Crime fiction has always been an immensely popular and dominant genre, from the post war golden age crime novels of the 1920s, 30s and 40s to the wide ranging crime novels that adorn our shelves today. This is largely thanks to riveting plots, eye popping crimes and terrifying twists that send the imagination running wild.
If you too enjoy some cracking crime fiction, we have the event just for you. Join three astonishing crime writers for a session examining the significance of the ‘twist in the tale’ so significant to good crime fiction. We will be welcoming to the panel Louise Millar, Harriet Tyce and Kate Rhodes for what promises to be a riveting discussion all about the art of crime writing.
We are delighted to be hosting this event live and in person at the Orwell Hotel Felixstowe.
Harriet Tyce (c) Rory Lewis photography
Just a quick note for anyone who wants to join in on our April book club meeting: we will be reading Harriet Tyce’s The Lies You Told, very good bookish ‘revision’ for this very event in June. You can find more information on our book club page here.
One of the many beauties of books is that they allow you to enter different worlds which as readers we may well have never discovered before. Some of our brilliant 2021 guests, Edoardo Albert, Paul Gething and Esther Rutter examine periods of our history in completely different, and completely riveting, ways.
In Warrior: A Life of War in Anglo Saxon Britain, Edoardo Albert and Paul Gething take a long, hard look at a brutal, bloody part of British history. Their book sheds light on the life of the man whose bones are discovered in an Anglo Saxon graveyard, to the back drop of a society in political, religious and physical flux, and the significance of this period on the history of our nation.
Esther Rutter takes a different tack looking at British history in her fascinating non-fiction work, This Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain’s Knitted History. Having grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk learning to spin, weave and knit during her childhood, Esther’s absorbing book reflects on the history of knitting – she takes her reader on a journey examining the hefty influence of wool on our communities, our landscape and our culture. An inspiring read for anyone with an interest in social history.
Please note, both these events will be live streamed online.
We are so looking forward to welcoming such fascinating guests to our 2021 festival.
Today on Mothering Sunday, I give you some thoughts on a poem by Sylvia Plath, an exciting new anthology of poems from author Ana Sampson (who will be featuring as a guest at Fbf’s 2021 online festival) and some musings on a feathered friend…
Whilst out on my daily stroll a few days ago I spotted one of my favourite sights to see at this time of year. A duck, plodding along, followed by an entourage of baby ducklings. She looked exhausted, frazzled, like part of her just wanted to take off and leave the chaos of her squabbling brood behind and nestle down for some alone time. She didn’t though, as they continued on their way. Rather, she quacked firmly at some onlookers who were getting a little too close for her liking, and led her reluctant followers brimming with the energy of new life, towards safety. On witnessing a moment like this, I am reminded of the sheer strength it takes to be a mother. Not that I know exactly what it is or where it can be found. But as a daughter I have bared witness to it all my life and continue to do so.
In her new collection Night Feeds and Morning Songs, anthologist Ana Sampson brings together poems old and new which capture both the beautiful and the brutal aspects of motherhood. Featuring poems by Carol Ann Duffy, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Jackie Kay and Sylvia Plath, Sampson also features the bold voices of new poets Kate Baer, Liz Berry, Nikita Gill and Imogen Russell Williams. These poems are intimate observations, honest and raw, offering us individual accounts of what it is and means to be a mother. We are thrilled to be welcoming Ana Sampson to this year’s online festival. Ana will be discussing her new anthology Night Feedsand Morning Songs with writer Polly Clark, in a live streamed event on the 26th of June at 12pm. For more information about the event, please see the programme of events taking place as part of the 2021 festival on our website.
Sylvia Plath’s poem Morning Song was written in February 1961, after the birth of her daughter Frieda. Plath confronts the feelings that come with the first few hours of motherhood, the adjustment to a role which although completely natural feels strange and isolating. Perhaps it is too often assumed that a woman will instinctively know how and what to feel after giving birth to a baby they have been carrying inside them. It is expected that maternal love will outweigh any other emotion. And although this is of course mostly the case, the difficulty of adjusting to the responsibility of caring for a child, is an immensely overwhelming one, which Plath captures through a series of beautiful metaphors.
Morning Song
Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.
Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.
I’m no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind’s hand.
All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.
One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat’s. The window square
Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.
Of course, Mothering Sunday is a day to celebrate motherhood in all its varied and important forms. A ‘mother’ is someone who provides guidance, love, kindness, fun, wisdom, a shoulder to cry on, adoration, honesty. It might be that we weren’t lucky enough to get to know them at all. It might be that they’re no longer with us. Or that they’re not necessarily the person who birthed us. But their importance and significance in our lives remains the same nonetheless. I am not sure whether ducks remain emotionally attached to their mothers once they have left the nest. That is where humans differ I suppose. Relationships are inevitably complicated, hugely dependent on circumstance, and flecked with years and years of damages and repairs. But the connection between mother and child is a bond unlike many others. And it should not just be acknowledged on one day a year. But seeing as there is a date set aside for it in the calendar, a bunch of flowers probably won’t go a miss. I’m not sure ducks view it that sentimentally though?
