Our festival relies on the energy and enthusiasm of an amazing team of local book-lovers who help with everything from event publicity to putting up banners. Today, we introduce one of our latest recruits – Hayleigh!
Hayleigh, please tell us a bit about yourself!
Well, I’m happiest mid-chapter and can’t stand leaving a bookshop empty-handed! I live in Ipswich with my partner, Mary, and our two rescue cats. I work as a respiratory physiotherapist at Ipswich hospital, where I co-lead a team of therapists across the Critical Care Unit and surgical wards.
How did you become involved in the Felixstowe Book Festival?
My journey started in a local bookshop in 2021, when I bought The IceMaid’s Tail, the eighth book in Mandy Morton’s fantastic No. 2 Feline Detective Agency series. Before the week was out, I had finished the book and bought three more in the series. I was hooked!
I shared my new-found fandom with a friend who recognised Mandy as a regular at the Felixstowe Book Festival so, of course, I bought tickets!
I attended the festival each year thereafter, loving our fantastic festival regulars and exploring other genres and authors. FBF celebrates the connection between readers, authors and stories, and it was great to find a community of people who love disappearing between pages.
Volunteering at the festival in 2026 seemed a natural step in supporting something I loved, and when I was approached by Meg (Reid, festival director) to see if I would like to get involved in publicity and planning for 2027, I absolutely said, ‘Yes!’
What drew you to this role?
I feel lucky to have such a seasoned book festival on my doorstep and it was a great chance to join the hive of busy volunteers, sponsors, supporters and authors who make the festival happen every year. A chance to peak behind the curtain of the festival and roll up my sleeves!
What will you be doing for the festival?
My job is to look after our social media accounts, produce content for the website and write our monthly newsletter. I hope to contribute to press releases and event planning in the New Year, but I am currently easing my way in.
What’s been your first job?
So far, I have announced the festival dates for next year and shared our 2027 logo on social media, and I have written our September newsletter. I am loving it! It is great to be able to share enthusiasm for FBF and I am excited for the spotlight newsletter pieces I have planned in the coming months.
Can volunteers contribute new ideas to the festival?
Absolutely. As a team, we’re currently exploring event ideas for the months between festivals, where people can socialise and enjoy a mutual love of books. We also have some ideas for competitions and literary merchandise for 2027.
Tell us, how do you balance being a physiotherapist and working for the book festival?
The two worlds are very different, but at the heart of both are people and their stories.
Reading invites us into someone else’s world to understand experiences and emotions that may be very different from our own. In many ways, working in healthcare asks much the same of us: to listen, empathise and connect, even when we can never fully know what someone is going through.
I also think reading is a great therapy. If the day has been physically, mentally and emotionally difficult, there is always the solace of a good book before bed.
Favourite author/genre?
I gravitate towards crime fiction, particularly golden age crime. I am reading a Margery Allingham currently and love Edmund Crispin. The Moving Toyshop is my absolute favourite, and I was recently so lucky to find a beautiful folio edition in an independent bookshop.
I also enjoy American literature – Proulx, Steinbeck, Hemingway – particularly works set between wars, when America was socially and economically changing in such a different way to Europe.
Who would be your dream author to programme?
We would need a time machine to programme my absolute dream authors, so I will just have to continue to meet them in their writing! I recently enjoyed reading Jess Kidd’s Nora Breen Investigates series and would love it if she could join us one day!