As we start preparations for this year’s 2026 festival, Louise Millar asks three festival regulars how our exciting local event has changed their lives

Stephen Amer sound engineer

‘The Felixstowe Book Festival means a great deal to me, both professionally and personally.

‘My role at the festival is to provide sound for the Palm Room events and, more recently, also the conservatory. Along with a team of two other technicians, we make sure that authors and audiences can hear each other clearly and comfortably.

‘On the surface that might sound straightforward, but the Palm Room, whilst a stunning, historic room in the Grade II listed Harvest House, has glass-domed ceiling, marble floors and not a single scrap of fabric, curtain or carpet! A sound technician’s nightmare. In the run up to the festival and over the course of a busy weekend it involves a lot of preparation, adaptability and calm problem-solving.

‘During the festival I’m responsible for setting up and running microphones, managing levels, and responding quickly to the different needs of each event. Every author is different: some project naturally, others speak more quietly; some love a handheld mic, others forget it’s there altogether.

‘We do our best to try quietly to make things work for most people (of differing hearing abilities) so that conversations can flow and the audience can stay engaged without noticing too much that there is a technical side happening.

‘Being part of the Felixstowe Book Festival feels special because it’s more than just another job. Meg (Reid, director) and the team curate a line-up and create an atmosphere that’s welcoming, well-organised and genuinely appreciative of everyone’s contribution. Over the years, that sense of being part of a trusted team has grown, as has my connection to the festival itself. I’ve enjoyed the professional challenge of working in spaces like Harvest House, but also the community feel of the festival – seeing familiar faces return each year, and watching audiences respond so warmly to such a wide range of speakers.

‘My highlights have included working with some high-profile authors such as Sir Terry Waite, Stephen McGann – who was extremely charismatic and very funny – and Carol Drinkwater. Equally memorable, though perhaps less well known to some, was Dame Stella Rimington, who offered fascinating insights into the intricacies of life as both the head of MI5 and the first woman to hold that role. Robin Ince was a joy to experience as a speaker: funny, compassionate and hugely engaging, while Jenny Boyd shared wonderful and revealing glimpses into the hidden world behind her experiences with some of the world’s biggest rock stars.’

June Stockdale, festival volunteer

‘As soon as I saw the festival was coming to Felixstowe [in 2013] I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I wanted to be part of it. I didn’t know what was involved but I saw Meg at an author talk in the library, we connected, and becoming a volunteer went from there.

‘The first festival, in the Orwell Hotel, was a little bit chaotic. People didn’t know what to expect. When I turned up the first day, somebody had changed the rota at the last minute, and said they didn’t need me. Then they saw my face! And gave me a job!

‘As volunteers, we do all sorts – take tickets on the door, assist audience members finding rooms, and fetch water for authors. I’ve met some amazing volunteers over the years. Because you share a love of books, you have a common purpose. You say, ‘Have you read that one?’ and start talking.

‘Having the festival here in Felixstowe, has meant so much to me because I’ve been a book lover my whole life. I’m an only child, and when I was young, books were my brothers and sisters.

‘I started with comics. My mum used to do a bit of cleaning, and I’d go with her. On the way home, she’d stop at the newsagent to buy me a comic, and when we got home, she’d make a drink, and she’d read it to me.

‘At school, I progressed to Enid Blyton. I’d go off somewhere in my head. I was part of the Famous Five gang!

‘As an adult, I like to try most kinds of books. I always have five or six on the go. I have them in every room and in my bag on the bus. When I have a bath, I read, but I have to make sure it’s one of my own, in case it goes in!

‘The excitement for me of volunteering at the festival has always been seeing authors in the flesh, often my favourite writers, and hearing them read. It sounds silly but you put them on a pedestal, but most are so lovely and talk to everybody.

‘One of my favourite memories is being on the door of Guy Fraser-Samson’s talk on his book about cricket. When I saw it on rota, I thought, “Oh great”. I knew nothing about cricket, and only six people attended. But my goodness, what an incredible talk it was. The amount of facts and figures – and no notes! He was so eloquent, I was absolutely hooked.

‘I’ve had many happy years volunteering at the festival, but my favourite thing of all is when you get there early, to set up, and they’re opening the boxes of brand new books at the book stall. The smell! I just was to touch them all!’