Bookish best,
Elizabeth x
Morning Song
Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.
Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.
I’m no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind’s hand.
All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.
One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat’s. The window square
Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.
Of course, Mothering Sunday is a day to celebrate motherhood in all its varied and important forms. A ‘mother’ is someone who provides guidance, love, kindness, fun, wisdom, a shoulder to cry on, adoration, honesty. It might be that we weren’t lucky enough to get to know them at all. It might be that they’re no longer with us. Or that they’re not necessarily the person who birthed us. But their importance and significance in our lives remains the same nonetheless. I am not sure whether ducks remain emotionally attached to their mothers once they have left the nest. That is where humans differ I suppose. Relationships are inevitably complicated, hugely dependent on circumstance, and flecked with years and years of damages and repairs. But the connection between mother and child is a bond unlike many others. And it should not just be acknowledged on one day a year. But seeing as there is a date set aside for it in the calendar, a bunch of flowers probably won’t go a miss. I’m not sure ducks view it that sentimentally though
I have finished the thrilling The Dead of Winter by Nicola Upson right in the nick of time for our first book club meeting and it’s safe to say I loved being embroiled in the wonderful world of Josephine Tey that Nicola has created!
We would be delighted for you all to join our meeting on Monday the 15th of March, starting at 7.30pm for an hour or so of bookish chat – don’t forget to prepare the snacks and beverages essential for such a meeting.
Please see the Zoom link below – to join, simply click the link and Imogen, your host for the evening, will be there to greet you. Feel free to get involved in the discussion or simply sit back and listen, whatever suits you.
Topic: FbF Book Club Meeting – The Dead of Winter
Time: Mar 15, 2021 07:30 PM London
Today, March the 8th, is International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate and commemorate female achievement and to raise awareness of the importance of equality. How have your perspectives of womanhood shifted over the past year?
We thought to celebrate this day FbF style it would be appropriate to highlight a fascinating event featuring two of our fabulous female guests. Read on to find out more…
Dr Emma Hepburn and Francesca Specter
We are so pleased to be welcoming Francesca Specter and Dr Emma Hepburn to our virtual stage as part of our 2021 festival.
Francesca is a journalist and author of ‘Alonement: How to be Alone and Absolutely Own It’, a book all about exploring the benefits of taking time to spend time alone and how this can help us, as individuals, thrive. Dr Hepburn (Instagram’s @thepsychologymum) is an NHS psychologist based in Aberdeen and the author of ‘A Toolkit for Modern Life: 53 Ways to Look After Your Mind’, a handbook full of practical tools and ideas about how to look after your mental and emotional wellbeing every day.
These two books are packed with insights and practical tips focussing on mental health and mental resilience. In this online session Dr. Emma Hepburn and Francesca Specter will talk about a positive interpretation of aloneness and strategies to cope with isolation should it not be our choice -a subject of particular relevance since Covid changed our lives so much.
This promises to be a thought-provoking and fascinating discussion. We look forward very much to ‘seeing’ Francesca and Dr Hepburn in June! Sending our bookish best to all of the marvellous women involved in our marvellous festival.
It’s World Book Day, a day all about reading and celebrating books – so it seems like a good moment to introduce you all to some more brilliant guests for our 2021 festival, who will be chatting to us all about… you’ve guessed it, books!
Toby Faber, Faber and Faber: The Untold Story
(This event will be taking place at the Orwell Hotel)
Published to celebrate Faber’s 90th anniversary, this intimate history of Faber & Faber weaves together the most entertaining, moving and surprising letters, diaries and materials from the archive to reveal the untold stories behind some of the greatest literature of the twentieth century.
Richard Dawkins, Books do Furnish a Life. Reading and Writing Science
(This event is part of our online programme)
Science has never had a greater impact on our lives, or on the life of the planet than now.
Books Do Furnish a Life brings together Dawkins’ forewords, afterwords and introductions to the work of some of the leading thinkers of our age with a selection of his reviews to provide an electrifying celebration of science writing, both fiction and non-fiction.
Christopher Tugendhat, A History of Britain Through Books: 1900-1964
(This event is part of our online programme)
There are many ways of studying the tumultuous twentieth century – but one of the most revealing and original must be through the key books of the time. In A History of Britain Through Books, Christopher Tugendhat shows how literature both shaped and reflected public concerns over the decades – from Lord of the Flies to A Room of One’s Own to Heart of Darkness.
