Hello booklovers,

Suddenly it’s December and our 2021 festival feels like a lifetime ago. We hope you are enjoying the start of the festive period. Here at FbF we’d like to spread some cheer and give you all some early Christmas presents… in the form of announcing a few of our guests for our 2022 programme!

We’ll start with…

Justin Webb and The Gift of Radio: My Childhood and Other Trainwrecks

Justin Webb will be a familiar name to fans of Radio 4 – he is the longest serving member of the Today Programme team and has had a career in broadcasting for round about four decades. Through his extensive career he has undertaken roles as war correspondent and Europe correspondent. Amongst his many accolades has been awarded Political Journalist of the Year for his coverage of the Obama presidential campaign.

Justin will be chatting to us about his new book The Gift of Radio: My Childhood and Other Trainwrecks. In this thoughtful yet darkly comic memoir Justin explores his childhood and youth with candour, sensitivity and deep reflection. From life as a child of the ’70s with blackouts and terrorist threats around the corner, to family relationships, music and a cold Quaker boarding school, Justin puts the difficult elements of his early life under the magnifying glass and examines issues surrounding parenting, mental health and societal struggle. However the gift of a radio proved to be that spark needed to bring some joy into a young life surrounded by a fair few struggles.

We look forward to welcoming Justin to our 2022 festival for what looks to be a fascinating event.

Keep your eyes peeled for our next Christmas Cracker in a few days time…

Yuletide wishes,

from the Felixstowe Book Festival Team x

 

 

Hello booklovers,

This week we’ve decided to highlight festival writers who put women and the collective experience of womanhood, at the forefront of their work. 

On the 8th of March, we celebrated International Women’s Day. In the same week, women across Britain mourned the murder of Sarah Everard, which triggered an outpouring of personal experiences of what it is to be a woman on the streets of Britain today. We shared stories of times when we had felt unsafe, threatened, vulnerable, on account of our gender. It is easy to assume that we have long escaped the shackles of gender inequality, but the reality is, we still have a long way to go. Many of the writers attending this year’s Felixstowe Book Festival explore female perspectives in their work; be it historical commentaries on women and society, or intriguing tales of female friendship, courage and desire. So, here is the lowdown on some of the fantastic female writers we have coming to the festival this year, along with their empowering female-led narratives. 

Esther Freud’s new novel I Couldn’t Love You More spans three generations of women. It is a story about mothers and daughters, wives and muses. We leap from the Swinging 60’s to 90’s

 London, to the present day, and within these three different narratives, Freud explores female relationships and addresses some of the fundamental complexities of human life. I am very excited to get my hands on this when it is released in May! Esther Freud will be chatting to Catherine Larner about her latest novel as part of the festival on the 26th of June at 11:30 am, at the Orwell Hotel.

 

Jojo Moyes’s The Giver of Stars is another tale of remarkable women. Inspired by a true story, Moyes’s novel takes us to the 1930’s, to a remote area of Kentucky, where five women fight to spread the wonder and joy of reading, becoming the ‘packhorse librarians’. Celebrating the power of and wonder of the written word, Moyes’s novel is a mesmerising tale of female friendship, reminding us of the strength that a collective sisterhood can yield. Jojo Moyes will be discussing The Giver of Stars and all things writing with Ruth Dugdall, at The Orwell Hotel on Saturday 26th June at 1:30 pm. 

 

 

Female narratives aren’t only put to the forefront in fiction at this year’s festival. Double Lives; A History of Working Motherhood, is a groundbreaking social history of working motherhood over the past 180 years. Stooped in meticulous historical research, Helen McCarthy puts working mothers, their feelings and their lives, at the forefront of her commentary, offering us a take on modern Britain which challenges the ways we think about gender and equality. To find out more about this fascinating take on Britain’s social landscape, be sure to tune in to our live-streamed event on Sunday 27th June at 1:30 pm, where Helen McCarthy will be interviewed by Rachel Sloane as part of our series of online events. 

 

                                              Juliet Nicolson brings us Frostquake, another unusual take on our changing social landscape. On Boxing Day 1962, a heavy snowfall greeted Britain, one that would proceed to last for the next 10 weeks. Out of the ‘Big Freeze’ that saw food rationed, power cuts and burst pipes, the privileged London elite making use of their ski equipment, a new Britain emerged. With Frostquake Nicolson argues that acting as a catalyst for change, the thaw led to a melting of traditional British values. The following Spring, new life was unleashed, bringing with it social change, including newfound freedoms for women. The Beatles topped the charts becoming a symbol of youth and counterculture, the Profuomo scandal exposed racial and sexual prejudice, and Mary Quant brought out a range of clothes that encouraged women to dress for themselves. Cleverly combining personal memoir with a zoomed out social and historical commentary, Nicoson paints a vivid landscape of 60’s Britain. Catch our live-streamed interview with Juliet Nicolson                                                on the 26th of June at 6 pm. 

We can’t wait to welcome these brilliant writers to the 2021 festival for what promise to be thought provoking and insightful discussions. Please do get involved! 

Bookish Best, 

Elizabeth and the Festival Team x

Hello booklovers,

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.

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.

Bookish best,

Imogen and the Festival Team x

 

Hello booklovers,

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.

Bookish best,

Imogen and the Festival Team x

Hello booklovers,

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 Feeds and 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

Hello booklovers,

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

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7191984096?pwd=S25Ca1hKSVJlYTZlS3VMcGJrbUdOUT09

Meeting ID: 719 198 4096
Passcode: 924972

Bookish best,

Imogen

 

Hello booklovers,

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.

 

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team x

 

 

Hello booklovers,

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 90^th 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!

Bookish best,

Imogen and the festival team x

Hello booklovers,

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!

Bookish best,

Imogen and the Festival Team x