Good evening booklovers!
A very happy Wednesday to you all! Half way through the week, ceaselessly pushing on towards another bank holiday weekend. What sort of plans do you have? Personally I intend to do a lot of lounging on the beach, book-reading and… perusing the festival poetry events, of course!
“I saw the gooseflesh on my skin. I did not know what made it. I was not cold. Had a ghost passed over? No, it was the poetry.”
So said the ever wonderful Sylvia Plath. To me, she really hits the nail on the head – poetry can produce in us all sensations that we did not realise would be provoked by reading a poem. The wordplay, contrasting poetic forms and startling images created are fascinating. Poetry is proven to fight loneliness and isolation: reading a poem about an event or a feeling that you previously thought you alone had experienced creates a sense of community and kinship. And that is why, here at the Felixstowe Book Festival, we are keen to provide you with some wonderful poetry events to inspire, cheer and soothe.
We are lucky enough this year to be joined by local poets Alexandra Davis and Emily Hasler. The lovely ladies will be hosting their event ‘Coming Home, Making Home: Poetry and Place’, an hour of conversation and poetry discussing notions of home and belonging, and much, much more.
We will also be welcoming poet, novelist and critic Blake Morrison. As a co-editor of The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry, his wisdom as a writer of both poetry and prose will be inspirational to many of our festival guests.
On a high from their immense success opening our 2017 festival, Martin Newell and the Hosepipe Band will be returning to the stage at the Orwell Hotel. Martin will be performing his poetic travelogue ‘The Jigsaw Coast’, mapping a journey from Essex to Norfolk. He will be accompanied by some beautiful Old English music performed by the wonderful Hosepipe Band.
Check out our programme here for more inspiring events!
We’ve made it half way through the week readers, not long ’til the weekend now! Tickets are selling out fast, so get booking while they’re still about.
Bookish best,
Imogen and the Festival Team