Hello booklovers,

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

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.

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…

Bookish best,

Imogen and the Festival Team x

 

 

 

 

Hello booklovers,

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

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 14^th 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 …’

Happy Valentine’s Day,

Elizabeth x

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDLwivcpFe8 ‘Frank O’Hara reads Having a Coke with You …’

Hello booklovers,

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!

Bookish best,

The FbF team x

Hello booklovers,

We are thrilled to announce that our 2021 festival, celebrating books by the sea, will be going ahead over the weekend of the 25-27th of June. This year’s festival will be a mix of socially distanced author events to be held at the Orwell Hotel and a separate online programme of live streamed events where authors will be chatting with us from the comfort of their own homes.

Felixstowe Book Festival Patrons Esther Freud and Terry Waite will be joining us in person over the festival weekend. Other speakers already booked to appear at the Orwell Hotel include JoJo Moyes, Liz Trenow, Elly Griffiths and Iain Dale, amongst many other brilliant guests.

As part of our live-streamed online programme we are delighted to be speaking to authors Robert Jones Junior and Dawnie Walton live from their homes in New York. We are so looking forward to hearing from Helen McCarthy about her book Double Lives, The History of Working Motherhood, Christopher Tugendhat about his work A History of Britain in Books and Carol Drinkwater will be talking about her latest novel An Act of Love.

Our programme is packed out with plenty of other exciting guests who will be bringing their talent to our stage and screens over the June festival weekend – keep your eye on our website for further details and updates over the coming weeks and months.

Bookish best,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team x

Today we take you back to the Felixstowe Book Festival of 2017, with a wonderful mix of fiction and non-fiction. Enjoy…

Chains of Sand by Jemma Wayne

Jemma Wayne’s ground breaking second novel Chains of Sand is set between London and Israel amidst the turmoil of war. The novel is driven by the powerful love stories of young Israeli Jews, Arabs, and Brits alike, each battling to forge their own identities against the hopes, fears and prejudices of their families, and the societies they find themselves trapped within.

Built on Bones by Brenna Hasset

The city has killed most of your ancestors, and it’s probably killing you, too – this book tells you why… Built on Bones offers an accessible insight into a critical but relatively unheralded aspect of the human story: our recent evolution. It tells the story of shifts in human longevity, growth and health that have occurred as we transitioned from a mobile to a largely settled species.

For the Love of Shakespeare by Beth Miller

Beth Miller has managed to cover all aspects of William Shakespeare’s life and career with great prowess in her book For the Love of Shakespeare, a collection of fascinating facts and miscellany. In this light-hearted talk, she will discuss the man and his work, and address one of the key controversies surrounding this most precious of cultural icons.

Stronger Than Skin by Stephen May

A psychological thriller that is also the story of a toxic love, with a setting that moves easily between present day London and 1990s Cambridge – plus a climactic detour to Felixstowe! Stronger Than Skin is compulsively readable, combining a gripping narrative with a keen eye for the absurdities of the way we live now.

The Great Acceleration: How the World is Getting Faster, Faster by Robert Colvile

From the devices we carry to the lives we lead, everything is getting faster. But where did this great acceleration come from? And where will it lead? In his vitally important new book, The Great Acceleration: How the World is Getting Faster, Faster Robert Colvile explains how the cult of disruption in Silicon Valley, the ceaseless advance of technology and our own fundamental appetite for novelty and convenience have combined to speed up every aspect of daily life.

The Knives by Richard T Kelly

The Knives explores the secrets and complexities of modern government, and the struggles that those in the
highest ranks of Parliament face. Having spent much time in Westminster, Richard has gained a unique insight into the political Establishment, which he brings to life in thrilling fashion.

Breaking Cover by Stella Rimington

With increased aggression towards the West, MI5 Agent Liz is on the hunt for a Russian spy who threatens to plunge Britain back into the fraught days of the Cold War. This is a gripping, topical and utterly contemprary espionage thriller…

For younger readers…

There May be a Castle by Piers Torday

In an extraordinary turn of events, a young lad named Mouse finds himself in another world and on a quest with a new gang of fantasy friends to find a castle and a life filled with minstrels, magic and mystery. A story about love, loss and the power of imagination by Guardian Children’s Book Award winning author.

Julius Zebra: Rumble with the Romans by Gary Northfield

Madagascar meets Gladiator in this action-packed and hysterically funny story involving a rather adventurous Zebra named Julius. Julius and some of his rather smelly friends are kidnapped and taken to Rome to become gladiators. In order to escape they must win the love of the Roman people –  but will they manage it?!

