This is a very exciting venture in which I have become involved over the last year. A good friend of mine Meg Reid, who is a Life Coach and a woman of huge capability decided, after moving to Felixstowe about eighteen months ago, that delightful though the town was it lacked something. A Book Festival. So she decided to organise one. And she did and here we are.
Meg used to run a theatre company so she is no slouch when it comes to applying for grants, organising events, publicity, printers etc and so I am not surprised at her dynamism but am taking the opporunity on this blog and in this post to express my admiration for all her hard work. And because of this hard work, I would like this inaugural Festival to be a success, not only for the town of Felixstowe, but because Meg deserves it to be one.
So here I go. We have a marvellous line up of authors including Rosy Thornton, Linda Gillard (who will be giving a talk about how she became the Queen of the Kindle), Adela Geras talking about her life as a writer, a trio of lady detective writers, including Sophie Hannah and Ruth Dugdale talking about women thriller writers (this talk is called Deadlier than the Male which is very appropriate), Guy Fraser-Sampson talking about his two Mapp and Lucia books and EF Benson and so much more. There are events for children and a writing competition. Here is the link to the website so do nip over and have a look and come along and see us and have fun.Click here for link to ticket booking
And of course, I should mention that I will be giving a chat about blogging. It is my very first venture into Book Festivaldom and I am already getting butterflies in my tummy and waking up in the middle of the night thinking What shall I say? and What if Nobody Turns up? and Oh My God I Must be Mad. And these worries are soothed by the comforting thought that I had the brilliant idea of asking Simon of Stuck in a Book if he would do a joint presentation with me as I knew if Dear Simon was there I would be less nervous, we could support each other and calm each other's nerves. Of course he might not have any...
Bless him, yes he said so we will both be there on Saturday afternoon and looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible.
I cannot end this post about the Festival without saying thank you to all of those taking part who have been overwhelmingly supportive. All the authors, as one, have all agreed to attend even when we could not guarantee them any expenses or payment at all and said they would come anyway. I cannot thank them enough and the only and the best way I can think of doing so is to try and make sure we have a good turnout and that they know how much we enjoy their presence at this inaugural festival.
Thank you all -you are wonderful
