of the summer.

Lucy will be in conversation with Sarah Newton, Festival Trustee and Director of Penguin PR, a Festival sponsor.

'The Artist is a lush, impressive debut; the writing is rich and sensuous, especially in descriptions of food, the landscape and the act of creation. Lucy Steeds is one to watch' Sunday Times, BOOK OF THE YEAR

'Enthralling . . . the descriptions of the landscape, the meals they eat and the art created are so rich and evocative it's as if you're there' Good Housekeeping