Hello booklovers,

Today’s merry offering is The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater. Sit back and relax for some meditative, seasonal food writing.

A delightful compendium of wintery musings, recipes and anecdotes in Nigel’s trademark thoughtful writing style. He takes us from Autumn to March with a potent mix of family stories, seasonal observations topped off with ideas for tasty treats and delicious recipes for Christmastime. You can also enjoy listening to Nigel’s mellifluous narration via audiobook. Enough to cheer even the most world weary, offering a fresh perspective on a special time of year.

Bookish best,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team x

Hello booklovers,

Advent treat number 7 is here – today we are delighted to bring you Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May. 

You can’t escape the fact that times are tough at the moment, both globally and locally, sometimes made all the harder at this time of year where jollity pervades every aspect of daily life, on the radio, in the shops and on the TV. Christmas is a nice escape from reality but real life does go on – and for anyone living through testing times, Wintering by Katherine May should be prescribed reading. Using the metaphor of the seasons, Katherine gently suggests how the ‘winters’ of our lives – the aftermath of testing times – should be filled with moments of rest and repair so that we can come back anew, like flowers, birds and animals do as Spring rolls around once more.

Comforting and soul nourishing, this is a book for anyone who needs to retreat from normal life and from the festivities for a while.

Wintery best,

Imogen and the Festival Team x

 

Hello booklovers,

So far we have looked at books dedicated to Christmas and festive traditions – however the festive season also works its way into classic novels. Behind today’s Advent door we have hidden Emma by Jane Austen, where one of the funniest scenes in the book takes place on Christmas Eve.

The evening itself is already on tenterhooks – the Woodhouse family and respective friends, including local vicar Mr Elton, have been invited to dine at their neighbours, the Westons. Such an event is met with a mixed response: Mr Woodhouse, Emma’s father, is making the highly unusual move of venturing out on such a cold night and Harriet Smith, Emma’s close friend, is laid up in bed with a sore throat. Emma’s sister, Isobella, is loath to leave her children and brother in law, Mr John Knightley, seemingly finds the invitation itself a mark of arrogance. ‘A man’ said he, ‘must have a very good opinion of himself when he asks people to leave their own fireside, and encounter such a day as this, for the sake of coming to see him’, of course entirely missing the point of the Weston’s invitation to join them in good cheer and good food (but in truth, who hasn’t had this thought cross their mind when all you want to do is stay in for an evening with some Baileys and your jammies?!) Moreover, during the course of the evening it dawns on Emma that, despite her machinations, Mr Elton may well be in love with her, rather than the poor, sore throated Harriet Smith. And all the while, the snow comes down, heavier and heavier.

In the advent of falling snow and anxious guests, the merry bunch must make an abrupt departure from the Westons warm hearth – it is in this moment of exit that Emma finds herself alone in a carriage with Mr Elton, the rest of her family having merrily scooted off to beat the snow. She finds ‘her subject cut up – her hand seized – her attention demanded’ as Mr Elton declares his ‘ardent attachment and unequalled love and unexampled passion’, which Emma swiftly and disbelievingly rejects. Awkwardness and silence ensues, much to the horror of Emma and the delight of the reader.

Austen looks closely at the miniate of human behaviour, gently pointing out the resentments and pleasures associated with the season and how gathering a group of people at Christmas is a microcosm of wider human society. Wonderful reading to be indulged in during the Christmas break.

Festive wishes,

Imogen and the Festival Team x

Hello booklovers,

For our 5th bookish Advent treat, we bring you the spine tingling, chill ridden The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights.

Alongside all the jollity and partying, this time of year is also associated with slower pleasures like storytelling… specifically ghost stories – a tradition inextricably linked with writer and academic M.R James, who wrote ghost stories to read aloud with friends and colleagues on Christmas Eve. His stories were frightening because of their contemporary settings, adding a realism to a genre previously laden with gothic tropes. The Haunting Season takes on the mantle with great aplomb, featuring spooky short stories, many with contemporary resonance, from authors such as Laura Purcell, Kiran Millwood-Hargrave and Elizabeth Macneal.

Amongst all the hustle and bustle of Christmas why not gather your loved ones and come together to share a tall, sometimes terrifying tale from this collection? You can read each story from the safety of your cosy fireside but be warned – the uncanny is much closer than you think, particularly at this time of year…

Yuletide wishes,

Imogen and the Festival Team x

 

 

Hello booklovers,

We welcome you through Advent door number four and into the delightful world of Brambly Hedge in Winter Story by Jill Barklem.

