Hello booklovers,

Today, March the 5th, marks World Book Day, an annual celebration encouraging the joy that books and reading for pleasure can bring to our youngest readers, a message that feeds into the very heart of the Felixstowe Book Festival.

The benefits of reading for pleasure are innumerable and lifelong. Research suggests that reading regularly and out of choice as a child leads to strong academic capabilities and good mental health and general wellbeing; it also contributes to the emergence of compassionate, emotionally intelligent children, thanks to many journeys from a very young age into the lives and worlds of others.

We were lucky at our 2019 children’s festival to welcome some wonderful authors and many lovely, literary minded people, all committed to encouraging reading for pleasure to our young audience. We doodled with Alex Milway and his friends from the Hotel Flamingo and went back in time to the Second World War with Ally Sherrick, author of The Buried Crown. Hayley Long inspired the young poets of Felixstowe Academy to create their very own anthology of work and Sophie Green invited us into her mysterious world of Potkin and Stubbs (incidentally book 3 of the Potkin and Stubbs trilogy Ghostcatcher will be launched on March 5th!) Ruth Fitzgerald and James Campbell made us howl with laughter and Rapscallion Theatre Company sent us shooting off into Space to mark 50 years since man landed on the moon. We very much look forward to welcoming some equally fantastic authors and speakers to our 2020 festival.

This year, our friends at World Book Day are challenging the nation’s children and young people to, quite simply, share a story for ten minutes on the 5th of March. This could be with a friend, a relative, a teacher, a librarian or just to anyone with a pair of willing ears who happens to be nearby. Stories can be shared at school, on the beach, during a walk in the woods, in the garden, at the library, over dinner, on the way to a swimming lesson, when you’re taking the dog for a walk or whilst you feed the cat – anywhere!

So book lovers, we here at the Felixstowe Book Festival throw down this literary gauntlet and ask you to do the same. A love of books can start at birth and does not have to stop at childhood – we beseech you to head to your local independent book shop or stop off at your local library and choose yourself a new book to enjoy.

 

“So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall.” – Roald Dahl

 

Bookish best,

Imogen and the Festival Team x

Hello booklovers,

Once again we are blown away by your wonderful and enthusiastic support of the Felixstowe Book Festival Cuppa Book Club. We do hope you enjoyed the spooky theme of this week’s session with some literary treats in the form of Haverscroft by S.A. Harris and Ghostland by Edward Parnell. Another round of applause to the lovely Cuppa cafe for their great venue and delicious provisions.

Our next session will be held on April 7th at Cuppa and we will be reading How to be Autistic by Charlotte Amelia Poe. Charlotte’s urgent, entertaining and sometimes shocking book is an enlightening account of what it is like to live with autism, alongside an insightful commentary on gender, mental illness and sexual identity. We look forward to seeing you all again for what will prove to be a fascinating evening.

Bookish best,

Imogen and the Festival Team x

Hello booklovers,

We are steadily edging towards the end of February – I hope you are all surviving the absolute weatherly lashing we have been receiving over the past few weeks. Hopefully some exciting news of some upcoming festival events will stoke you up for better (and brighter!) things to come…

Firstly we are very much looking forward to the next Cuppa Book Club which will be held on Tuesday 3rd of March at the delightful Cuppa Cafe – we are still utterly over the moon at the support we have received from you lovely booklovers and we look forward to seeing you all again next week. This month’s theme is ghost stories and we will be looking at Haverscroft by S.A. Harris and Ghostland by Edward Parnell. Look to our lovely local bookshops, such as Stillwater Books, Poor Richard’s and the Treasure Chest, to get your mitts on some copies soon.

Time to warm up those brains as we are gearing up to host the 2020 Felixstowe Book Festival quizzes. Your are most cordially invited to join us on the 27th of March and the 19th of June at Broadway House, for an evening of quiz fun and a posh ploughman’s supper. Teams are made up of 6 people with a ticket cost of £8 per person. Be there or be square for a 7.30 start! To book your team, call 01394 549567 or email vivienne.aspinall@yahoo.co.uk.

Bookish best,

Imogen and the Festival Team x

 

Hello booklovers,

Wishing you all a very Happy Valentine’s Day! Why not show your love through sharing a good story with loved ones or trying out a tale that you haven’t encountered before?

If you are struggling for inspiration, look no further than the Felixstowe Book Festival blog: we asked you a few weeks ago for stories that you love and you gave us some rather wonderful examples. Read on to find out more…

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

‘Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.’

Whilst I certainly wouldn’t aspire to the disturbing extremes of the passion of Cathy and Heathcliff, their love cultivated on those wild Yorkshire moors is undoubtedly the stuff of romantic legend. A thrilling tale mixing intrigue and gothic overtones is well worth an atmospheric read.  

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien was not noted for interesting depictions of his female characters, however one of our lovely festival fans quite rightly pointed out the ‘understated love’ of one of the novel’s heroes, Aragorn, for the Elvish Lord Elrond’s daughter Arwen. Tolkien’s depiction of love in his adventurous trilogy lies also in the depiction of binding friendships and the importance of home to those who wander far from it.

