Hello booklovers,

We do hope you enjoyed tour latest FbF book club meeting. We are delighted to report that the next session will take place at 7.30pm on the 13th of October, with a book choice of ‘A Thousand Ships’ by Natalie Haynes. Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, ‘A Thousand Ships’ brings a fascinating retelling of the Trojan War.

‘This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of all of them.

In the middle of the night, Creusa wakes to find her beloved Troy engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of brutal conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over, and the Greeks are victorious. Over the next few hours, the only life she has ever known will turn to ash..

The devastating consequences of the fall of Troy stretch from Mount Olympus to Mount Ida, from the citadel of Troy to the distant Greek islands, and across oceans and sky in between. These are the stories of the women embroiled in that legendary war and its terrible aftermath, as well as the feud and the fatal decisions that started it all. . .

Powerfully told from an all-female perspective, A Thousand Ships gives voices to the women, girls and goddesses who, for so long, have been silent.’

As well as being a writer, Natalie is also a comedian and a broadcaster – her show ‘Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics’ is well worth a listen. You can find it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b077x8pc

A Zoom invite will be sent out closer to the time – see you all there!

Bookish best,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team

Hello booklovers,

Bookish best,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team

Hello booklovers,

Once upon a time, we lived through lockdown. Bleak news filled our lives globally and personally; shops and establishments closed their doors and plans were cancelled; we were denied seeing our family and our friends. In the face of blank calendars and scribbled-out diaries, there was very little to look forward to… until a variety of innovative people decided to take matters into their own hands.

Up and down the UK, museums, galleries and festivals moved their work online for all to view, including our very own Felixstowe Book Festival.

As our festival director Meg worked hard to figure out this brave new world of cultural events, many questions filled our heads…

“Would it work?”

“Will anyone watch?”

“Would it still be interesting?”

“Will people still enjoy it?”

The answer to all of our ponderings seems to be… a resounding yes! This weekend we held virtual host to a wonderful line up of authors and speakers.

We went live through entertaining interviews with Paul French, Liz Trenow, Nick Cottam, Carol Drinkwater, George Alagiah and Harriet Tyce. A fascinating evening was spent with Brontë expert Nick Holland on Friday evening and we heard Martin Bell’s musings on his life and career on Saturday evening. The weekend was peppered with video insights into the days in the lockdown lives of some of our favourite authors. Our younger festival fans enjoyed story readings and drawalongs to keep them busy. All in all, our packed programme provided some much needed literary sustenance to you all during one of the strangest and most stressful years of our lives.

We are delighted with the supportive response we have received from you all, dear festival fans, and are quite overwhelmed to see that we have managed to raise over £1000 thanks to your kind donations, which you can check out through our fundraising page. We thank you from the bottom of our bookish hearts – we couldn’t do this without you.

So, that is it for 2020! We did not start the new decade expecting our festival weekend to turn out quite as it did, but we are so glad you enjoyed it in its virtual form. As a final cherry on the cake, all our festival videos are still available to watch on our website and on our Facebook page.

Without further ado, here’s to 2021!

Take care everyone.

Bookish best,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team x

 

Hello booklovers,

Today’s the day! Our festival is finally here and we are all very excited here at the virtual festival HQ. We hope you are too.

As you know, our festival this year is entirely online.

We have a whole host of Live Interviews, pre-recorded author Q&As, plus video insights into the day in the life of an author in lockdown. What more could you wish for? And for our younger festival fans we have drawalongs and a story reading, such fun!

Don’t forget to take a look at our guide to viewing our Live events here: https://felixstowebookfestival.co.uk/how-to-view-our-fbf-live-stream-videos. 

For anyone not using Facebook, head to the Online section of our website over the weekend where you will be able to view the festival. You can find this here: https://felixstowebookfestival.co.uk/online

If you feel like having a good read, have you had a look at our latest blog series, the Castaway Library?

