We have been busy getting ready and the tickets for all events will go on public sale on 31 March. Friends of the Festival can even start securing theirs a week earlier! It is going to be a great few days and some events are expected to sell out fast – so start browsing!

“What a lovely evening that was! We’ve decided that your Festival is by far our favourite gig. And your audience were so appreciative.”  Martin and the Hosepipe Band

“Thanks for your kind invitation to the festival – I had a really excellent,
enjoyable visit and found it to be a great, friendly environment for
book-lovers. The audience at my event were very attentive and asked
fascinating questions, and Richard Walker was a first-rate chairperson.”

Richard T Kelly

“An eclectic mix of authors, some well known, some new and subjects to stimulate the mind of anyone aged 8-80….worth coming all the way from Devon for”

“Absolutely love it The festival is absolutely amazing”

“Bring on next year’s festival”

“It is lovely to have a book festival in our town”

“Really enjoyed the variety in the programme”

“As a first time attendee found something totally different well worthwhile”

 

“I imagine the dust is still settling on another hugely successful Felixstowe Book Festival. I just wanted to say congratulations on staging such a fascinating festival, and thank you for inviting me to take part. I had a lovely time and the audience was wonderful.”  Henry Hemming

“Absolutely love it… The festival is absolutely amazing!”

“Really enjoyed the variety in the programme”

“As a first time attendee found something totally different…well worthwhile”

“An eclectic mix of authors, some well known, some new and subjects to stimulate the mind of anyone aged 8 to 80 – worth coming all the way from Devon for”

“I have had a wonderful day and am so impressed with the array of speakers, stalls and workshops”

“I love this weekend – it is one of the highlights of my year and provides me with a years worth of reading.  I look forward to next year – bigger and better, watch out Hay on Wye!”

“Bring on next year’s Festival!”

“I have been meaning to write to you as I am amazed at how many well known personalities you manage to get to come to the Felixstowe Book Festival – Terry Waite, Stella Rimington and many more. It seems to grow in popularity each year and of course it promotes Felixstowe, so well done to you and your team”

 

It is getting exciting! The organisation is in full swing and on 31 March 2018 the tickets will be available via the website. Soon we will also be selling them at the library again too, so keep checking back for news.

We’re delighted to announce that the winner of this year’s Book Trail is Felicity Moore!

Well done Felicity, we hope you enjoy your detective book prize 🙂

 

Hello Booklovers,

What a wonderful weekend it was! There’s four of us on the social media team and we hardly saw each other over the weekend because there was so much fun to be had. Here’s a little bit from a couple of us to give you a taste of all that Felixstowe Book Festival 2017 had to offer…

Rosie…

“What is really lovely about having been involved with the Festival from its early days is the fact that the group of volunteers we have now accumulated feels like a big family – it’s great to see familiar faces during the Festival weekend each year, but I also thoroughly enjoy getting to know new helpers during a shared slot on the door or information desk. My personal highlights from this year have to be Louis de Bernières and A. L. Kennedy – two wonderful writers, very different in style and demeanour, but both at ease in front of their Festival audiences and both ready to share all sorts with us, reaching far beyond their latest literary output. This is what I enjoy the most about the weekend: those brilliant surprises and insights which you would never have considered or imagined otherwise.”

Hannah…

“As I am also the Young People’s Programme Coordinator I spent most of my weekend at Felixstowe Library making sure all of the children’s and teen events ran smoothly. What a time we had! This is definitely the most fun, vibrant part of the festival (not that I’m biased…) All of our authors were an absolute delight, but real highlights have to be a packed-out Teddy Bear’s picnic with Jane Hissey the author of my childhood favourite Old Bear, laughing along with adults and children at A F Harrold’s event and our Famous Five celebration on Sunday which saw us all meeting the characters and becoming detectives to solve the Felixstowe mystery!”

Post-festival blues? We recommend starting on that pile of deliciously scented new books you inevitably purchased from our book stall 😉 We’ll let you know our dates for 2018 as soon as they’re set in stone so watch this space. But for now the festival team are off to put our feet up… probably with a good book.

bookish best wishes,

The festival team

On Friday our fifth festival kicks off with a top-tapping evening of poetry and music from Martin Newell and the Hosepipe Band. Martin joins us to answer our five, five-themed questions…

1. What can we expect from your event?

The rather ‘old timey’ and evocative experience of an author performing reading two balladic poems, accompanied by an eclectic selection of string and wind instruments, including flutes, double bass, hammered dulcimer, border pipes and bass recorder.

2. We can’t wait! Now, which 5 authors (dead or alive) would you invite to a literary dinner party? What would be on the menu?

Very tough but here goes Charles Dickens, Peter Ackroyd, Joan Wyndham, Keith Richards, Edith Nesbit

3. Would be a lively party. And what 5 things do you recommend to do in Felixstowe?

Go to that Underwoods Ironmongers, go to Felixstowe Ferry and buy some fresh fish, take the Bawdsey Ferry, walk around the sidestreets in the centre looking at the late Victorian Edwardian houses and have a mildly naughty weekend in that lovely hotel we played at last time.

4. Cheeky! But that’s some sound advice from a true Felixstowe fan. So what were you reading when you were 5?

I didn’t learn to read till I was nearly seven, then I went straight from Janet and John Book 6 to Black Beauty and Oliver Twist. I struggled a bit though.

5. And what 5 books would you take on a desert island?

Housman’s A Shropshire Lad, Betjeman’s Collected Works, Hugh Walpole’s Rogue Herries, James Woodforde’s Diary of A Country Parson and Peter Akroyd’s London the Biography.

Excellent, thanks Martin! Have you got your ticket for our opening extravaganza yet? There’s fizz and canapes as well as this fabulous entertainment!