Thank you for coming!

I have always been proud of the fact that our festival has such a diverse and varied programme, and this year was no exception. Stationed at main festival venue The Orwell Hotel throughout the weekend, whether on the ticket desk or on the door, I was privileged to be able to assist at a number of very different events and hear about the most intriguing mix of subjects – from biography to babies, domestic noir to cat detectives! Through it all I was struck by the level of expertise of our speakers – poets, translators and writers at the top of their game – but also by the way in which our brilliant audiences engaged in the conversation and developed it further. All in all, a most inspiring and fun weekend!  – Rosie (Social Media Team and weekend volunteer)

I was at the Library for most of the weekend for our children’s and teen events and what a treat they were! What made these events so special was their audiences – whilst they may have been aimed at children and teens their appeal was far broader, with dads taking part in comic book masterclasses, grandparents spell-bound by Rebecca Elliott’s stories and whole families cheering on our Roald Dahl characters. I may be a little biased, but these were definitely the most vibrant and fun events on this year’s programme and you missed out if you didn’t catch any of them! – Hannah (Young People’s Programme Coordinator)

Wonderful atmosphere, very positive buzz, responsive audiences, sell out events, happy authors, fabulous tech support, dedicated volunteer teams, generous sponsors, a book stall groaning with irresistible books, helpful hotel staff, delicious cakes- what a special weekend! Our speakers battled 7 hour plane delays, family crisis and flooded train lines to join us from Belgium, Sweden, Poland and all over the UK. Thank you! Thank you also to Laura Thompson and Nicola Upson who delivered a fascinating and very popular last minute event to replace Rose Tremain who had to cancel for family reasons. Personal highlights for me were the audience members who stopped me to say what a good time they were having; seeing people sitting in the cafe area chatting about the events; seeing happy, engrossed children (including two of my grand-daughters) at the library events; hearing our very moving winning short story entries, visiting our very atmospheric Sea Change installation at Landguard Fort. Thank you every one – audience, speakers, helpers. – Meg (Festival Director)

I think we’re safe to say that this was our biggest and best festival yet with lots of packed events and a real buzz at The Orwell Hotel and Felixstowe Library. A HUGE thank you to: all of our speakers (we hope you had fun!); our wonderful Sponsors and Funders; The Orwell Hotel; Felixstowe Library; Stillwater Books; Breeze Event Production; all the shops who took part in the Book Trail and of course our merry band of volunteers. Did you know that the festival is entirely organised and run by volunteers? Meg Reid heads up a team who work throughout the year to put on the festival and we’re always on the lookout for more enthusiastic team members. Find out more here if you’d like to come on board.