Our team
Eastbourne LitFest and the charity is run by a dedicated team of volunteers.
At festival time we recruit additional members to the team to look after authors, speakers and ticket holders. If you’d like to get involved, we love to hear from you.
Christina Baldwin
Photographer and Videographer
Christina is a photographer, filmmaker, artist, musician and writer, whose inspiration comes from the ocean and the stories that reveal our shared humanity. Poetry, storytelling and the sea have shaped her creative work, from her film Undercurrents to her photography. Chrissie is delighted to be part of this year's Eastbourne LitFest, capturing the festival through photography and film.
Anna Branson
Admin Assistant
As a child, Anna learned to recite Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo and liked to play the part of Timmy the dog from the Famous Five on family walks! Her favourite writers include Jacqueline Wilson and RF Kuang. Anna is studying for an MA in English Literature, alongside her job in the author support team for the writing consultancy, Jericho Writers.
Henry Branson
IT Support and Finance Manager
Henry’s perfect day would start with a wild swim, continue with a birding trip followed by a pub lunch, a pint of ale and a good book, and end with dancing, preferably to eighties’ tunes. In his spare time, he is a management consultant and a very patient and loyal husband to Jane.
Jane Branson
Festival Director, Founder and Trustee
Jane has been in love with books as long as she can remember. Her first job was as a library assistant, which turned into a career in English teaching and literacy consultancy. She is driven by a desire to break down barriers between people and books. A writer of fiction and non-fiction, and a reader of everything from children’s picture books to investigative journalism, her go-to authors are Anne Tyler, Ann Patchett, Stephen King and Elizabeth Strout.
Mike Dixon
Trustee
Mike Dixon had a long and successful career in colleges and universities before becoming an education consultant and ambassador for the national poetry competition and website, Poetry By Heart. He is delighted that Poetry By Heart is part of Eastbourne Litfest. His favourite contemporary author is William Boyd and he enjoys the visceral poetry of Tishani Doshi. Mike's debut novel Falling was published in 2019.
Gemma Jolly
Volunteer Co-ordinator
Gemma is passionate about how books support health and wellbeing. She loves historical crime fiction and her favourite books include Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak and Boris Akunin’s The Winter Queen. She can often be found dawdling round Eastbourne with Dennis, her miniature schnauzer.
Lowri Lambird-George
Photographer
Lowri is one of our festival photographers, a creative who believes reading can push us out of our comfort zones and teach us the importance of different perspectives. One of her favourite books is The Genius of Dogs by Brian Hare, about the evolution and domestication of dogs. Lowri is excited to capture everyone enjoying Eastbourne Litfest.
Debbie Martin
Admin Assistant
Debbie enjoys reading anything by Hilary Mantel, AS Byatt and and Margaret Atwood. As a teaching assistant in primary education, she discovered a passion for helping children learn to read and enjoys putting this into practice with her three year old granddaughter.
Jane Midwinter
Festival Director and Poetry Curator
Jane is a poet and educator. Following a career in teaching, school leadership and educational development across Sussex, she continues to work with schools and is passionate about creating welcoming opportunities for people of all ages to discover books, poetry and creativity. Her poetry has been published in Wild Court, the international poetry journal of King’s College London, and in the Poet Town anthology.
Russ Miles
Founder and Trustee
Russ is a technologist, bibliophile and the author of numerous books. He travels extensively but remains committed to bringing positive cultural change to his hometown. He loves Montaigne’s Essays and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig - a book that inspired his own motorcycle tours across America and Asia.
Olivia Muller
Admin Assistant
Liv is a young creative keen to help bring incredible events to life. She believes in the power of books and imagination and her favourite series as a child was Harry Potter. She remembers running home from school to read the next chapter, and the thrill of fantasy and dragons has never waned - she now adores romantasy authors such as Rebecca Yarros. Liv is excited to be helping to foster a love of reading in the next generation.
Matilda Ranger
Website Developer and Accessibility Advisor
Matilda is studying BSc Security and Crime Science at UCL, a course that draws surprisingly on her love of English language and literature. Outside her studies, she writes video essay scripts and English lyrics for songs in other languages. She loves all flavours of dark fiction, with favourites including Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews and 1984 by George Orwell.
Clare Roberts
Trustee
Long-time Eastbourne resident and former English teacher, Clare brings event planning and management experience to the board, as well as a passion to promote a love of reading. A fan of writing, comedy and open-air theatre, she enjoys twisty thrillers, non-fiction and YA books, as well as children’s books with her two “little but fierce” daughters.
Jono Rollings
Festival Analyst
Jono is training to be a maths teacher. He reads anything and everything, from the complete history of Iraq, to James Clavell’s entire Shogun series. He’s also an ultimate frisbee addict and is slowly collecting a Le Creuset set.
Ellen Stickland
Admin Assistant
Ellen is a self-confessed Shakespeare nerd with an MA in Shakespeare Studies from King’s College London and The Globe Theatre. The first book she fell in love with was The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis and her current favourite book is In Memoriam by Alice Winn.
Jayne Thwaites
Admin Assistant
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Oakley Doodle
Eastbourne LitFest Bear
Oakley is certainly the furriest member of the team and helps out at our children’s events. He was named by local resident Bethany in our Name The Bear Competition. He is delighted to be part of the team and looks forward to meeting you.
