Felixstowe Book Festival

New voices, fresh perspectives, firm favourites ON SALE – including competition entry!

17 April 2017 By HR

Hello Booklovers,

Our Sunday events in the Furneaux Suite are now on sale*! We are calling this fabulous selection of intimate events ‘New voices, fresh perspectives, firm favourites’. They are a diverse mix that explore some interesting topics and bring to light some exciting new talent from the local area and further afield. The highlight of this will of course be our adult short story competition winners and you can now enter this by purchasing the event ticket and following the instructions. Please do note that the way we are running the competition this year means that there’s a limited amount of competition entries so do get yours in quickly to avoid disappointment.

We also have a limited amount of day tickets for these events for just £35, so why not treat yourself?

Bookish best,

Hannah and the Festival Team

*Please note these were not available to Festival Friends in advance to make the competition entry fair.

Tickets on sale to Festival Friends

17 April 2017 By HR

Hello Booklovers,

Our July tickets have now been exclusively on sale to Festival Friends since Friday 7th April. This is just one of the little perks we like to treat our Friends to. Do pop over to this page on our website to find out more about becoming a Friend.

You may have seen some of our print programmes around the local area this weekend. They’re hot off the press and we’ll be spreading them far and wide over the coming weeks.

Tickets go on general sale this coming Friday, so why not use this bank holiday evening to plan your festival weekend?!

bookish best,

Hannah and the Festival Team

Christmas Come Early…’The Knives’ by Richard T. Kelly

9 December 2016 By RP

Hello booklovers,

So we continue our Christmas Come Early series with a look at a novel which seems all too relevant in our turbulent times. Next summer Richard T. Kelly will be joining us to read from and discuss his new novel The Knives, which explores the secrets and complexities of modern government, and the struggles that those in the highest ranks of Parliament face. Giving the novel its human heart is protagonist David Blaylock: ex-soldier, estranged husband and father and now Home Secretary. David must navigate the shifty machinations of government, never quite knowing whom he can trust, and all the while becoming more aware of the very real threats to his safety which he must face.

What with the many political upsets which have rocked our nation (and indeed much of the Western world) this year, it seems that this novel is particularly timely. Having spent much time in Westminster and conducted extensive research into the British political world, including interviews with a large number of MPs and special advisors, Richard has gained a unique insight into the political Establishment, which he brings to life in thrilling fashion. Alistair Campbell described this novel as ‘a gripping read from start to finish’, and it’s bound to enthrall both politicos and armchair commentators alike.

Richard Kelly is a journalist, screenwriter and author, and his previous works include the acclaimed Crusaders (2008) and The Possessions of Doctor Forrest (2011). You can find out more about Richard on his blog here.

If you’re looking for the perfect topical gift this Christmas, why not snap up a ticket now for what’s sure to be a fascinating debate? The talk will be taking place on Saturday 1st July, 5.30-6.30pm, and tickets cost just £8 (£7 concessions). What are you waiting for?

Rosie and the Festival Team

Christmas Come Early… Beth Miller

7 December 2016 By IT

Hello Booklovers!

2016 has been the year of the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, and much of this year has been spent celebrating his works, his wit and his life. A timeless playwright, it is safe to say that the particular fascination surrounding the Bard lies in how his works are still as relevant now as they were when they were first written. His works are reinvented, subverted and moulded into so many different scenarios, and yet they always remain timeless. One of our oldest and most profound storytellers, we are very happy to announce that we will be including an event dedicated to William Shakespeare in our 2017 festival.

Next year, we are delighted to welcome Beth Miller, author of For the love of Shakespeare: A Companion, a collection of fascinating facts and miscellany surrounding the life and career of William Shakespeare. Did you know that Shakespeare brought the words ‘gloomy’, ‘obscene’ and ‘generous’ into the English language, along with countless others? Or that everyday phrases such as ‘the naked truth’ and ‘green eyed monster’ come from his works? All will be revealed in this fascinating chat, not to mention numerous controversies surrounding Shakespeare’s authorship, and endless tales about his mysterious life. Described by Sir Stanley Wells as ‘well informed, wide-ranging, undogmatic and reader friendly’, this is a book not to be missed by anyone, newcomers or life-long fans.