Barbara Lamberton, attends the festival annually with her husband Alan.

‘The festival is one of the highlights of our year. Beforehand my husband and I examine the brochure and decide which talks to book. He likes non-fiction books whereas I like mostly fiction and, in particular, crime fiction.

‘We normally book between nine to 11 talks. Sometimes we both go to a talk together but usually we are separate.

‘There is always a feeling of anticipation and appreciation of the wonderful venue. We meet old friends and new people, and we immerse ourselves in the magic of the written word. It is so interesting to hear authors speak about their work, and read from their books, and answer our questions.

‘It would be hard to pick our particular highlights, because there are so many. The very first festival was opened by Martin Newell & The Hosepipe Band, and he remains a favourite of ours. We have several of his books of poetry as well as CDs of ‘Black Shuck’ and ‘The Green Children of Woolpit’.

‘I also love Nicci French. I recently read ‘The Last Days of Kira Mullan’, their latest book, in three days, I could not put it down! It is always wonderful to hear Nicola Upson and Mandy Morton – Tea at 3 is such a highlight. Mandy is a superb reader.

‘Ruth Dugdall is another author I met at the festival and I have really enjoyed her books: plus Salley Vickers, JoJo Moyes, Louise Doughty, Mark Billingham, Harriet Tyce, Louis de Bernières… who could choose?

‘Next year I do hope we shall see Martin Newell again, but I am always thrilled to find new authors, fiction and non-fiction, because I read quicker than one author can write! I would love to hear more poetry too.

‘Whatever happens we will continue to support our wonderful book festival.’

Tickets for this year’s festival will go on sale from Wednesday 1st April – to be first in the know when it comes to visiting authors for this year’s Festival go to our website  and sign up for our newsletter

The sun is out, excitement is mounting, and nerves increasing, as, after nine months of work, the Felixstowe Book Festival committee prepares to launch our 2025 festival, with the support of our fabulous team of volunteers. Publicist Stephanie Mackentyre, sponsor manager Kerry Addison and festival director Meg Reid tell blog editor Louise Millar about the last few finishing touches they’re making

Steph: ‘This week I’ve just written a piece about the history of the Felixstowe Book Festival for the Felixstowe Historical Society. I’ve also been arranging special press passes for those attending to take pictures and film on the first day of the festival. We have one lucky winner from the competition we ran a couple of months back in Suffolk Norfolk Life magazine.

‘Yesterday I visited Harvest House, which is the main hub of the celebration of ‘books by the sea’, to take a video to show this year’s new visitors what they have to look forward to. The video has been posted onto Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn – just search for Felixstowe Book Festival to take a look for yourself.

‘Finally, today, I will be on air with Suffolk Sound radio. From 12 noon through to 2pm, it’s a Felixstowe Book Festival special programme featuring authors Kate Weinburg, and her book There’s Nothing Wrong With Her, and Steve Favell, who will be asking Are You a Creative NUT? Ian Collins will be chatting about the special friendship he had with Ronald Blythe (Akenfield) and Festival Director Meg Reid will be giving us the low down on which events still have availability and how you can get hold of the last few tickets.’

Kerry Addison, who successfully launched our LinkedIn page this year, has also been continuing her sterling work for the festival right up to the last minute, placing festival banners around Felixstowe, liaising with our sponsors and posting the festival programme on Linkendin.

The final word for this year’s blog goes to our wonderful festival director Meg Reid.

‘I would like to send a huge thanks to the authors braving train delays and the Orwell Bridge repairs to reach us this weekend.

‘I’m looking forward to seeing our audience “regulars ” again and wishing a warm welcome to people making their first visit to the festival.

‘We are lucky to have the most wonderful team of volunteers who make everything run so smoothly every year.

‘Thanks also to Harvest House for all their help and for sharing their incredible building for the weekend, and to Felixstowe Library for their support during the year.’