We hope news of these events has left you feeling suitably bookish – they are sure to provoke some fascinating conversation perfect for booklovers. Happy World Book Day!
We hope your week is going well. Today we bring more news of some excellent events that will be a part of our 2021 festival programme. We are very pleased to be welcoming Henry Hemming, Carol Drinkwater and Liz Trenow to our 2021 festival. All three authors will be offering a different perspective of the Second World War through their brilliant books. Read on to find out a bit more…
Liz Trenow, The Secrets of the Lake (This event will be held in person at the Orwell Hotel)
The Secret of the Lake deals with the legacy of war as the traumas of two world wars reverberate through a rural village.
Our heroine Molly finds herself uprooted with her father and brother, Jimmy, from London to just outside of Colchester following the death of her mother. Ambitious and bright, Molly finds her hopes for the future gradually wearing away as the majority of care for her brother falls on her shoulders. She strikes up a friendship with local lad Kit whose charm and sense of fun acts as her escape from domestic drudgery; but all is not as it seems, as Kit has a secret which he will not share. Tragedy strikes and suspicions rise; we return to Molly’s life many years later where, as an older woman, she remains haunted by the events of the past. The arrival of two police officers might just be the key to putting her mind at rest…
Henry Hemming – Our Man in New York: The British Plot to Bring America into the Second World War (This event will be live streamed)
A gripping new true history from the author of the Sunday Times bestseller M.
The extraordinary story of a propaganda campaign like no other: the covert British operation to manipulate American public opinion and bring America into the Second World War. In this fascinating book Henry reminds us that fake news, and governments meddling in other countries’ political processes, are nothing new.
Carol Drinkwater, An Act of Love (This event will be live-streamed)
An Act of Love is Carol’s latest novel. Set in France in 1943, we follow Sara and her family as they escape Poland for a beautiful but neglected house in the French Alps which at first seems like the perfect place to hide from the war. Sadly it’s not long until fear and danger strike again as the Nazis loom large over their once secret and safe place; escaping this time Sara has even more to lose; does she risk her family’s safety or must she cut short her blossoming relationship with Alain, a local villager?
Liz, Henry and Carol offer us a brilliant opportunity to examine the human, societal and political aspects of such a significant period in our recent history. We hope you are looking forward to these events as much as we are!
The optimism of recent announcements is certainly brightening the festival mood. A few weeks ago we announced news of our 2021 programme which will be a mix of socially distanced events at the Orwell Hotel Felixstowe and live-streamed events from authors living rooms to yours! This gives us a very exciting international element to our festival and, with that in mind, we are delighted to be welcoming debut novelists Dawnie Walton and Robert Jones Jr. to our virtual stage, as part of our online live-streamed programme, from across the pond. Read on to find out a bit more about these brilliant novelists…
Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton
Dawnie Walton (c) Rayon Richards
One of 2021’s mostly hotly anticipated novels, Dawnie Walton writes the fictional history of black rock and roll musician Opal Jewel.
Addressing a lack of representation in the music she loves, Dawnie writes a compelling, warm and thought provoking novel imagining the meeting of Opal and real life British musician Neville Charles as they come together to make rock music. The heady atmosphere of a 1970s New York gives Opal just the platform she needs; concerts and gigs abound as finally she can express her true self through her music. But alongside great triumph comes dark and difficult days and it isn’t long before events spiral out of control.
Robert Jones, Jr. (c) Alberto Vargas
The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.
In this outstanding novel Robert Jones Jr addresses the lack of black voices and of black queer voices in literature, specifically in historical literature.
The Prophets is the story of two enslaved young men falling in love on a Mississippi plantation. Inspired by the likes of Toni Morrison and James Baldwin, the lyricism of this thoughtful yet unflinching novel deals personal relationships as well as offering an examination of history, dealing with ideas of love, race and the voices and perspectives who rarely reach our pages.
We can’t wait to bring Dawnie and Robert to our virtual stage for what is bound to be a fascinating and thought provoking online event. We hope to have provided you with some bookish inspiration to see in the new month. Maybe now it’s time to get your hands on a copy of these excellent new novels…
I’m not really sure what defines a love poem. Typically, I suppose we think of Shakespeare sonnets, or Keats or Byron or Shelley. Red roses and Summer days. Hearts torn out or hearts given. Contemporary poets seek to subvert the romantics. Carol Ann Duffy gives ‘an onion’ as a representation of her love, in her ballad Valentine, whilst John Cooper Clark wants to be his lovers vacuum cleaner ‘breathing in your dust’, in I Wanna Be Yours (beloved of the Arctic Monkeys).
