Cunard's latest list of guest speakers for 2022
By Claire Benktander | 20 Feb 2022
Cunard is continuing its 50-year tradition of providing the finest speaker programme in the industry and has announced its latest roster to join its ships.
Cunard’s enrichment programme offers talks, seminars and discussions by well-known historians, explorers, top diplomats, politicians, scientists and other notable experts. Discover some of the speakers you can expect on their 2022 voyages below.
Kenton Cool
Kenton Cool. Credit: Cunard
Mountaineer and alpinist Kenton Cool will join Cunard on board Queen Elizabeth in Alaska. Cool holds the unique title of being the first person in history to climb the three Everest peaks (dubbed the “Triple Crown”) in one climb, an achievement once thought to be impossible – and has summited Mount Everest fourteen times. He will share this and other remarkable life experiences with guests.
Speaking at: Alaska voyages on board Queen Elizabeth in June & July 2022, Vancouver round-trip.
Ed Balls
Credit: Cunard
Politician, broadcaster and economist, Ed Balls was an MP from 2005 to 2015 and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer between 2011 and 2015. On radio and TV, he is best known for winning the BBC One series Celebrity Best Home Cook, his appearance on the 2016 series of Strictly Come Dancing and his regular broadcasts on BBC’s The One Show, Radio 2 and Radio 4.
His 2016 book Speaking Out: Lessons in Life and Politics was a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller. Ed will join several best-loved authors, poets and historians on this Eastbound Transatlantic Crossing that celebrates the written word, with intimate book signings on offer with several authors. Other speakers on board include Mark Billingham, Simon Winchester and Pam Ayres.
Speaking at: Literature Festival at Sea on board Queen Mary 2 on 3-10 Dec 2022, New York to Southampton.
Bernardine Evaristo MBE
Credit: Cunard
Award-winning author and British writer Bernardine Evaristo was a joint winner of the Booker Prize 2019 with her seventh book, Girl, Woman, Other, making her the first black woman to win the prize in its 51-year history; it was also one of Barack Obama’s ‘Top 19 Book of 2019’.
She received an MBE in 2009 and has founded several successful arts inclusion projects including the Brunel International African Poetry Prize and is also Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London and Vice-Chair of the Royal Society of Literature.
Speaking at: Literature Festival at Sea on board Queen Mary 2 on 3-10 Dec 2022, New York to Southampton.
Richard Osman
Credit: Cunard
Author, producer and presenter Richard Osman is a British television producer and presenter on shows including Pointless and Richard Osman’s House of Games. His first novel Thursday Murder Club is the fastest-selling adult debut novel since JK Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy. Richard will join the other guest speakers on board the Literature Voyage.
Speaking at: Literature Festival at Sea on board Queen Mary 2 on 3-10 Dec 2022, New York to Southampton.
Alexander McCall Smith
Credit: Cunard
Alexander McCall Smith, often referred to as ‘Sandy’, is one of the world’s most prolific and best-loved authors, having received numerous awards for his writing and holds honorary doctorates from universities in Europe and North America.
In 2007 he received a CBE for services to literature and in 2011 was honoured by the President of Botswana for services through literature to the country. In 2015 he received the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction and in 2017, The National Arts Club (of America) Medal of Honor for Achievement in Literature.
Speaking at: Literature Festival at Sea on board Queen Mary 2 on 3-10 Dec 2022, New York to Southampton.
Peter Hillary
Credit: Cunard
Explorer, adventurer and mountain climber Peter Hillary is set to speak in an engaging series of lectures on board Queen Elizabeth, sharing personal insights of his adventures and notable expeditions as the ship sails through the pristine beauty of the Alaskan wilderness on select voyages throughout 2022.
Peter is an adventurer, mountain climber and son of Sir Edmund Hillary, the greatest mountaineer of all time. He completed the Seven Summits of mountain climbing when he climbed Mt Denali in Alaska.
Speaking at: Alaska voyages throughout June & July on Queen Elizabeth. Vancouver to Vancouver or Los Angeles/San Francisco
Alex Clark
Credit: Cunard
Alex Clark is a journalist and broadcaster, often seen in the pages of the Guardian, the Observer and the Times Literary Supplement, and heard on BBC R4 programmes such as Front Row and Open Book.
An experienced chair of live events, she has also worked as an artistic director at the Bath Festival and the Cambridge Literary Festival. The literary awards she has judged include the Man Booker Prize and the Orwell Prize and she will be on board the Literature Festival at Sea.
Speaking at: Literature Festival at Sea on board Queen Mary 2 on 3-10 Dec 2022, New York to Southampton.
Felicity Aston
Credit: Cunard
Felicity is a Polar Scientist turned explorer and in 2012 became the first woman to ski alone across the Antarctic. Felicity has also created and led record-breaking ski expeditions to the North and South Geographic Poles, and has driven to the Pole of Cold (the coldest inhabited place on Earth).
Speaking at: Alaska voyage on board Queen Elizabeth on 11-21 July 2022, Vancouver round-trip.
Rachel Cartwright
Credit: Cunard
Rachel is a naturalist and researcher and holds a PhD in Conservation Biology. She teaches at California State University and is currently focussing on the behavioural ecology of humpback whales, mostly in Hawaii. Her research programs are not only for knowledge purposes, but also create nurseries to protect the whales and enable them to safely raise their young.
Rachel is a former Princess Cruise naturalist, specialising in the Alaskan Inside Passage. Her book, The Alaska Cruise Companion: A Naturalist’s Guide to Alaska’s Inside Passage, is a popular visitor’s guide to the region.
Speaking at: Alaska voyages throughout June & July on Queen Elizabeth. Vancouver to Vancouver or Los Angeles/San Francisco