Will a diminishing inter-dependence between countries lead to new security and peace – or does isolationism create new dangers? Economics expert Ben Chu, formerly of BBC’s Newsnight and The Independent, brings that discussion, and his fascinating new book ‘Exile Economics’, to this year’s festival. Here, he gives us an exclusive extract

The election of Donald Trump in 2024 on a platform of massive protectionism and rampant economic nationalism is the most profound challenge to the post-1945 global economic order imaginable. The direct economic effects of a new fortress of American trade barriers would be deeply damaging for the US and the world. But the indirect effects – the likelihood of tariff retaliation by other states in Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa – would greatly compound that damage. And the negative impact of the linchpin of the post-Second World War trade system disintegrating is hard to fathom. At the time of writing, in the immediate wake of Trump’s re-election, it is impossible to know for sure where his second presidency will lead and just how deep it will plunge into exile economics. But there is no reason to believe that he will not attempt to pick up where he left off in his first term and deliver what he promised on the 2024 campaign trail. And there is surely no reason to think that the prescient warning of [a] legion of experts to President Herbert Hoover in 1930 that ‘a tariff war does not furnish good soil for the growth of world peace’ is any less relevant in 2025.

In the wake of the Second World War the great St Lucian economist Sir Arthur Lewis looked back on the confusion and policy failure of the 1920s and 1930s and came to a stark conclusion: ‘Without international cooperation we are lost . . . Nations cannot prosper in isolation.’ He went on: ‘Each generation looks contemptuously on the failures of its predecessors; it is for ours to show that it can learn also from their mistakes.’ It is a challenge for our generation too. The fundamental question that we all should be asking –and we all have a stake in the outcome – is: what really maximises the chances of us achieving long-term security and prosperity. Is it a groping for self-sufficiency or rather an embrace of interdependence?

Ben Chu discusses ‘Exile Economics’ at 3pm on 29^th June

 

 

Author Nicola Upson tells Stephanie Mackentyre about her writing set-up – and the precious object on her desk that belonged to PD James

 

‘I’m lucky, in that I split my time between Cambridge and Cornwall, so I have two really lovely backdrops to write against.

‘In Cornwall, it’s the sound of the sea and a desk where I can see the sea. 

‘In Cambridge, it’s much more like a study atmosphere, in a room where I’m surrounded by books.

‘I’m quite ritualistic about my writing. The things I have around me are important.

‘I write on a very old Dell laptop called Leonard who I’ve written all my books on! I’m incredibly superstitious about him. A serious of longhair tabby cats have made themselves at home on Leonard’s keyboards. The only time I let it out of my sight, to have it cleaned, we had enough tabby fur to stuff a cushion with!

‘Usually I work to music, so there’s always a pile of CDs near the desk – anything from Kate Bush and Stevie Nicks to Renaissance and medieval choral music.

‘I like to have things about me that mean something. When Phyllis [Nicola’s friend PD James] died, she very kindly left a letter to say that some of her friends should come and choose something to remember her by, so I have on my desk the most un-Phyllis like thing you could imagine, which is a mug in the shape of a rabbit’s face, stamped Made In Portugal. It was on her desk for years when she was writing, and it’s now on mine so that is a very, very important thing.

‘And I also like to have something around me that reminds me of the book I’m writing, so at the moment I’m writing a Josephine [Tey] novel that’s set in North Wales, and it’s to do with the slate mine, so I’ve got a piece of Welsh slate on my desk.

‘But I’ve just finished a book which comes out in September which is actually about the real-life couple who invented Cluedo, the game we all love, and it’s a Christmas mystery. So I had the little bits, the weapons from Cluedo, on my desk around me, and the brochure of the original hotel, Tudor Close, where the game was set – so, things that will get me in the mood, and back in the time and the place that I’m writing about.’

Nicola Upson will be discussing PD James with Mandy Morton at 4pm on 28 June

 

Author Nicola Upson writes her novels against the two ‘really lovely backdrops’ of Cornwall and Cambridge

Monica Feria-Tinta is the English Bar response to David Attenborough. He broadcasts about the natural world, she is saving it case by case. Monica tells us what inspired her to write A Barrister For The Earth, which is featured at this year’s festival

‘I’ve been a barrister at the Bar of England & Wales since 2014. My specialism is Public International Law which includes international environmental law, human rights, treaty law, and law of the sea.

‘In 2020 I found myself working on a case concerning an open pit coal mine. It was a case that marked me because of its uncanny features. Rivers were diverted from their normal course to mine coal, coal that was shipped to Europe. I had never seen such a level of pollution and environmental degradation before, despite my many years of practice.