Imagine if you were stranded on a desert island, with nothing but three books to keep you entertained. Which books would you pick?

We posed this very question to several authors who would have, under normal circumstances, been guests at our original 2020 festival, and recieved some totally fascinating responses. Look out for the castaway libraries of Edward Parnell, Kit Yates and Louise Millar.

You can find them here:

We are so grateful to all the support we have been receiving from both our supporters and our sponsors. This week we took to our blog to thank Kingsfleet Wealth, David Button Independent Funeral Directors, Coes Felixstowe, Jackamans Solicitors and Poor Richards Books for their support and sponsorship of our Live interview events this year. You can find out more information about each sponsor through our other blog posts.

Everything kicks off tonight with our book club meeting hosted on Zoom by Liz Rastrick and Ruth Dugdall – we hope to see you there! You can find all information about this wonderful celebration here:  https://felixstowebookfestival.co.uk/events/felixstowe-book-festival-book-group-happy-birthday-anne-bronte

Here is a reminder of our full programme!

Thank you for all your support over the past few weeks, we do hope you enjoy our online festival!

Bookish best,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team x

Hello booklovers,

Our festival is extremely lucky to recieve a great deal of support from local businesses and we are so grateful for their sponsorship. Today we are saying a big thank you to David Button Independent Funeral Directors.

David Button Independent Funeral Directors is a small, family run business with a friendly, relaxed and calming atmosphere. David Button’s premises is conveniently located in Walton on the outskirts of Felixstowe, on a main bus route and with free on street parking. You can get in touch via phone (Tel: 01394 200793) or through their website Www.davidbuttonfuneraldirectors.co.uk.

David Button is very kindly sponsoring our live stream interview with Paul French.

A great big bookish thank you,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team

Hello booklovers,

We would like to round off our celebration of our sponsors by saying a huge thank you to yet another independent local business showing us their support: Poor Richard’s Books.

Poor Richard’s Books is an independent book shop located in Felixstowe town centre specialising in second-hand and antiquarian books. 70,000 books on two floors include local interest titles on Felixstowe and East Anglia plus children’s illustrated, crafts and pastimes, transport and paperback fiction. You can get in touch on the phone (Tel: 01394 283138) or via the Poor Richard’s Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Bookstore/Poor-Richards-Books-248406908840401/.

Poor Richard’s Books is kindly sponsoring our live-stream interview with Liz Trenow.

A great big bookish thank you,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team

Hello booklovers,

Over the past few days a collection of authors have taken isolation to the next level and imagined themselves alone on a desert island with only three books for company. Together they assembled a magnificent castaway library.

Here are the books to be found on our literary desert island (author surname first, in true library style…)

The selfish gene by Richard Dawkins

Dark Pines by Will Dean

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

Oceanic Birds of the World: A Photo Guide by Steve Howell and Kirk Zufelt

Curious Warnings: The Great Ghost Stories of M. R. James

The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Motherwell by Deborah Orr

Galápagos by Kurt Vonnegut

Certainly a selection enough to keep one stimulated and well read when stuck alone on a desert island! With grateful thanks to our contributors, Edward Parnell, Kit Yates and Louise Millar.

The next question is… which three books would you class as essential reading for life alone on a desert island? We would love to know!

Bookish best,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team x

You can find our full castaway library interviews here:

Hello booklovers,

We are extremely lucky to have some wonderful local businesses supporting our festival. One such business is Coes Felixstowe.

Coes Felixstowe is a well established independent family run business offering a range of contemporary and classic menswear, footwear and womenswear.  Quality service, advice and expertise guarantee an enjoyable shopping experience. You can get in touch with the Felixstowe story via phone (Tel: 01394 282414) or email felixstowe@coes.co.uk, or head over to the Coes website here: https://www.coes.co.uk/.

Coes Felixstowe are kindly sponsoring our live stream interview with Carol Drinkwater.

A great big bookish thank you,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team