Memories of this summer’s Felixstowe Book Festival may still be fresh, but work has already started on next year’s event. New festival committee member Louise Millar takes us behind the scenes of what happens next for 2025.
This year I joined the steering committee of the Felixstowe Book Festival – and what an eye-opener it’s been to see what is involved in the planning of next year’s event. Over the years, I’ve attended as a novelist, a panel chair, a ticketholder and a volunteer.
The festival has long been one of my personal favourites for two reasons. First, the friendly atmosphere and the varied programme, set in the Edwardian splendour of Harvest House, with tea and cake and a bookshop on tap, and just a few minutes’ walk from the beach. Second, while the festival might be a prestigious listing in the UK literary events calendar, its deep roots in the local community give it a relaxed, welcoming feel. And, as I found, that extends to committee meetings, held at Founder and Director Meg Reid’s home close to the sea (if you get lost, look for the pile of book packages from publishers on the doorstep) among Meg’s hundreds of books, with accompanying tea and cat.
Yet when it comes to festival work, there is no slouching. After a well-deserved summer off to recuperate, the committee is already hard at work for 2025. Meg explains that at this time of year, her email inbox is now full of new title catalogues from book publishers, listing authors who are available for book events from January to June 2025. ‘Individual authors are emailing me details of their books, too,’ she says. Meg reads the new titles she thinks the festival audience might enjoy, seeking a mix of non-fiction, biography, fiction and poetry, then starts to invite the authors to attend in 2025. She is thrilled to reveal that best-selling novelist Barbara Erskine has already agreed to attend,
and will be interviewed by fellow author Mandy Morton.
‘It’s especially exciting to welcome Barbara back,’ Meg says, ‘as she was one of our very first guest speakers when we began the festival back in 2013.”
Meg is hoping that by 31 December that she ‘will have answers to most of my invitations, and be able to meet the print deadline for our festival bookmarks which we will distribute in February.’ As we wait for more speaker news, the planning goes on. The festival relies heavily on its brilliant volunteers, and supporting Meg on the committee is Kerry Addison, a solicitor by day, who looks after the festival’s sponsors, the loyal supporters who have again committed to sponsoring this popular event for 2025. ‘With out their sponsorship the Felixstowe Book Festival wouldn’t be able to carry on,’ she says. As part of that work, this year Kerry had the excellent idea to launch a new LinkedIn page. “I’m pleased to say that we already have 29 followers,’ she says. ‘If you’d like to support the
festival, we are always looking for more sponsors so please follow our new LinkedIn page and get in touch to find out more. We are looking forward to highlighting the sponsors and
the brilliant work they do in the community.’ Meanwhile, journalist Stephanie Mackentyre, who promotes stories about the festival in local press, reveals she is already getting the ‘publicity feels’, now the author invitations have gone out. ‘I’m excited firstly as a booklover to meet and photograph some of my favourite authors,’ Steph says, ‘and then lucky enough to be there over the festival weekend, taking inspiration from hearing about their work, writing about their attendance and letting our loyal band of supporters know about it too.’ As for me, the newest member of the committee, I’ll be looking after the festival’s blog over the next eight months, updating progress on our line-up, and inviting next year’s authors, as they’re announced, to tell us about the new books they’ll be discussing at the event, and to share insights into their writing lives. As for us, next month, Meg, Kerry, Stephanie and I will be sharing the childhood books thatinspired our own love of reading. Maybe you’ll share some of your own with us?
The Felixstowe Book Festival weekend is 27-29 June 2025 with accompanying weekday events to be announced.