Expect to be bewitched, bothered and bewildered by this captivating guide of the life of one of our most precious cultural icons, who brought us Beatrice and Benedick, Oberon and Titania, Hal and Falstaff, and many other dynamic duos. We are very much looking forward to welcoming Beth to our festival, who has managed to cover all aspects of Shakespeare’s life with such prowess.

Get your tickets here, for what promises to be a wonderful event!

Imogen and the Book Festival team

Christmas Come Early… Stella Rimington

2 December 2016 By HR

Hello Booklovers,

For me, the James Bond franchise of films was infinitely improved upon during the eras of Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig, not only by their own not inconsiderable charms, but by the extra edge added with the introduction of a female ‘M’ in charge of the security services, played with such panache by Judi Dench. Whilst this fabulous dame graced our screens in a fictional capacity, an equally magnificent dame, Stella Rimington, a genuine ‘M’, was being publically identified as the Director General of MI5.

We will be very lucky to have Dame Stella Rimington participating in our Book Festival in Felixstowe in July 2017. To add to her many other talents, and her fascinating professional life, Dame Stella is also a prolific author. Along with a book of memoirs Open Secret there is a series of novels to her name, featuring as the main protagonist, a female intelligence officer, Liz Carlyle. The first of these thrillers, At Risk, has now been joined by eight further books, the latest, Breaking Cover was published this Summer by Bloomsbury. The plots clearly draw on the author’s own experiences; adding an authority and clarity of tone to tense and thrilling scenarios; bringing vividly to life our current World situation as seen by those who know it best.

We very much look forward to Dame Stella’s visit to our festival and cannot wait to hear, not only about her fascinating career, but how she brings her experiences so skilfully to life in her writing.

Get your tickets now for what is sure to be a fascinating (and sell-out!) event!

Anna and the festival Team

Director’s Diary

3 November 2016 By HR

Festival Director Meg Reid shares a bit about her latest bookish ventures and how 2017 plans are shaping up…

Early November and damp, dull, foggy weather to match! Winter is here! One good thing about that is that sitting with one’s nose in a book becomes even more of a treat. I usually have several books on the go at a time. One on CD in the car (often a Margery Allingham), one on my Kindle and a couple more somewhere in the house so that there is always a book to grab when Those Things Which Must Be Done Today become too annoying. Currently my two “real” ie. paper books are The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of The Window and Disappeared and Chains of Sand. Very different books but both really absorbing and hard to put down no matter how long the ‘to do’ list is.

Chains of Sand was sent to me by a publisher and The Times describes it as “Intriguing, moving, absorbing…a great read”. I’m pleased to say that the author Jemma Wayne will be with us at the 2017 festival to tell us all about it. Booking the festival programme is of course at number one position on the ‘to do’ list, closely followed by getting sponsorship and funding. Research for the programme does however give me the excuse for some treats. Recently these have included being invited as a guest of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which gave me access to the author hospitality area and all the goodies on offer there! They certainly look after their speakers. It was of course a golden opportunity to chat to authors, some of whom will be coming to Felixstowe next July. It was also good to meet again some of the authors who have already been with us.

Two more treats were having tea with our festival patron Esther Freud to discuss the festival and meeting Nicola Upson and Mandy Morton for coffee. Neither Nicola or Mandy will be talking about their own books at our 2017 festival but each will be chairing events with very exciting guests. I can’t say more now but we really have a glittering programme to celebrate our fifth birthday. So please put 30 June evening (big launch event) and 1st-2nd July 2017 in your diaries now. By the way, The Orwell is already taking bookings for that weekend but you must BOOK BY PHONE 01394 285511 and quote the festival to get the best rates. Don’t forget to become one of our official Festival Friends, not only will you be helping to keep our community festival running, but you’ll also gain access to exclusive events and offers.

Best,

Meg

2017 Dates, Festival Friends and more!

16 August 2016 By HR

We can hardly believe that we’re halfway through August already! The summer’s flying by in a blur of beach days and summer reads. Do let us know what you’ve been reading recently via Twitter or Facebook; we love to hear your recommendations. Maybe you’re trying to get through your book haul from this year’s festival…

We just have a few titbits of information to impart and then we’ll leave you to your bookish adventures.