‘Fossil fuel companies were playing God, changing the topography, the ecology of the land in the name of greed. I saw the land devastated, polluted: an eye-sore; an open wound.  The indigenous peoples living 100 metres away from a pit were showing signs of DNA damage because of exposure to heavy metals from the mine. This was all documented. I felt indignation and wanted to share what I had learned through my work as a barrister in 10 cases taking up the cause of nature. Because I learned that human beings are part of nature and nature also has dignity. I no longer separated in my mind the cause of humans from the cause of the beyond-the-human: rivers, forests, fauna.

‘For this book I have chosen 10 stories which reveal the state of our natural world, its battles but also the tools we have to save it. Stories that show the power of the law to bring about changes.  The magic of different corners of the world. The capacity to think differently about our place in the world.

‘I wanted to show the average person that it matters what you do. Your choices. Your way to relate to nature. To the West nature is a commodity. But I have been taught otherwise by my clients, indigenous peoples (and by my ancestors). We all have power.

‘I wanted to share with the average person the beauty of cultures that show kinship with mountains, glaciers, the sea, rivers, forests. I wanted to show you that a different world is possible. That the legal frameworks making such a world possible already exist and should expand more. An ecocentric law that protects the true meaning of the right to life.

‘In 2021 I found myself acting in a case concerning a cloud forest near the Equator line. It was a forest that was going to be wiped out by gold mining. In it, there were species that you could not find anywhere else in the world. A legal battle ensued and I appeared before the Constitutional Court of Ecuador to argue the case of Nature, to save species to be found in the forest, from extinction. The forest won.

‘In 2016 I started to argue that the climate could have a day in international courts. Indeed, in human rights and law of the sea tribunals. I pioneered these legal ideas. I advised States to bring about Advisory Opinion requests on climate change, starting a revolution in the use of international courts of limited jurisdiction. In 2024 the International tribunal for the law of the sea agreed with the position I had advanced since 2016: that GHG emissions amount to pollution and that States had obligations to protect the marine environment understood as living organisms. This marked a major turning point for international law. As it did winning the fight of first nations in the Torres Strait Islanders case – the first international case that made a sovereign state responsible for lack of action for climate change.

‘Elated I decided to write about these crucial battles that were being fought for the planet and for all humanity. I wanted you to know that it is possible to save the last bits of wilderness left in our planet. That the law has the tools for that. That a shift of consciousness is possible.

‘I tell in my book all these stories. It is not a contemplative book although it prompts profound reflections I share with you. Above all, it is fundamentally a book that shows you transformations, through action for the natural world. I hope it will inspire you. The book whispers to the ear: “Nature has inherent rights. All species are an epic”.’

Monica will be discussing A Barrister For The Earth at 4pm on 28 June in Harvest House Conservatory

With just two months to go, our committee is gearing up to launch our new schedule of author events in June. Here, they tell us about the final stages of organising our book festival – and, in particular, why gathering authors’ mobile numbers is so important!

 

 

 

 

 

Meg Reid, festival chair

‘At this stage of the festival, I’m eagerly scanning ticket sales reports to see how well we are doing. And I can reveal that tickets are selling even faster than last year! So far, we’ve sold half in the first two weeks ‘I’m also taking festival brochures with me wherever I go – even on my Mother’s Day breakfast outing – in case there is an opportunity to leave some for people to pick up. ‘There are lots of practical activities to manage at this time of the festival year. I am arranging for the chairs, platforms, and sound equipment I’ve ordered to be delivered on our “get-in” day to Harvester House on 27 June. I’m also keeping our bookseller informed about ticket sales so they know how many books to stock. ‘We promote the festival right up till the last moment, so I’m regularly liaising with our publicity team about press releases, articles and the blog. I’ve done one radio interview so far this year and, as usual, thought I had messed up! ‘As we head into May, I’ll start contacting our speakers and interviewers to give them more information about Felixstowe, if they haven’t been here before, and details of how to claim their appearance fees. ‘A priority will be to collect their mobile phone numbers. We have occasionally “lost” speakers: one who arrived but went off to have a swim; one who mistook the time; and another who mistook the day!’

