Medway River Lit has more stories to tell
lus an elected mayor on the horizon, a Gillingham pub's suspended licence, and a Brompton flat fit for The Traitors
Medway River Lit returns this weekend with big name authors, local poets and an expanded programme celebrating the area's literary talent. We speak to the organisers about what they've got planned, the challenges of finding venues and new efforts to make the festival more accessible. Elsewhere, Kent and Medway could be heading for an elected mayor in 2029, a Gillingham pub has its licence suspended, and a rather remarkable Brompton flat offers the chance to live somewhere that looks suspiciously like The Traitors castle.
Medway River Lit has more stories to tell
It has become a positive part of the Medway calendar, and it's time once again for the Medway River Lit festival, organised by writer Sam Fentiman-Hall and poet Barry Fentiman-Hall, who will also perform at events throughout the festival.
The festival launches tomorrow at Chatham Library, with poetry performances from Maggie Harris and Medway's Youth Laureates. There will also be a local author fair, along with tea and biscuits.
Sam and Barry admit they organised another festival partly because “we still had some more stuff to put on.” They also wanted to do more to support local artists, something they felt, in hindsight, could have been a greater focus in previous years, though “we always do have quite a decent roster of local artists involved.”
There are also big-name events, including appearances from Natalie Haynes, Ben Aaronovitch and Patience Agbabi.
“We've gone to some lengths this year to have a lot of local authors,” they explain. This is alongside, rather than instead of, the events celebrating local poetry.
A highlight of the festival will be Medway's first, and so far only, production of Sarah Hehir's Man or Bear at Brompton Academy on 2 November. We previously reviewed the play, describing its writing as “succinct and sharp” and its three characters as “fully fleshed out and believable.”
On 6 November, Sun Pier House will host the launch of a new poetry collection by “the late, great and much missed Rosemary McLeish, which is going to be celebrating her art and her poetry.” The event will feature several local poets inspired by her writing, and it will also announce the winners of this year's Rosemary McLeish Poetry Prize.
Medway Council has again been “very supportive”, with the festival running in partnership with the authority, supported by its culture team and venues provided through Medway Libraries.
“A literature festival in an area should be in the libraries that are in the place.”
Finding venues is always a challenge for the festival, compounded this year by continued ‘developments’ at the former Visitor Information Centre and now the former Huguenot Museum in Rochester.
Other establishments have stepped in to fill the gap. “We're working very closely as well with Store 104 this year,” they explain, with the business acting as the festival's bookseller. Sun Pier House is also an essential venue, including hosting Pier Fest, a “festival within the festival”, on 21 November.
The organisers are also keen to thank their volunteers, and understandably so. “Anne-Marie [Jordan] at Tempo Time Credits is going to be organising that.” The festival requires around half a dozen volunteers, with additional support from the Youth Laureates.
This year, the festival has also received funding from Arts Council England to support access and engagement.
“We'll be piloting various accessibility options for people with disabilities, those with hidden illnesses and neurodivergence.”
This includes British Sign Language interpreters, something the organisers have wanted to introduce for some time.
“We've always wanted to do it. They are very skilled people. And for that reason, expensive and should be. What they do is a difficult thing to do. We couldn't really run to it on our budget. Now we can, and we're glad to be able to.”
Plans are already coming together for next year's events, despite the considerable work involved in putting on the festival.
“We won't pretend it's always a barrel of laughs, but it is a very rewarding thing to do, and when it works it's a privilege.” - Steven Keevil
Medway River Lit runs from tomorrow until 29 November. A full programme of events is available here.
Catch Up
Playopolis has been part of Rochester High Street for ten years, accumulating more than 1,000 board games and turning plenty of strangers into actual friends along the way. Steven spoke to owner Rebekah Jordan about opening a board game café before Medway really knew what one was, surviving covid, people discovering how good their partners are at lying, and why the place has become too important to too many people to simply disappear.
Steven Keevil
Elsewhere, a major national study ranked Medway as the worst place in the south east to grow up. We went through the evidence behind that rather grim headline and found a messier picture: some genuinely worrying results, some real local strengths, and a ranking built partly on survey data the report itself does not regard as representative. The overall league table is questionable, but some of what sits underneath it is much harder to shrug off.
Ed Jennings
And after several years of peculiar alcohol licensing decisions, Medway Council has begun questioning whether its own system is part of the problem. Officers now acknowledge that the rules can stop potentially useful businesses while allowing others to open metres away, which will sound familiar to anyone who followed the council’s prolonged attempts to prevent Tesco from selling wine next to Rochester station.
Ed Jennings
In brief
🗳️ Kent and Medway are on course to have an elected mayor from 2029, alongside local government reorganisation, the full shape of which still remains a mystery.
🚫 The Cricketers in Gillingham had its licence suspended and the landlord barred from the premises following 'a series of incidents' and crime and disorder.
🎴 Eclipse Gaming in Chatham suffered a theft of trading cards this week.
🛍️ Savers has opened at Chatham Dockside.
☕ An operator is being sought to run a cafe within the new Docking Station complex at Chatham Dockyard.
Council matters
Meetings next week:
- There are absolutely no Medway Council meetings happening next week.
New planning applications:
- Demolition of four buildings at Medway Maritime Hospital.
- HMO on Gravesend Road in Strood.
Property of the week
Some properties are interesting because of their location, others because of their history, and occasionally one comes along that looks like somewhere you might be expected to attend a religious service. This £250,000 two-bedroom flat in Conway Mews, Brompton occupies part of a converted former schoolhouse, and it is quite something. The main living space has enormous vaulted ceilings, Gothic stained-glass windows, chandeliers, dramatic red curtains and a vast mural depicting Rome, because apparently the architecture wasn't making enough of a statement already. An open-plan kitchen is tucked into one end, with two bedrooms, a bathroom, and allocated parking. One bedroom continues the ecclesiastical theme with pointed windows and green wallpaper decorated with gold motifs. The whole place is wonderfully eccentric, and the living room looks like an ideal setting for a particularly dramatic roundtable on The Traitors. At £250,000, it's a rare opportunity to live somewhere that already looks prepared for a murder mystery, although presumably without the actual murders.
Events this week
📚 Until 28 Nov - Medway River Lit // Medway’s annual literary festival returns with authors, poets, workshops, open mics and new writing across the area. Various venues. Pay what you can.
🎃 Sat 31 Oct - Brompton Halloween Trail // Brompton Halloween Team and Ideas Test are back with another haunting Halloween Trail for 2026. The Cannon, Brompton. Free.
🎃 Sat 31 Oct - Halloween Party // Three Sheets presents a lineup including Spider Baby and DJ Elsdonny. Three Sheets to the Wind, Rochester. Free.
🎸 Thur 5 Nov - South Shore // Their last gig of 2026, ahead of their album launch in 2027. 12 Degrees, Rochester. Free.
Footnotes
Follow us elsewhere: Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky, and now WhatsApp for new story alerts.