But in all these metaphors, I struggle to find a depiction of love which is suitably relatable. Maybe it’s because I don’t want something similar, or something ‘like’ love. I want an image of the real thing. In all its everyday guises. And for that, I find myself turning to the poetry of Frank O’Hara.
There is something spontaneous and natural about O’Hara’s poems, perhaps because many of them were composed on his lunchbreaks. O’Hara was a pioneering member of the New York School of Poets, and much of their inspiration came from the abstract expressionist art movement. He worked as a curator at the Museum of Modern Art. I like to imagine him sneaking out of the gallery and wandering the streets of New York, a portable typewriter in tow. Taking in the rush of the city, at a pace completely his own.
O’Hara’s poem Having a Coke with You was first published in small magazine Love, and it was subsequently included in his collection Lunch Poems in 1965. At this point in his life, O’Hara was enjoying a love affair with ballet dancer Vincent Warren. O’Hara wrote this poem after returning from a research trip to Spain, in April 1960.
Having a Coke with You
is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne
or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona
partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian
partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt
partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches
partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary
it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still
as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it
in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth
between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles
and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint
you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them
I look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time
and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me
and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them
when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank
or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully
as the horse
it seems they were all cheated of some marvellous experience
which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I am telling you about it
Having a Coke with You captures the momentary. It is an unselfconscious celebration of the joys of shared experience. When sharing a moment with someone you love, however ordinary, is more sacred than anything else materially beautiful or adventurous.
The commercialisation of Valentine’s Day, and the pressure I associate with it, has sucked all the real romance out of it for me. Although maybe I’m kidding myself that I didn’t secretly enjoy the heart shaped chocolate
Felixstowe February 2021
lollipop (probably from good old M&S) that I received from an anonymous admirer when I was 8.
Romantic antics will be at a minimum on the 14th of Feb this year. No fancy restaurants or boutique hotels. No cinema dates or cosy pub trips, tipsily walking home after glasses of rosy red wine, all in the name of St. Valentine. Of course, these are lovely things to do. And I certainly miss doing them. In our pre-virus lives, when our schedules were jam-packed and working days were fast-paced and relentless, having a scheduled date in the diary dedicated purely to ‘love’, maybe was quite helpful. If not a little sad and contrived.
Perhaps what I love then about O’Hara’s poem, is that it is about the shape his love takes on an ordinary day. After returning from what was probably an exciting but exhausting road-trip around Spain, he writes this to his lover. An appreciation of the ordinary and the relief of returning to it. It is heartfelt and natural, with little need for structure or form. He does not succumb to the lure of cliched metaphors. O’Hara talks endlessly about art and artists and portraits and visiting galleries. , they are his primary interests. But what he seems to be getting at is that these experiences would be vastly improved by the company of someone he is in love with. The poem is about the energy that exists between two people as they ‘drift back and forth between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles’. There is no need for red roses (although I acknowledge there is an abundance of ‘fluorescent orange tulips’ …), or Summer days. He doesn’t need to compare his love to those things, because it exists without them. It is there as they drink coca cola on their lunch breaks. It is there in the secrecy of their smiles. And it will be there when they visit the Frick for the first time together.
You might not consider O’Hara’s poem to be about love. Which is fine. But it is undeniably about the fun of sharing and delighting in company. Whether that is with a lover, or friend, or family member, a neighbour, or a stranger. Unfortunately for now that company might have to be enjoyed via a phone call, or video call, a chilly walk or a door-step chat. But re-reading Having a coke with you, has made me long for the days where we can stroll together through an art gallery. When we can bask in the glory of the sun with a friend under a tree. And there is no Valentine’s gift that can beat that. So, I think I will listen to Frank O’Hara reading this poem to while away these difficult days, until we are there again …
‘I look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world …’
We are delighted to bring you some more exciting news for the new year – in March we will be launching our brand new book club. Last year we said a fond farewell to Ruth and Liz who did a brilliant job of hosting our first foray into the world of virtual meetings. Now we are bringing the book club back with a brand new list of books for you all to enjoy, featuring just some of the wonderful authors we welcome to our 2021 festival programme.
The FbF Book Club will run in the same format – whilst we can’t meet in person we will have monthly meetings hosted on Zoom. The invite will be advertised on our festival blog and through our social media pages.
Our first meeting will be on the 15th of March and for our first book club read we have selected The Dead of Winter by Nicola Upson.
Our schedule for the months leading up to the festival are as follows…
April – The Lies You Told by Harriet Tyce
May – Night Feeds and Morning Songs by Ana Sampson
June – An Act of Love by Carol Drinkwater
We’ll look forward to seeing you at our first FbF book club meeting – happy reading!
Liz, Henry and Carol offer us a brilliant opportunity to examine the human, societal and political aspects of such a significant period in our recent history. We hope you are looking forward to these events as much as we are!
