IN the 80th anniversary year of VE and VJ Day, the Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festival has lined up some highly topical authors for the event, which runs across the weekend of November 14 to 17.

Festival director Ali Pegrum said: “The recent national celebrations of the anniversary of VE Day will have given us all cause to reflect.

“The whole year is, of course, the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, and with that in mind we have invited author and historian Iain MacGregor to Dulverton with his new book ‘The Hiroshima Men’, a unique and ambitious narrative that seeks to explain the decade-long journey toward the first atomic attack in history on the eponymous Japanese city on August 5, 1945.

Joseph Levine will be in conversation with Iain MacGregor at the Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festival in the autumn.
Joseph Levine will be in conversation with Iain MacGregor at the Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festival in the autumn. ( )

“Through his extensive research and fresh interviews with eyewitnesses in the US and Japan, Iain charts the race for nuclear technology before, during, and after the war, as seen through the experiences of four key men.”

The four are:

  • General Leslie Groves, leader of the Manhattan Project
  • Colonel Paul Tibbets II, who would drop the Little Boy atomic bomb from his B-29 bomber Enola Gay
  • War journalist John Hersey, who exposed the devastation the bomb left on the city through an article for The New Yorker magazine
  • Hiroshima’s mayor Senkichi Awaya, who has a quite remarkable story

MacGregor is also the author of the acclaimed history of Cold War Berlin, ‘Checkpoint Charlie’, and the recently published ‘The Lighthouse of Stalingrad: The Hidden Truth Behind WWII’s Greatest Battle’’.

Iain MacGregor, who wrote 'The Hiroshima Men', will be attending this year's Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festival.
Iain MacGregor, who wrote 'The Hiroshima Men', will be attending this year's Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festival. ( )

He will be in conversation with writer, historian, and broadcaster Joshua Levine, whose book ‘Dunkirk: The History Behind the Major Motion Picture’ tells the story of director Christopher Nolan’s Hollywood blockbuster movie.

MacGregor is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and in his career as an editor and publisher he has published books on every aspect of the 20th century working alongside award-winning authors such as Sir Max Hastings and Sir Simon Schama.

Levine has also been the historical advisor for the Steve McQueen film ‘Blitz’ and has written articles for newspapers including the Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, and Daily Mail, and written and presented programmes for radio and television.

He is an international ambassador for the Royal Air Force Museum.

Ms Pegrum thanked everybody who had become ‘friends’ of the festival for 2025, helping the organisers to encourage a love of reading and writing with children across the area through a schools outreach programme and the addition this year of a festival schools day on the Monday.

‘Dunkirk: The History Behind the Major Motion Picture’ author Joseph Levine is attending this year's Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festival.
‘Dunkirk: The History Behind the Major Motion Picture’ author Joseph Levine is attending this year's Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festival. ( )

She said festival friends would benefit from priority online ticket booking to the ‘Hiroshima talk’ and the other author events over the weekend, as well as priority booking to the festival literary lunch with author, columnist, and MasterChef critic William Sitwell being held in Tarr Farm Inn, Tarr Steps, on the Friday (November 14) before the start of the festival.

Anybody who wants to become a festival friend can do so online with a minimum donation of £20.