My three books to take to a desert island would be…

I’m currently keeping myself busy communicating the science/maths behind the COVID-19 out break: https://kityates.com/public-engagement/. It helps that the last chapter of the Maths of Life and Death is all about how to predict, understand and stop epidemics.

Hello booklovers,

In the build up to our 2020 Online Festival we would like to say a huge thank you to our sponsors whose support is invaluable to our festival.

We’ll begin with our Gold Sponsor Kingsfleet Wealth. 

Kingsfleet Wealth have longstanding links with Felixstowe and have been valued supporters of Felixstowe Book Festival since its inception in 2013.

For 10 years Kingsfleet Wealth has served the people of Suffolk by providing Independent Financial Advice to individuals, trustees and Charities.  Kingsfleet Wealth are one of very few Chartered Financial Planning firms in the County and have pleasure in employing Suffolk people, using Suffolk suppliers and supporting Suffolk charities and enterprises.

This year Kingsfleet Wealth are kindly sponsoring our live stream interviews with George Alagiah, who will be discussing his debut novel The Burning Land and Nick Cottam  who will be chatting about the wonderful Life on the Deben.

You can find more information about Kingsfleet wealth through their website here: www.kingsfleetwealth.co.uk

A great big bookish thank you,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team

Hello booklovers,

With so many of us enduring lockdown isolation, literary folk have turned to books and reading as a source of comfort and company.

We thought we would extend the isolation reading theme further. Here at FbF we teamed up with several authors, who would have joined us for our original 2020 festival, with a mission to compile a ‘castaway library’. 

We asked them which books they would take with them if they were abandoned alone on a desert island. You will be intrigued to find out their responses…

Our first contributor is Edward Parnell who takes us away to his castaway library…

I always struggle with questions like this about which books I’d take on my desert island, as I suspect the books I might think of as being my favourites wouldn’t necessarily be the ones I’d want for company in that castaway situation. And, of course, different texts mean different things to us at different parts of our lives, which always seems to make any choice harder…

Given that, my first pick is a book by one of my favourite authors, though it’s not my absolute favourite of his works (that would be his most-famous novel, Slaughterhouse-Five). It does seem, however, the most appropriate of his titles to be stuck with on a desert island – and it is a very fine work in its own right. It’s Kurt Vonnegut’s 1985 novel Galápagos, a book in which, a million years into the future, the human race has evolved into seal-like creatures, stranded on the islands made famous as the place where Darwin began to unpin the secrets of evolution. It’s a clever, funny novel – structurally inventive and, above all, full of Vonnegut’s characteristic humanity. It also feels very prescient given our current slide towards environmental and social catastrophes that our ‘Big Brains’ seem incapable of addressing.

For my second book it seems appropriate to choose a collection of ghost stories given the subject matter of my most-recent book, Ghostland. With little to do on my island I expect I’ll have plenty of time to try to decode the strange alchemy at work in the stories of one of the masters of the form. I’m tempted to pick a collection by Walter de la Mare or Robert Aickman, two writers whose eerie tales often have an dreamlike air of psychological ambiguity. But, in the end it’s difficult to look beyond the more-obvious terrors present throughout Curious Warnings: The Great Ghost Stories of M. R. James (Jo Fletcher Books, 2012) – as the Victorian-born Cambridge academic is still, on balance, my favourite practitioner of the ghost story. Though how much comfort I’ll get reading about his lonely, demon-stalked Edwardian protagonists while I’m stranded on that faraway isle is perhaps a moot point…

My final book is going to be a practical choice. Whether my island is an isolated, wind-blasted rock somewhere in the Atlantic, or (hopefully) an idyllic coral cay in the depths of the Pacific, as a keen birder one of the things I’m going to do to kill time is watch out for passing seabirds. Given that, having to hand a reference book that covers all the possibilities I might see seems like a good plan, so I’ll go with Oceanic Birds of the World: A Photo Guide by Steve Howell and Kirk Zufelt (Princeton, 2019). I just hope I’m allowed to take a pair of binoculars or a telescope with me too, else my views of those passing petrels and shearwaters aren’t going to amount to much when I write home via the traditional message-in-a-bottle method.