The Unseen by Katherine Webb

This was suggested to us by one of our fans purely because she found the story ‘gripping, the characters are so interesting and it’s so beautifully written, as are all of Katherine Webb’s books’. What an excellent recommendation!

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks 

‘You are, and always have been, my dream.’

This truly is an ultimate and sumptuous love story, packed with drama and romance, separation and grief, but ultimately fortitude and what it is for a couple to grow old together. Set from the Second World War to many years later, this truly is a novel to be swept away in.

We hope you have enjoyed our little guide to the books that our festival fans love – they just go to show that love can be found in all sorts of different forms. Maybe you have found some inspiration for your next read?

It seems appropriate to conclude our Valentine’s blog post with a quote from one of our best beloved authors, Jane Austen.

‘There is no charm equal to tenderness of the heart.’

Have a good weekend!

All our love,

the Felixstowe Book Festival team x

 

Hello booklovers,

I think it is safe to say that our first ever Cuppa Book Club, which took place last Tuesday, was a barnstorming success. Thanks to you lovely lot we had about 40 booklovers attend, showing a wonderful amount of support for our festival and the cracking Cuppa Cafe! We would like to wish Sarah of Cuppa fame an enormous thank you for providing such a brilliant venue, it truly was a fantastic evening.

Our next session will be on Tuesday 4th February at Cuppa – doors will open at 6.30pm for a 7.15pm start. The February theme will be biography, with particular attention paid to Loves and Lives of the Mountbattens by Andrew Lownie. Hope to see you all there!

Bookish best,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team x

Hello booklovers,

Here we are, steadily crawling through January 2020. It may be a little early for nostalgia for 2019 and the past decade so forgive me for what is to follow! Last week we asked you for your best reads of the past ten years. In a bid to brighten up this dreary January Monday, we have compiled a list of some of your suggestions…

Brightfire by P. M. Sabin Moore, 2010

Brightfire depicts key events that occurred during the rule of Raedwald, the Saxon King of our local historic treasure Sutton Hoo and is a sequel to Storm Frost (2009). Dealing with both historical and religious issues, this is a fascinating fictionalised account of events which shaped Suffolk and the rest of East Anglia.

When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman, 2011

In this novel we follow the life of Elly from childhood to adulthood, with all the pitfalls, joys and tragedies along the way. ‘God’ in fact is the name of Elly’s pet rabbit, given to her by her beloved older brother, who accompanies her through her experiences. A quirky and powerful read.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, 2013

This extraordinary tale details the life of a young woman born in 1910. She is living through a time of world wars, suffrage, a rise in socialism and fascism, revolutionary art, fashion and music. Without wishing to give too much away, our central character Ursula manages to live a life after a life after a life, where her future takes on multiple versions due to individual events and many near misses which change her future forever, many times over.

The Good People by Hannah Kent, 2016

Set in the countryside of Ireland in the 19th century, The Good People is the tale of  three central female characters, grandmother Nora, her friend Mary and local healer Nance. In her novel, Kent depicts the constraints and prejudices dominating society, as well as the fierce bonds of grief and love that tie families and communities together.

Machines like Me by Ian McEwan, 2019

In an alternative 1980s, London is the battleground of Tony Benn and Margaret Thatcher and Alan Turing lives to invent a brand new form of artificial intelligence, a synthetic human. Our central character Charlie, besotted with the unattainable Miranda and newly flushed with funds, decides to purchase a new synthetic human named Adam. Charlie and Miranda design Adam’s personality and cultivate his tastes and interests, until they reach a moral problem which is, despite everything, incredibly human. McEwan drives us to ask what makes us authentically human…

The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human, and How to Tell Them Better by Will Storr, 2019

A truly engrossing read about how throughout the history of humanity we have always depended on stories, from ancient scriptures to children’s picture books, from the first novel to the current trend for boxed sets. Will Storr uses a captivating mix of neuroscience, psychology and historical and contemporary research to show how, with a bit of help from the oldest tools in the business, the art of storytelling is far from dead. Well worth a read for those with good intentions for the new year!

I hope this has provided sufficient literary inspiration booklovers and has showcased the bookish delights that we have been able to enjoy over the past ten years. Who knows what further brilliance the next decade will bring?

Bookish best,

Imogen and the Festival Team x

 

Hello booklovers,

Wishing you all a very happy 2020! We hope here at the Felixstowe Book Festival that you have enjoyed the festive season. Now we enter a new year and a new decade – what better way to start than by joining the CUPPA book club?

We mentioned this a few weeks ago, during the merry craziness of book Advent – read on for a gentle reminder…

We are delighted to present to you, new for 2020, the CUPPA Book Club. Situated in the CUPPA Cafe (located at 81 High Road West), in conjunction with the Felixstowe Book Festival, join us for monthly meetings lead by wonderful local authors Ruth Dugdall and Liz Rastrick.

Our first meeting is on January 7th at 7pm, kicking off with Harriet Tyce’s Blood Orange and Nicola Upson’s Sorry for the Dead. Click here for information about further book club meetings: https://felixstowebookfestival.co.uk/6205/exciting-news-for-2020

There is no charge to attend, but we do encourage you to treat yourselves to a cuppa!

We look forward to seeing you there.

Bookish best,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team x