Stephanie Mackentyre, publicist

‘It’s been so nice to see the local press and radio have been hugely supportive of the Felixstowe Book Festival once again, which makes writing the articles about the forthcoming events and our Patrons all so worthwhile.

‘We’ve recently had a meeting (pictured) which involved the wider group of volunteers who all help to make the festival run like clockwork. As a thank you, we enjoyed some donated wine and chocolates to make the evening go with a swing!

‘However serious business was also discussed including an update on where we are at with current publicity. Although the festival is now only weeks away, there are still plenty of authors to write about, and interviews with visiting authors to conduct, and post online.Then, as the articles appear and the interviews are played, it’s about catching all of those and recording them for the committee to view once the festival is over. That way we can continually review our marketing strategies to see if we are reaching as many book-lovers as possible each year.

‘At the festival itself I’ll be armed with a camera to capture shots of the entertainment as it unfolds each day to share and to keep for next year’s publicity. So not quite time to get out the laurels and rest upon them, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel – if I stand on a pile of books and scan the horizon that is!’

Louise Millar, blog editor

‘One of my favourite blog-slots this year has been our Where I Write series, which gives a fascinating insight into how authors work. I loved best-selling author Tracy Chevalier’s admission that she ignores her lovely writing room, and works on a corner of the sofa instead! We have four more of those blogs coming up, expertly captured on video by our publicist Steph during her interviews with writers for articles. I’ll be writing those up into copy and adding photos.

‘This week, I’ve also been commissioning blog posts from two non-fiction guests via theirpublicists. I feel that one advantage of the festival blog is how it allows us to dip into a wide range of upcoming events in advance, as we decide which events to book. Lucky for us all, our chair Meg has an excellent knack of spotting newsworthy trends months in advance, and these two books could not be more topical right now, with both authors recently appearing in the national news as expert commentators.

‘Watch this space to see who they are!’

Kerry Addison, sponsor co-ordinator

‘Recently, I have been working with our festival sponsors, checking their logo and company information is correct for our website and programme, and keeping them informed about our fantastic line-up.
‘We recently joined LinkedIn which is a good way of keeping in touch with our sponsors and supporters.  We can let others in the business community know who our loyal supporters and sponsors are, and in time we hope it will be a way of attracting more sponsorship to build on our work at the festival. We have a small but growing band of followers. If you use Linkedin, please do search for us!
‘I have also been posting updates about this year’s authors and events, hopefully reaching a wider audience.’

In the next of our series, this year’s guest Tracy Chevalier tells Steph Mackentyre why she doesn’t write novels in her home study

 

‘I have a little study, a very small room in our house, and it looks out over a very tiny garden. You would think this is where I would write, but actually I hate writing at a desk.

‘I write by hand in a notebook and then I type it into the computer at the end of the day, and so I end up gravitating to the sofa in the living room, curled up in one corner writing.

‘I often feel a bit guilty, like, ‘Tracy, you have a study, you should really be using it’, but the desk is for work work, like paying bills and reading things that I have to edit, and using the computer, whereas writing for me, writing novels, is very much about pen to paper.

‘It takes me longer to write than to type. I think a sentence out slowly, and that seems to fit the time that it takes me to write it out by hand so I really prefer that.’ ‘I can’t really write in cafes the way other writers do. Sometimes I go to the British Library and write, and that’s really good because you’ve got all these people around you, really silent. Everyone’s really focused, like one big community focused on work –and that can be very helpful – but mainly it’s on the sofa in the living room.’

Tracy Chevalier will discuss her new novel, The Glass Maker, with Esther Freud on 28 June at 1pm

Julia Jones’s new book Stars To Steer By celebrates women’s involvement with sailing and the sea in the 20th century. To celebrate International Women’s Day, Julia, a guest at this year’s festival, tells us what inspired her to write about this subject

Through much of the 20th century, recognition for women in sailing was rare. When I took over the book pages at Yachting Monthly magazine, I inherited a popular feature called ‘A Book at Bunk Time’, for which an extract is chosen from any sailing book the editor thinks readers would enjoy. Of the 46 titles previously chosen, only two were by women. I was determined to change that proportion. I leafed through issue after issue of the 20^th century magazine finding almost no articles by women, no letters from women, no reviews of books by women. Did that mean that 20^th century women didn’t go sailing? Weren’t interested in boats? Or couldn’t write?