Ed’s most-recent book is the narrative non-fiction Ghostland for William Collins (October 2019), and he is also the author of The Listeners (winner of the 2014 Rethink New Novels Prize). Ed is the director of the biennial Wymondham Words literature festival.

Hello booklovers,

Less than a week to go until our Online Book Festival! Where has the time gone? Needless to say we’re all very excited to launch our festival via a very different platform – we hope you are looking forward to our Live interviews, author Q&As and snapshots into a day in the life of an author in lockdown.

As an extra treat this week, keep your eyes on our website for a new blog feature, the Castaway Library. To some extent we have all experienced some form of isolation over the past few months. Grabbing hold of that theme… imagine if you were isolated and totally alone, not surrounded by the comforting streets and spires that populate our town. Imagine if you were stranded on a desert island, with nothing but three books to keep you entertained. Which books would you pick?

We posed this very question to several authors who would have, under normal circumstances, been guests at our original 2020 festival, and recieved some totally fascinating responses. Look out for the castaway libraries of Edward Parnell, Kit Yates, Louise Millar and Helen McCarthy over the course of the next few days – you might get inspired to read some new titles yourself!

Bookish best,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team

Hello booklovers,

Our online festival is nearly here, the excitement is almost proving too much! We hope you are all ready and rearing to go for a weekend’s viewing of fascinating talks and videos. Take a look below for the full programme…

We have a whole host of Live Interviews, pre-recorded author Q&As, plus video insights into the day in the life of an author in lockdown. What more could you wish for? And for our younger festival fans we have drawalongs and story readings, such fun!

Don’t forget to take a look at our guide to viewing our Live events here: https://felixstowebookfestival.co.uk/how-to-view-our-fbf-live-stream-videos. 

For anyone not using Facebook, head to the Online section of our website over the weekend where you will be able to view the festival. You can find this here: https://felixstowebookfestival.co.uk/online

Thank you as ever for your support at this tricky time, we do hope you enjoy our 2020 Online festival!

Bookish best,

the Felixstowe Book Festival Team x

Hello booklovers,

Our 2020 online programme is packed this year! So far in our spotlight series, we’ve brought you the delights of fiction, thrillers, crime fiction and local writing. Today we are celebrating non-fiction. It is often an extremely underrated genre,  pushed aside to the memories of dusty textbooks in the corners of classrooms.

Communicating facts and information in a interesting and engaging way is a tricky business but that is where the genre of non fiction scores highly. The variety included within this umbrella term is endless: the ‘non fiction’ section of any bookshop or library will bring you history, philosophy, science, gardening, cooking, biography, crafts, medicine and art, to name a few. Indeed, Groucho Marx was such a fan that he said “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”

This year we are holding virtual host to the authors of two excellent non-fiction works, including Nick Holland, author of the biography of Anne Brontë Crave the Rose: Anne Brontë at 200.

‘Crave the Rose takes a fresh look at Anne, revealing a woman whose work was more radical than that of her sisters, and which is therefore as relevant today as it has ever been. Alongside a biography of Anne’s remarkable, but tragically short, life, this book contains a comprehensive selection of first-person encounters with the Brontës from 19th-century newspapers and archives, giving a fresh insight into the real character of Anne and her family. Also contained exclusively within this landmark book is a newly-discovered essay by Anne Brontë – what may well be the last words that she ever wrote, in print here for the first time.’

Nick will be joining the Felixstowe Book Festival book club on Friday the 26th of June in order to celebrate Anne’s 200th birthday. Along with discussion of Crave the Rose, our literary thoughts will also be drawn towards Nick’s other work, In Search of Anne Brontë. We are very much looking forward to what promises to be a fascinating evening.

We will also be joined by Martin Bell in a pre-recorded interview with Richard Walker. A familiar face as a former MP and BBC War correspondent, Martin will be chatting about his book War and the Death of News: From Battlefield to Newsroom – My Fifty Years in Journalism.

