RANDOM JOTTINGS

I have had a very busy week or two so apologies for the lack of posts. I am writing this in an attempt to bring a little bit of sanity to what I am watching on the tv. Kyrgios v Nadal.  If this manages to finish without an almighty row I shall be surprised.

Still, that is for another day.

The Felixstowe Book Festival has been going for several years now and gets better every year. I remember the first one which was such a stonking success and it has all grown from there. Now a highly organised event with a slick and efficient operation and this is due to the Director, Meg Reid and a fantastic bunch of volunteers who man the bookstall, steward, help with tickets, looking after authors etc. All simply wonderful.

I was introducing three events and attended three and had a busy time in between taking photos and Tweeting and Facebooking throughout the weekend which was great fun.  

the Festival opened with James Runcie, author of the Grantchester novels, and hw was brilliant. Witty and amusing and also spoke with great feeling about faith and love. An terrific opening.

The highlight for me were meeting Jane Thynne, author of the Clara Vine books which I love. We have been FB friends for a long time and it was delightful to meet her and have a chat. Her talk on the background to her books in pre-war Berlin was excellent.

(Left to right: the Bookshop run by Stillwater Books, Liz Trenow signing her books,Jane Thynne in her Clara Vine talk, second row: Duncan Barratt, Elizabeth Simchin, James Runcie and at the bottom Jane with Simon Heffer)

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She also chaired a talk with Simon Heffer about his book The Age of Decadence covering the late Victorian and Edwardian era. He had words to say about Queen VIctoria with which I strongly disagreed and did say so.

I introduced Duncan Barratt who has written a wonderful book about the Channel Island occupation which I have mentioned before. A sell out chat with a queue waiting for returns. None were forthcoming sadly.

Liz Trenow was a welcome return speaker and I would have loved to have gone to her talk but she clashed with Jane Thynne. I have known Liz for years and had a chat with her and she quite understood thank goodness.

Then later Elizabeth Semchin on a talk about Felixstowe Ferry which I, in my ignorance, thought was a boat. Turns out it is a place and one I have visited so I felt a bit of a dope when I looked it up. Fortunately, I did so before my intro!  Packed event as well.

And then in the afternoon Alison Weir came along to chat about her latest book on the wives of Henry VIII and we are up to Anne of Cleves who I have always found the most interesting of those he married. And unique in that she survived.

Sun shone all weekend, loads of attendees and I had lots of discussions and chats with attendees. It was simply great and I am already looking forward to next year.

So watch this space….