Felixstowe Book Festival

Suffolk-based artist Rebecca Pymer reveals the inspiration behind her artwork for this year’s festival

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I designed the book festival artwork with Felixstowe’s identity in mind. Having explored the pier and the promenade in recent years, I decided it would be great to make the port the focus this year.

Felixstowe has an important global connection, with thousands of goods being imported and exported at the docks. The huge container ships can be seen for miles, bringing in their brightly coloured shipping containers to be further distributed. 

I wanted to tie in the docks with the book festival. I imagined having the containers appear as colourful books being offloaded and opened. The idea was to make it feel like a welcoming invite to the festival. Putting flags on some of the spines linked the intentional and global aspect of Felixstowe and the book festival.
My artwork is inspired by all things Art Deco. I love looking at old travel posters, and so much of Felixstowe’s rich culture of tourism is centred on the booming Art Deco era of the 1920s and 30s when coastal towns really had their hey day. Beyond the Art Deco era, Felixstowe has managed to thrive as a place of both industry but also fun and creativity!

Where I write…

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Novelist Rachel Hore describes the benefit of a peaceful mini-writing break away from home
‘We are staying in a rented cottage in North Norfolk this week, where I am polishing my next novel prior to delivering it to my editor.  I value the peace and solitude here to do this.  Reading through the entire script, making little tweaks here and there, requires much concentration.  It’s easy to miss parts where I’ve repeated myself or used the wrong name for a minor character if I’m being constantly interrupted by the business of normal life.  It feels very odd to let go of a book – I am always nervous about letting someone else read it for the first time.  Iris Murdoch once said that a book is a wreck of a perfect idea and I understand what she meant.  I had a vision for it in my head when I started out, but once I began to write it out the characters took over and made the story their own.  This isn’t some supernatural process, it’s simply the way that fiction works – perhaps it is a kind of magic!  Certainly I can’t predict what I’ll dredge up from my subconscious during my writing!  Our week away is nearly over and the novel is almost done.  I wonder what my editor will make of it?’
Rachel Hore will be discussing her new novel The Hidden Years on Saturday 29 June at 10am.

Author Nicola Upson reveals why she believes Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca has the ‘heart and soul’ of a crime novel

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I’ve recently had the thrill of curating Murder by the Book, an exhibition of crime fiction at Cambridge University Library. The Library holds a stunning collection of rare crime novels across the genre, most in their original dust jackets.

Treasures on show include a first edition of The Moonstone displayed alongside Wilkie Collins’s writing desk; scarce early novels by Josephine Tey, Margery Allingham, Colin Dexter and Ruth Rendell; delightful letters between P.D. James and Faber, written before the publication of her first novel, Cover Her Face; and a celebration of Agatha Christie, with first editions of iconic novels and many more personal items, generously loaned by the Christie Archive. This includes notebooks, Christie’s typewriter, her dictaphone and the manuscript of the final Poirot novel, Curtain, locked away in a bank vault for thirty years.

One book that people might be surprised to see in the exhibition is Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, which has avoided all genre classifications in its 86-year history – but for me, Rebecca has the heart and soul of a crime novel. Not even Hitchcock could improve on du Maurier’s flawless handling of suspense, and the shift in our understanding towards the end of the book is one of the most emotionally credible and deftly handled twists in all fiction.

Mandy Morton and I will be talking about this much-loved story at the Felixstowe Book Festival this year, going behind the scenes of the famous film and revealing the book’s origins, which inspired my latest novel, Shot With Crimson, and which have their own surprising twist…

Murder by the Book runs at Cambridge University Library until 24 August; tickets are free, and can be booked at https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/murderbythebook

 

 

Where I write…

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Author Chioma Okereke gives us an exclusive peek into her work space

‘To be honest, I do write across many rooms in the house, but this space has been designated as The Writer’s Room. The soft light and a desk stacked with distractions is actually why I return to this spot to write. Many of the nicknacks stimulate my imagination and I like to pretend that the red leather pad on top of the desk (beneath my laptop) belonged to many other writers before me.’
Chioma will be discussing her novel Water Baby (Quercus) on June 30 at 1.30pm

Festival author William Shaw reveals the surprising impact a recently diagnosed condition has on his writing

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I write a series of books about a very special landscape – Dungeness in Kent. Hopefully it’s always there in the books. Hopefully, too, when people read them, they get sense of what it’s like there, even if they’ve never been.

The weird thing is, halfway through writing the series, in which the look of that place is so important, I learned that I had something called Aphantasia. Aphantasia is a condition where someone has little or no mental imagery. What’s astonishing is that it’s only really been recognised as a condition in the last few years – and only really widely discussed in the media since 2020.

When I learned that other people can actually form images in their heads I was flabbergasted – which is I think what most aphantasics feel. I always assumed the phrase ‘mind’s eye’ was an odd metaphor. I guess it’s a bit like a colourblind person realising that other people see vast differences between green and red.

Let me explain what it’s like for me. I know what things look like but I can’t close my eyes and ‘see’ them. I recognise my wife, for example, and can describe her, but I have no picture of her in my head. It’s quite weird, thinking about it.

But I didn’t feel short-changed by discovering I’m aphantasic. The opposite in fact. It helped me understand something. In my head I know what Dungeness is in terms of the sound of its shingle, the colour of the laundry that hangs from the lines outside some of the cabins, the way the clouds move over its huge horizon. I keep it there, I realise, as words. And I think that leaves me able to describe a place with a kind of economy others might struggle with.