I didn’t need to wait for Caroline Criado-Perez’s Invisible Women or for Mary Ann Sieghart’s The Authority Gap to know this absence of women was both unfair and untrue.

I was born midway through the 20^th century in 1954 and was taken sailing from carry cot to teenage years. I’ve a sneaking suspicion I might even have been conceived on board… my mother and father had sailed their small yacht to take part in the July 1953 Coronation Review and had remained afloat for much of August.  I was born the following April. There were plenty of other girls and women on the River Deben when I was growing up, but somehow it was men who dominated the sport, owned the yachts, ran the clubs, wrote the books and articles.

The public face of 20^th century British society was male. Men ran the government, the professions, owned most of the national assets. Sailing seemed to take that imbalance to extremes, with women often actively excluded. In 1876, Anna Brassey and her husband Thomas had started their circumnavigation from the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes where he was a member. Women were not admitted as members until 2013, almost 200 years.

Anna wrote a book about their 11-month voyage, which was published in 1878 and became an international bestseller. Had it been published a decade earlier, before the introduction of the Married Women’s Property Act (1870), her earnings would have belonged to her husband. The book’s success was unlikely to have made any material difference to Anna Brassey’s life – the Brasseys were already rich – yet successful authorship brought her deep personal satisfaction, gave her a sense of purpose and ensured that she was acknowledged and remembered, in the sailing world at least.

As society slowly changed, with the achievement of women’s suffrage, with the opening up of education, access to the professions, the concept of equal pay for equal work, changes in women’s control over their own bodies, so sailing changed.

The century ended with public delight at the achievement of Ellen MacArthur, who finished second in the extraordinarily difficult and prestigious Vendée Globe, at the age of 24. Tiny, determined, successful, four years later she broke the speed record for a single-handed, non-stop circumnavigation. And there were so many others.

In Stars To Steer By, I wanted to write about those women in the 20^th century who wanted to take the helm into their own hands, to be in charge of their own adventures. The women who are the ‘stars’ of my book are truly inspirational for their individual tenacity in the face of social opposition, as well as for their courage and skill at sea.

Julia Jones will be discussing Stars To Steer By on June 29^th at 4.30pm. International Women’s Day 2025 is on March 8^th.

Elly Griffiths discusses her new Victorian novel The Frozen People at this year’s festival. Steph Mackentyre asked the best-selling crime author about her work space.

Elly, can you tell us a bit about where you write?

‘Well, I’m talking to you from my writing shed, which is at the top of my garden! I live just outside Brighton. I can see a little bit of the sea from my writers shed. I swim every day. I’ve already swum today. Sometimes in the sea – there’s an open air pool as well. Today I was in the pool, which is colder than the sea, I have to say!

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘So it’s a little writing shed, just room for my desk and my chair, and very importantly a chair for Pip the cat, and bookcases. I try to come up here and do my 1000 words a day. Pip is very good, actually, because he usually comes up to the shed about 9am and sits outside, looking hopeful. He’s kind of like my conscience. He sort of says to me, it’s time to start writing!

‘I am not one of those writers who writes on planes and trains and automobiles, although I know some great writers who do that, or who go to cafes and like a bit of ambient noise. I really like here it in the writing shed, the silence… Apart from the cat. He’s not always very silent!’

Are there any other writers who inspire you, whose books you have around you?

‘I have a lot of friends who are writing at the moment. Crime writing is a really warm community. A lot of us are very close – we share our writing woes and triumphs. I’ve got two very close writing friends, Lesley Thomson and William Shaw [speaker at the 2024 Felixstowe Book Festival], and we often talk, and say where we are with our books.

‘But I have to say, inspiration-wise, particularly for this book, it was Victorian writers. My favourite writer of all time is time is probably Wilkie Collins. So I think about Wilkie Collins, and him writing those amazing books, in long-hand, and writing in serial form so people read them every week, and wanted more. So I think, probably, if I could be half the hard worker Wilkie Collins was, I’d be happy!’

Elly Griffiths will be appearing on Sunday 29 June 2025 at 4.30pm