2017 festival dates announced

It seems like a long way off, but we thought we’d let you know next year’s festival dates as soon as possible, particularly as there’s a slight change to our usual weekend. Put 1st – 2nd July in your diaries now! We’ll be a week later than we usually are, due to there being a big local event happening at Landguard Fort on the last weekend in June. Planning has already started for what will be the fifth Felixstowe Book Festival and we’re hoping it will be our biggest and best yet (although this year will be a tough act to follow judging by your feedback forms…)

Become a Friend of Felixstowe Book Festival

We don’t want to sound desperate but we’re on the hunt for friends! This year we launched our Friends of Felixstowe Book Festival group and we now have all the details on our website here. This is a membership group for those wishing to support the festival and gain from early-bird booking, discounts and exclusive events. It only costs £20 a year for a single membership or £30 for a joint membership – what a bargain! Monies raised from this will directly support the running costs of the festival. We’re entirely volunteer organised and run and our ticket sales sadly do not cover all our costs. Becoming a Friend of the Festival is a fantastic way of helping us to keep producing programmes of real quality and diversity for many years to come.

Local Happenings

We’re excited that our festival book shop Stillwater Books are launching their own book group next month. The first meeting will be on 19th September at The Alex (sea views and book chat – what more could you ask for?) and they will be discussing Death in Profile by festival favourite Guy Fraser-Sampson. All are welcome, pop into the shop for more details. September will also see Felixstowe Library hosting a Roald Dahl Day party on 13th. Do pop into the library to find out more – it’s sure to be whizz-popping.

bookish best,

Hannah and the Festival Team

Thank you for coming!

1 July 2016 By HR

Here at Festival HQ we can hardly believe that nearly a week’s gone by since our fabulous 2016 events kicked off! To round-up this year, we thought we’d give you a few snapshots of the weekend as seen by members of the team…

A View From… the heart of things

I have always been proud of the fact that our festival has such a diverse and varied programme, and this year was no exception. Stationed at main festival venue The Orwell Hotel throughout the weekend, whether on the ticket desk or on the door, I was privileged to be able to assist at a number of very different events and hear about the most intriguing mix of subjects – from biography to babies, domestic noir to cat detectives! Through it all I was struck by the level of expertise of our speakers – poets, translators and writers at the top of their game – but also by the way in which our brilliant audiences engaged in the conversation and developed it further. All in all, a most inspiring and fun weekend! – Rosie (Social Media Team and weekend volunteer)

A View From… Felixstowe Library

I was at the Library for most of the weekend for our children’s and teen events and what a treat they were! What made these events so special was their audiences – whilst they may have been aimed at children and teens their appeal was far broader, with dads taking part in comic book masterclasses, grandparents spell-bound by Rebecca Elliott’s stories and whole families cheering on our Roald Dahl characters. I may be a little biased, but these were definitely the most vibrant and fun events on this year’s programme and you missed out if you didn’t catch any of them! – Hannah (Young People’s Programme Coordinator)

A View From… the director’s chair

Wonderful atmosphere, very positive buzz, responsive audiences, sell out events, happy authors, fabulous tech support, dedicated volunteer teams, generous sponsors, a book stall groaning with irresistible books, helpful hotel staff, delicious cakes- what a special weekend! Our speakers battled 7 hour plane delays, family crisis and flooded train lines to join us from Belgium, Sweden, Poland and all over the UK. Thank you! Thank you also to Laura Thompson and Nicola Upson who delivered a fascinating and very popular last minute event to replace Rose Tremain who had to cancel for family reasons. Personal highlights for me were the audience members who stopped me to say what a good time they were having; seeing people sitting in the cafe area chatting about the events; seeing happy, engrossed children (including two of my grand-daughters) at the library events; hearing our very moving winning short story entries, visiting our very atmospheric Sea Change installation at Landguard Fort. Thank you every one – audience, speakers, helpers. – Meg (Festival Director)

I think we’re safe to say that this was our biggest and best festival yet with lots of packed events and a real buzz at The Orwell Hotel and Felixstowe Library. A HUGE thank you to: all of our speakers (we hope you had fun!); our wonderful Sponsors and Funders; The Orwell Hotel; Felixstowe Library; Stillwater Books; Breeze Event Production; all the shops who took part in the Book Trail and of course our merry band of volunteers. Did you know that the festival is entirely organised and run by volunteers? Meg Reid heads up a team who work throughout the year to put on the festival and we’re always on the lookout for more enthusiastic team members. Find out more here if you’d like to come on board.

