Anita Rani and Salena Godden in conversation.

Anita Rani, popular presenter and author will be in conversation with festival patron, writer and poet Salena Godden about their recently published books, writing and life. And both will be doing readings to boot. 

To have these two heavy-hitters in the room at the same time will be brilliant.

Anita published her first book The Right Sort of Girl, an autobiography of her upbringing, in 2021; last year she released her debut novel Baby Does a Runner. Salena had a double book launch in May 2024, a new full poetry collection With Love Grief and Fury, and her childhood memoir Springfield Road - A Poet’s Childhood Revisited.

Reanna Valentine will be opening for Anita and Salena. Reanna is the author of two poetry collections: ‘Mad Again’ (Written Off Publishing) and the Saboteur Award-nominated ‘Fragmented Light’, with their grandmother Carolyn Reed.  

This promises to be a great event to end our Super Saturday.

A Super Saturday ticket is available for this event - the special ticket gives reduced price entry to all festival events on Saturday 21st Sept as well as a 20% discont on food and drink in THe Observer Cafe throughout the day.

This event is being sponsored by local solicitors, Janet Sinden and Co. We thank them for their generous and continued support of the Hastings Book Festival 

Salena Godden FRSL is an award-winning novelist, poet and broadcaster of Jamaican-and Irish mixed heritage. Her debut novel Mrs Death Misses Death won the Indie Book Awards for Fiction and the People’s Book Prize, and was shortlisted for the British Book Awards and the Gordon Burn Prize. 

Her work has been widely published, anthologised and broadcast on BBC radio, TV and film. Salena Godden is one of Britain’s foremost poets whose electrifying live performances have earned her a devoted following.

Coming next: An eagerly anticipated second novel set in the Mrs Death Misses Death universe, due for publication with Canongate in spring 2026. Rough Trade Books published a hardback edition of Pessimism is for Lightweights - 30 pieces of courage and resistance in 2023. The title poem is on permanent display at The Peoples History Museum, Manchester. This year she was a judge for The Nibbies, the literary awards from the Bookseller magazine.

She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Patron of Hastings Book Festival and an Honorary Fellow of West Dean, Sussex.

More about Anita:

An RTS Award winning broadcaster and Sunday Times bestseller with a career spanning nearly 20 years, Anita Rani is a hugely popular presenter and author.

She has become a familiar face on television as one of the lead presenters on BBC One’s Countryfile and has recently presented Channel 4’s Aldi’s Next Big Thing which returned for its second series in 2024.

She has authored two bestselling books - Her debut book, The Right Sort of Girl was released in 2021, documenting her upbringing. In 2023 she published her first novel Baby Does a Runner.

She also recently took on the position of Chancellor of the University of Bradford and has created The Rani Scholarship supporting women in underrepresented subjects and industries.