We’re pretty early on the curve of realising how some types of neurodiversity relate to creativity. An extraordinarily high proportion of designers and architects, people who problem-solve in three dimensions, seem to be dyslexic. Since I discovered my Aphantasia, I’ve also discovered a few other writers with it. Maybe it’s why we have a facility with putting things into other people’s heads.

William Shaw, photo by Kitty Wheeler-Shaw

Don’t miss William Shaw discussing, on 29 June at 11.30am, his new novel The Wild Swimmers, the fifth in his highly acclaimed Dungeness-set crime series, featuring DS Alexandra Cupidi.

Welcome to our newest festival volunteer!

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Siobhan Horner-Galvin tells us what drew her to volunteering at the Felixstowe Book Festival 2024

 

I’m very excited to be volunteering at the Felixstowe Book Festival this year where I’ll be helping out with the website and author events. As an avid reader and writer myself, I love a book festival, but I’ve only ever been in the audience. Last year at the Edinburgh Book Festival I heard Ali Smith speak about how books can help us connect with each other and it inspired me to get involved with a book festival here in Suffolk, where I live. A friend of mine – also a festival volunteer – suggested the Felixstowe Book Festival. Not only do I get to hear the cry of seagulls and smell the sea, participating as a volunteer here means I’ll meet some local writers and readers so I can become part of a local book community. Hopefully that means we can continue our conversations long after the festival is over. As someone studying creative writing too, like many of us who write, the festival is a great place to swap ideas about stories with other writers, hear from readers and pick up tips and ideas from new and favourite authors. I feel incredibly lucky to have this on my doorstep and I’m looking forward to welcoming you here too.

 

Siobhan is the co-author of For Better For Worse, For Richer For Poorer (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

Jane Casey at No.1!

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Congratulations to this year’s festival speaker Jane Casey for taking the no.1 spot in the Irish Times book charts this week with her thrilling new crime novel A Stranger In The Family.

photo by Jonathan Goldbergn

 

A Stranger In The Family is the 11th instalment of Jane’s award-winning Maeve Kerrigan
detective series.

Don’t miss Jane – described by bestselling author Liz Nugent as ‘simply one of the best
writers of detective fiction today’ – discussing her new book in the Palm Court on 11.30am
on 29th June.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

post by Louise Millar

Congratulations to our Festival Patron, Terry Waite!

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Hello booklovers,

Congratulations to Sir Terry Waite on being appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael & St George for services to charity.

We’re delighted to have Sir Terry join us this Saturday at Felixstowe Book Festival for an evening of words and music.

Our Festival Patron Terry Waite once said the good language like good music has the capacity to breathe harmony into the soul. We live in troubled times when it seems that many people are out of harmony with themselves, their neighbours and the environment.

During this special evening Terry Waite will read short extracts from his writings interspersed with music played by the pianist Matthew Ricard. It will be an evening of calm and reflection when we may experience the harmony that words and music can offer.

Not to be missed, book your tickets here.

Bookish best,

The Festival Team x

2023 Children’s and Teen Festival Highlights – Poetry Please!

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Hello booklovers,

Our final event in our Young Adult programme will take place on Saturday 24th of June at Felixstowe Library. Join poetry anthologist Ana Sampson to learn about The Hidden History of Women’s Writing.

Do you ever look at lists of ‘classic’ books and wonder… where are all the women? Look no further than poetry anthologist Ana Sampson, who examines the history of women’s writing in more detail. Join Ana for a fascinating discussion, looking at female literary gems who didn’t make the bookish big time purely because of their gender, alongside other fabulous female writers who managed to buck the trend. Ana will take us on a journey through history, bringing us up to speed with the most influential female writers of the current moment, all of whom are celebrated in her brilliant anthologies, She is Fierce and She Will Soar.

This event is suitable for ages 11 – adult, and we welcome all generations to come along and enjoy Ana’s insights into the role of women in our poetic history.

With our 2023 festival now imminent, we do hope you enjoy yourselves! Books by the sea with your children and you family – you can’t beat it!

Bookish best,

The Festival Team x

 

2023 Children’s and Teen Festival Highlights – Creative and Crafty

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Hello booklovers,

There is lots on offer for the young makers and do-ers amongst us in our 2023 festival programme for Children and Young People. Along with our brilliant interactive writing workshops already mentioned, we are thrilled to be hosting the Big Library Lego Challenge, suitable for ages 5-14. If you could re-design the inside of your library how would it look? Apart from books what other fabulous features would you have? You’ve got two hours to design and build the library of your dreams and you might win a prize. LEGO® provided. There are 3 sessions over the weekend, from 9.15-11.15am, 11.30-1.30pm and 1.45-3.45pm.

Have you ever tried Zine-Making? The folks from Ipswich based creative group Rock, Paper, Scissors will be visiting us with artist Joel Millerchip, to help children, teens and families express their creative side. A Zine is a combination of collage, pictures, words and phrases, all compiled into your own journal to take home. A great way to develop creative writing and art skills.

Bookish best,

The Festival Team x

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Registered office: Suite 9, Orwell House, Ferry Lane, Felixstowe, IP11 3QL.