There are some books from childhood which, upon re-reading them, helps you understand yourself a little bit more. After flicking through my Brambly Hedge treasury in search of this sweet seasonal tale, it became clear to me that my love of the countryside, of crafting and of home comes from poring over the Brambly Hedge stories from a very young age. Jill Barklem’s intricate illustrations build a detailed world of the inhabitants of Brambly Hedge, blending nature drawing with homely small details, such as patchwork quilts, fine china and four poster beds. I remember being delighted by such details and now find myself emulating them in my own home.

The Winter Story in particular is a favourite of mine and never fails to make me feel cosy. Snowflakes, open fires, chestnut soup, everygreen decorations – we have it all. We join the Brambly Hedge community in the depths of winter as they wake up one morning to discover heavy snow has surrounded their tree trunk homes. Rather than the human response to this – closed schools, icy roads and doom and gloom – the mice throw a ‘Snow Ball’ and rush into the preparations. There is much merriment, stringing up of crab apples and other decorations and preparing of food. The Snow Ball itself looks like a blast, with well dressed mice whizzing and skidding all over the ballroom floor before retiring to their cosy beds, exhausted.

Festive wishes,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team x

 

Hello booklovers,

I hope you are feeling hungry – hiding behind today’s advent door, smelling of cinnamon, clove and sugar is Advent: Festive German Bakes to Celebrate the Coming of Christmas by Anja Dunk

Advent is a time of preparation for the festive celebrations to come, with four whole weeks of anticipation for Christmas celebrations. It is a time of anticipation, tradition, and light. In Germany Advent is synonymous with the start of winter – as soon as scarves, coats and gloves are dug out, so are the festive recipe books, sugars and spices. If you enjoy baking Christmassy treats then this may well be for you – read through for different types of Lebkuchen, Stollen and for decoration ideas too, such as a traditional salt dough wreath.

This book is not so much a cookbook as it is a history of a culture’s food – alongside mouth watering recipes, you learn all about festive German traditions, such as the making of Bunter Tellers, a colourful plate of advent biscuits that family, friends and neighbours give each other over the course of Advent to extend the hand of friendship. How bloomin’ lovely is that?

Yuletide wishes,

Imogen and the Festival Team x

 

Hello booklovers,

Behind Advent door number two you will find… Mistletoe and Murder by Carola Dunn.

Daisy Dalrymple is the daughter of a Viscount, who has shocked her mother by marrying a widowed policeman and working as a journalist writing articles for Town & Country magazine. Wherever Daisy finds herself she finds a body too, and much to the frustration of her husband, cannot resist investigating

It is Christmas 1923 and Daisy is writing a story about a country house owned by her distant cousin, Lord Westmoor. Daisy and her family are invited by Lord Westmoor to spend Christmas at his ancestral estate with a rich history of ghost stories, rumours of hidden treasure, secret passageways, and a family seething with resentments.

This is a country house murder mystery enlivened by period details and Daisy’s delicious insights e.g. the following exchange between Daisy and her husband, about a fellow guest:

“You know, I’m a bit surprised he let his daughter marry a man whose legitimacy was in doubt.”
“I daresay he despaired of getting her off his hands.”
“Don’t be beastly, darling. She can’t help her teeth.”

This is not great literature by any means, but it’s a lot of fun and just perfect for a cosy read during the Christmas holiday.

Bookish best,

Jan and the festival team x

Hello booklovers,

Welcome to the first installment of your bookish Advent Calendar. We are delighted to start our celebration of yuletide books with… Festive Spirits by Kate Atkinson.

Who doesn’t love a short story at Christmas time? Time can be short and a the to-do list can be endless, so a short burst of festive bookish fun is ideal. Festive Spirits by Kate Atkinson features three short stories to delight the reader, including Lucy’s Day, Festive Spirit and Small Mercies. My favourite of the three is Festive Spirit.

We join husband and wife, Sarah and Richard as they endure a tense dinner celebrating Sarah’s December birthday. Kate cleverly uses this setting as a microcosm for the dysfunction deep rooted in their marriage, nodding to the fact that the festive season frequently brings out the worst in people. As with the deftness to be found in her other novels, such as Behind the Scenes of Museum, we find out an awful lot about this couple, their personalities, their history and the nature of their marriage, in a very short space of time.