Bookish best,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team

Hello booklovers,

At this year’s online festival we are very pleased to be offering you a varied programme. So far in our spotlight series we have celebrated Thrillers, Crime and Fiction – this time we are propelling our literary gaze to local writing.

Our own sleepy county has been the muse of many texts, fictional and non fictional, thanks to a heck of a lot of history and a varied landscape. Suffolk has been the inspiration for many a tale, such as the bone chilling ‘Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’ by M.R. James and the charming ‘I Capture the Castle’ by Dodie Smith.

Is it any wonder that our county is such a potent muse? Here in Suffolk we are  blessed with stunning coastlines in addition to gorgeous countryside, and in Felixstowe we hold host to two major rivers – the River Orwell and the River Deben. The mouth of the River Deben is situated in between our own beautiful Felixstowe Ferry and the village of Bawdsey. There is so much fascinating local history locked into the life of this river

We are delighted to be welcoming Nick Cottam, co-author of the book Life on the Deben and the film of the same name. Nick will be giving us a taster of the beautiful countryside that we have all been missing over the past few months.

The Story of a Suffolk River

By Nick Cottam and Tim Curtis

‘In the footsteps of the widely acclaimed film, 

Life on the Deben, the book, captures the soul and spirit of a beautiful Suffolk river – its people, its astonishing history and its natural environment. 

In text and stunning imagery, this book is one of the most definitive accounts of life on the River Deben.’

Bookish best,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team x

Hello booklovers,

This chapter in our spotlight series takes us into the world of Fiction. Defined as ‘literature in the form of prose, especially novels, that describes imaginary events and people’, fiction is such an essential tool in allowing readers to imagine the lives, experience, thoughts and emotions of others. Right now, when life is more unsettling and worrying than usual, the need to escape into fictional worlds is even more important.

Over the course of Lockdown there has been a boom in book-selling and registering to join library services, who are doing an excellent job at serving their customers from behind closed doors. According to research by the Reading Agency , reading reduces feelings of loneliness, enhances relaxation, allows for better sleeping patterns and better life satisfaction, amongst many other innumerable benefits.  All hail the glories of the novel!

Joining us as part of our celebration of fiction and books are festival guests Carol Drinkwater and Liz Trenow. Carol and Liz will both be taking part in our live-stream events and we are very much looking forward to welcoming them to our online festival.

Liz Trenow will be taking to our virtual stage on Sunday 28th of June to discuss her latest novel Under a Wartime Sky.

‘Bawdsey Manor holds a secret.

1936: the threat of war hangs over Europe. Churchill gathers the brightest minds in Britain at a grand house in Suffolk. Bound to complete secrecy, they work together on an invention that could mean victory for the Allies. Among them is Vic, a gifted but shy physicist who, for the first time, feels like he belongs.

Local girl Kathleen wants to do more than serving tea and biscuits to ‘do her bit’. So when the Bawdsey team begin to recruit women to operate their top secret system, she dedicates herself to this life-or-death work. Kath and Vic form an unlikely friendship as the skies over Britain fill with German bombers. Little does Kath know just whose life she will change forever, one fateful night . . .’

Set in our own town, Liz gives us an insight into a world of high stakes and war. Under a Wartime Sky celebrates the legacy of Bawdsey Manor. Bawdsey was one of the first of many radar stations along the east and south coastlines of the UK during the Second World War, the workplace of brave women and men tasked with the role of radar operators. A thrilling and dramatic wartime read set on our doorstep – what more could you wish for?

We will also be joined by Carol Drinkwater who will be chatting to us on Saturday 27th June about The House on the Edge of the Cliff.

‘No one else knows what happened that summer. Or so she believes . . .

Grace first came to France a lifetime ago. Young and full of dreams of adventure, she met two very different men.

She fell under the spell of one. The other fell under hers.

Until one summer night shattered everything . . .