Keeeeeep reading!

Hannah and the team

It’s here!

24 June 2016 By HR

It’s been 12 months in the making and tonight the fourth Felixstowe Book Festival kicks off!

Tonight we have Luiz Morais and Gabriela Kozyra bringing a musical taste of Brazil to The Orwell Hotel in an event that is sure to get you in the festival mood. Then we’ll see you again at 9:30am tomorrow for our opening event with Giles Merritt and a lively discussion on Europe. Just half an hour later the Young People’s programme opens over at Felixstowe Library with last year’s Carnegie Medal winner Tanya Landman. Then we’re into a steady stream of fascinating, exciting events at both venues for the next 36 hours!

Don’t forget to pop down to Landguard Fort at some point over the weekend to see Lily Hunter Green’s specially commissioned art installation Sea Change. We also have the Book Trail happening all weekend so don’t forget to get a copy at the Library or the Orwell.

Just a little reminder that due to circumstances beyond our control the following programme changes have taken place:

– Rose Tremain has had to cancel but Nicola Upson will now be interviewing acclaimed biographer Laura Thompson in this slot instead.

– Harry Freedman’s session on The Murderous History of Bible Translations is cancelled but instead we have Lucy Popescu talking about her anthology A Country of Refuge.

– The Killer Women can no longer join us for their workshop or panel event.

– Oxygen Books can no longer be with us to talk about their literary travel guides.

All refunds and replacements will go through the Wolsey and if you haven’t been contacted to arrange this then please visit the ticket desk during the festival.

Tickets will still be available online until midnight on the day before the event takes place. Any left over tickets will be available from the ticket desk in the Orwell Hotel. Tickets for Young People’s events will only be available from Felixstowe Library.

Have a wonderful weekend and don’t forget to tweet and facebook us your highlights!

Hannah and the team

Books, Books, Books Galore!

23 June 2016 By HR

Hello Booklovers,

Only 24 hours to go until our 2016 festival gets underway! We’re racing around here at Festival HQ making sure authors know where to go, volunteers have their schedules, Book Trail clues are set and all those other last minute bits and bobs are slotting into place. A big job at this stage is coordinating our book stall and once again we are delighted to have Felixstowe’s independent bookseller, Stillwater Books, running our stall, with help from our lovely volunteers.

Will who runs Stillwater and our volunteer Anna have been busy bees over the last few weeks making sure that we have plenty of copies of our visiting authors’ books ready for you all to purchase at the weekend. This year the stall will be bigger and better than ever and we’ll have the author signing station right nearby. We also still have some very stylish tote bags available to put those many purchases in 😉 For children’s events at the library we will have books on sale at each event.

Rather appropriately this week is Independent Booksellers Week so a big shout-out to independent book shops every where who provide a unique shopping experience and keep books on our high street! We’re lucky to have Stillwater Books in Felixstowe and we also have two excellent second-hand bookshops. Treasure Chest and Poor Richard’s Books are a must during your visit to the Festival this weekend. Both of these shops are total mazes, full of nooks and crannies stuffed with books. You’ll struggle to leave empty-handed.
We also have a host of charity shops in the town with a wonderful selection of second-hand books. They’ve been getting into the spirit with some Festival-themed window displays:

Age UK, Red Cross and Sense have all gone for a patriotic backdrop to their book displays!

Basic, RSPCA and Cancer Research proudly displaying our posters

It is worth mentioning that Elaine Coltham is going to be signing her poetry book at the RSPCA charity shop at 1 o’clock on Saturday. The poetry book is all about animals and all the proceeds will be going to the Martlesham animal centre.

These fabulous windows from EACH and St Elizabeth Hospice are our favourites!

So there you have it, Felixstowe is a booklovers paradise this weekend!

Bookish best,

Hannah and the team

A View From… the heart of things

A View From… Felixstowe Library

A View From… the director’s chair

Just a little reminder that due to circumstances beyond our control the following programme changes have taken place:

Join the conversation…