The Winter Cambridge Literary Festival is a highlight of the city’s cultural calendar. Velvet picks five stand-out events from November's stellar programme, which promises insights, reflections, love and laughter

Friday 18 November

Nadiya Hussain Everyday Baking, Cambridge Union, 4pm

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Currently on our television screen hosting her latest series ‘Nadiya’s Everyday Baking’, which shares the title of her new cookery book, Nadiya Hussain is promising stress-free methods to create dishes and bakes good enough to grace any table. Open and honest about her back story – Nadiya has endured panic disorders throughout life which were keenly tested by the experience of taking part in the Great British Bake Off. She writes: “Packed and ready to film my first episode it became a day of many firsts for me. First time in a taxi alone, first time on a train alone, first time on the underground alone, first time without my husband to help, first time without my kids. My anxiety mounted, I perspired through the missed trains, the sweaty pits and the quiet tears. But I got there.” She certainly did – winning the television competition and becoming a television regular and national treasure. Join her to hear more about her story and delightful love of making and baking.

George Monbiot Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet, Cambridge Union, 8pm

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A tireless environmental and political campaigner, George Monbiot will be in conversation with food writer Bee Wilson to share his latest book Regenesis: Feed the World Without Devouring the Planet where he makes the case for a new type of agriculture based on soil ecology – all delivered in his signature perceptive and insightful style. While urban sprawl is regularly criticised, farming sprawls across thirty times as much land. Monbiot highlights that we have ploughed, fenced and grazed great tracts of the planet, felling forests, killing wildlife, and poisoning rivers and oceans to feed ourselves – yet millions still go hungry and the food system itself is beginning to falter. Take a seat and listen to Monbiot explain how we can feed the world without devouring the planet.

Saturday 19 November

Esme Young Behind the Seams, Cambridge Union, 10am

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Known and loved as an eagle-eyed judge – she can spot a wonky seam from the other side of a room – on the popular television series The Great British Sewing Bee, Esme Young discovered sewing as a child and a passion was born. A graduate of Central Saint Martins and boasting a sparkling career as a fashion designer, including collaborating on the hit 1970s label Swanky Modes, Young has also designed for the stars of the silver screen – including Renee Zellweher’s bunny outfit for the film of Bridget Jones’s Diary and Hawaiin shirts for Leonardo DiCaprio and co-stars in Baz Lurhmann's Romeo + Juliet. Learn more about her life and times as captured in her memoir Behind the Seams which she will reflect on in conversation with writer and broadcaster Alex Clark.

Jeffrey Boakye Dismantling Racism in Education, Palmerston Room, 12pm

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Former teacher, author, broadcaster, educator, and journalist Jeffrey Boakye’s latest book, I Heard What You Said, is a call to action over an education system that is failing its black students and students of colour. The book shares many of his 15 years teaching experience in the education system and highlights current failures to offer an enlightening vision for how we can dismantle racism in the classroom. A number of questions are addressed: Why have so many of our young people witnessed racist language in an educational setting? Why are such large numbers of black students excluded for ‘disruptive behaviour’? How it is possible that in 2019 only seven per cent of British children’s books featured a main character who was black or minority ethnic, up from just one per cent in 2017? Join the writer in conversation with journalist Sophie Marie Niang.

Sunday 20 November

Abi Morgan This is Not a Pity Memoir, The Cambridge Union, 2pm

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Celebrated for her BAFTA award-winning writing for stage and screen – her credits include The Split, Suffragette, The Iron Lady and Shame – Abi Morgan has now written her own story, This is Not a Pity Memoir. The book describes finding her partner of nearly 20 years lying on the bathroom floor and his subsequent and sudden devastating illness. Morgan tells the story lovingly with compelling, funny and heart-breaking honesty – Meryl Streep has described it as a gift that is “breath-taking… by turns harrowing, cracking sharp and heart-breaking”. Listen to Morgan telling her tale in conversation with writer and broadcaster Alex Clark.

The Winter Cambridge Literary Festival runs from 17 to 21 November. See full programme and buy tickets at cambridgeliteraryfestival.com