Now, Grace is living an idyllic life with her husband, sheltered from the world in a magnificent Provencal villa, perched atop a windswept cliff.

Every day she looks out over the sea – the only witness to that fateful night years ago.

Until a stranger arrives at the house. A stranger who knows everything, and won’t leave until he gets what he wants.

The past and present spectacularly collide in this gripping story of love and betrayal echoing across the decades.’

Be prepared to be swept away into a world of secrets and intrigue, framed by a choppy sea. Complete with mysterious strangers, a stunning French landscape and a narrative leaping from past to present, The House on the Edge of the Cliff seems like the perfect escape for the summer.

We are very much looking forward to seeing Liz and Carol over the course of the festival weekend. Get reading folks!

Bookish best,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team

Hello booklovers,

As part of the build up to our 2020 festival we are treating you to a series of blog posts pointing the spotlight at the variety of genres and authors who are part of our online events this year. This time we turn to the Thrillers, with help from festival guests Paul French and George Alagiah who will be taking part in our Live Stream interviews.

A thriller is a genre of book, film or tv programme written to elicit feelings of suspense, fear and excitement in its audience… to put it lightly, its main aim is to thrill! Rife with cliffhangers, mysteries and plot twists, audiences are drawn into suspenseful life or death situations, moral quandaries and questions of justice, often set in far flung corners of the earth or even on our doorstep.

This year we will be joined by Paul French, author of City of Devils: A Shanghai Noir. Paul is the winner of both the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime and the CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction.

‘1930s Shanghai was a haven for outlaws from all over the world: a place where pasts could be forgotten, oppression outrun, fortunes made – and lost.

This is the story of ‘Lucky’ Jack Riley, the Slot King of Shanghai, and ‘Dapper’ Joe Farren, owner of the greatest clubs and casinos. It tells of their escape from American prisons and Vienna’s ghetto, their rise to power, and the trail of destruction they left in their wake. Shanghai was their playground for a flickering few years, a city where for a fleeting moment even the wildest dreams seemed possible.’

City of Devils sheds some light into the shade of a difficult decade, bringing to the fore the shady underworld of Shanghai society and combining reigning chaos with the hopes and dreams that have been left behind. Sounds like all the ingredients to a totally absorbing thriller. We are very excited to ‘see’ Paul on Saturday 27th of June.

On Sunday 28th of June we are also looking forward to bringing George Alagiah to our virtual stage. George will be chatting to us about his debut novel The Burning Land.

Hello booklovers,

As you know, the 2020 Felixstowe Book Festival will be taking place entirely online. We will be broadcasting six live interview videos with various authors which will be available to watch through our Facebook page and through our website. These are called Live Stream Videos.

It’s a brave new world of cultural events and in order to make your enjoyment of our online festival as smooth as possible, here we have a handy online guide to watching our Live Stream events. There are three different ways that you can get involved:

Method One through Facebook

1. Visit the Felixstowe Book Festival Facebook page just before the event is due to start. You can find this here: https://www.facebook.com/FelixstoweBookFest/
2. Scroll down the page past the header information and you will see the video being played.
3. Click on the video: you will then be able to see it in full screen and will be able to interact and comment.

Method Two also through Facebook

1. Once the live stream has started, enter this link into your internet browser: https://www.facebook.com/FelixstoweBookFest/live
2. Press your return/enter button and you will be taken directly to the live event.
3. Please note that this will only work if the live event is happening at the moment you enter the link into your browser. You can do this earlier and wait, but if so please do hit refresh as soon as the live event is due to start.

If you have Facebook make sure you ‘like’ and ‘follow’ our page – that way you’ll be able to see our news and events appearing on your Facebook newsfeed.

Method Three through our website

1. Head to https://felixstowebookfestival.co.uk/online to view any live videos.
2. This option will only allow you to view the video live. You can still enjoy watching our event but will not be able to comment on or interact with the video.

We do hope that you enjoy the way that we are delivering our festival this year. Keep your eyes peeled for news about the other interesting festival treats we will be offering you!

Bookish best,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team x