The story has the air of a cautionary tale, feeling very grounded until the end where a miraculous turn of events come to pass. Of course Christmas is a time of magic and miracles, and long awaited wishes coming true – but in true Kate Atkinson style, this particular, unspoken wish takes a darkly entertaining turn.

I would recommend this to anyone who finds the general air of jollity and merriment a bit much as it offers some sometimes welcome respite from all the good will at this time of year!

Bookish best,

Imogen and the festival team x

 

Hello booklovers,

Advent is upon us once again and it’s time for the Felixstowe Book Festival team to spread some comfort, warmth and festive cheer. What better way to do that than through the medium of books?

We all have our traditions at Christmastime – indeed a few years ago we ran a festive blog series where festival authors and other bookish folk shared their favourite Christmas traditions for the yuletide season. Music, food and random yet much loved decorations came to fore, as did books. You can’t beat the comfort brought by snuggling down with a good book at any time of year, and even more so at Christmas because of the hearty dose of familiarity, melancholy and fondness that they offer.

With that in mind, here at the Felixstowe Book Festival we are treating you to your very own bookish Advent Calendar, with a different bookish treat hiding behind every door. Check our blog for every day of December up until the 24th to see which festive book is revealed. We hope this brings you some cheer and respite from the busyness and bustle of the season.

Bookish best,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team x

Hello booklovers,

How time flies… it doesn’t seem so long since we were basking in the early summer sunshine and enjoying festival events at Harvest House and the Two Sisters Arts Centre. Now November approaches, the trees have undergone their beautiful transformation from green to gold, and the nights are drawing in. With that autumnal nostalgia for a past summer in mind, we thought we would take a look back at the brilliantly bookish festival weekend of June 2022…

Saturday 25th June

The first day of our festival weekend saw a bumper series of sell out events – Stephen McGann charmed our socks off in the Palm Court with witty stories about the much loved BBC programme Call the Midwife, all available in the beautiful commemorative book, Call the Midwife: A Labour of Love, celebrating the series. Stella Rimington, the first female chief of MI6, held us spellbound with her recounts of her life and her work. Radio 4’s Justin Webb brought tears to the eyes as he shared intimate details of his childhood and youth as written in his remarkable memoir The Gift of a Radio: My Childhood and Other Trainwrecks. And Patrick Gale shed fascinating insight into the life of poet Charles Causley, explored in his latest novel Mother’s Boy. 

Meanwhile at the Two Sisters Arts Centre, the Suffolk and the Sea Day got well underway, with various authors discussing a whole range of fascinating topics, such as the changing shape of the Suffolk coastline, how the sea is a source of artistic inspiration and the beneficial effects of wild swimming.

Sunday 26th June

The final day of our festival weekend brought even more talented guest to our stage. Over at the Two Sisters Arts Centre FBF and the University of Suffolk were delighted to host an Emerging Writers Day, jam packed with interesting writing workshops and rounding off with a prize giving for the 2022 short story competition.

Back over at Harvest House, we were so pleased to be able to showcase A New Suffolk Garland, an anthology featuring the works of Suffolk writers published to celebrate the late Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee and the 2022 festival of Suffolk. We also welcomed the legendary crime writing duo Nicci French – Nicci and Sean gave an entertaining and enlightening talk about their lives, their family and their writing process which proved very enjoyable for all involved. Author and poet Blake Morrison teamed up with festival favourites Martin Newell and the Hosepipe Band, performing The Ballad of Shingle Street and other Suffolk Poems. And to round of the festivities, Carol Drinkwater was finally able to join us in person and rounded off our festival with great aplomb, discussing her writing, her acting roles and her life in Provence.

A special mention should also go to the folk beetling away in the background throughout the festival weekend, especially our brilliant band of volunteers and all the team from our festival bookstall, Stillwater Books. All throughout the weekend our festival volunteers worked extremely hard to ensure the weekend went smoothly – we couldn’t do it without them!

It was such a brilliant festival weekend, I can’t do it justice in a blog post – if you would like to browse our full 2022 to see every detail about the talented guests we brought to you this year, take a look here.

Now we move ever closer to 2023 and rest assured the festival bookworms are busy planning next year’s events. Keep an eye on our website for further news soon, plus lots of treats lined up in our festival blog. While you’re at it, why not head to our homepage and subscribe to our festival newsletter? You will find the subscribe option in the bottom right hand corner. That way you can receive our news directly into your inbox.

Bookish best,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team x