This is Also a Love Story

Frequently, while listening to an account of something horrific, there will be a moment when I think to myself: this is also a love story.

Irish foreign correspondent Sally Hayden’s debut book, My Fourth Time, We Drowned deservedly won a raft of awards including the Orwell Prize for Political Writing.

In her profoundly affecting second book, This is Also a Love Story, Sally shares some of the many love stories she has collected while reporting from some of the world’s most turbulent places and witnessing human beings in crisis.

Among those we meet are Ukrainian couples, devoted to each other despite the ongoing war that constantly separates them; and survivors of the Rwandan genocide, supported by ‘artificial families’ who took the place of their own lost loved ones.

We’re delighted to welcome Sally to Stroud Book Festival to remind us of the spotlights of love and altruism that illuminate even the darkest of stages.

Chaired by Caroline Sanderson