 

Hope enjoyed our trip back in time to 2017 – maybe it has reminded you of some books that you meant to try way back then? Well books aren’t going anywhere, so why not give them a go now?

 

Next stop in our From the Archives blog tour, we head back to the 2016 Felixstowe Book Festival, a feast of interesting and unusual works which might spark your appetite today.

Hollie McNish – Cherry Pie

This 2015 collection by McNeish includes her poem ‘Mathematics’ which became a viral hit on YouTube, receiving 1.9 million views. But really it is her honest and unapologetic accounts of womanhood which have given McNish much of her acclaim; her first collection Nobody Told Me is an account of becoming a mum for the first time. Cherry Pie is inspired by advice that her Grandparent’s gave her on newspapers, war, sex and tinned cherries. The poems are accompanied by brilliant illustrations by McNish’s favourite artists.

Megan Bradbury – Everyone is Watching

Bradbury’s debut novel is a love letter to New York and the generation that have defined it. Through the perspectives of four famous New Yorkers, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, writers Walt Whitman and Edmund White, and city planner Robert Moses, Bradbury captures the rich artistic history of an ever-evolving city. Told through short vignettes, Bradbury’s writing is formally unusual and evocative, much like her subjects. We may not be able to jet set off for an artistically fulfilling city break in New York at the moment, but Bradbury’s novel is sure to transport you there and inspire your inner artist.

Martin Edwards – Gallows Court

Winner of the Diamond Dagger 2020, Edwards brings us an atmospheric Golden Age murder mystery, packed with twists and turns. On the gloomy, smog-filled streets of 1930’s London, heroine Rachel Savernake is on the trail of yet another killer. If you are hungry to be gripped by a page-turning plotline and to be immersed in a period setting, Gallows Court seems like a good place to begin.

Rebecca Elliott – Pretty Funny

With no school and hours to fill the days, this laugh-out-loud Young Adult novel may be just the thing to brighten up this bleak period. Haylah Swinton dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian – but are girls like her allowed to be funny? Full of relatability, Elliott confronts the trials and tribulations of being a teenage girl with wit and much hilarity.

Mary Powles – The Accidental Stalker

A darkly comedic family drama with a familiar setting, The Accidental Stalker is the first novel of home-grown, Suffolk born writer Mary Powles. Set between Felixstowe and South Wales, the story follows the life of Jack, grieving for the loss of his first love, Lucy. At the funeral, he is struck by the similarity of Lucy and her daughter, Grace. Jack begins to take an interest in Grace and her family and becomes the accidental stalker.

You can take a look back at all our 2016 events here: Felixstowe Book Festival 2016.

We hope to have provided a bit more bookish inspiration for grim January. Next up we’ll be heading back in time to our 2017 festival – see you there!

 

We’re spending the next few weeks looking back to previous festivals (with more than a hint of nostalgia for normal life!) in order to celebrate the wonderful guests who have graced our stage in the past and their brilliant works.

This week we have compiled the works of some of our guests from our 2015. Enjoy…

Simpson & I by Oggy Boytchev

Oggy Boytchev is a journalist and author. In 2015 he came to our festival to talk about his book ‘Simpson & I’ which documents Oggy’s turbulent, yet highly successful, working relationship with the BBC’s World Affairs Editor, John Simpson, and lifts the lid on the untold stories behind some of the most memorable reports ever to appear on BBC News.

Mr Mac and Me by Esther Freud

Esther Freud is an author and one of our festival patrons. She visited us in 2015 to talk about ‘Mr Mac and Me’, a luminous novel set in wartime all about the unlikely friendship between a young lad and the artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Solvitur Ambulando by Jim Nind

Jim Nind is a Felixstowe-based artist, writer, and academic. His work draws upon the experience of being out there, under the light of the sky, wandering the coastal margins and responding to the pull of the sea. Jim’s book, Solvitur Ambulando, combines his fine art photographs with a related prose-poem sequence, based upon the walk from Felixstowe to the fishing and boating hamlet known as Felixstowe Ferry.

A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale

One of this country’s best-loved novelists, Patrick’s novel Notes From An Exhibition, which sold over 300,000 copies in the UK alone.A bold departure from his previous works, ‘A Place Called Winter’ is a searching, personal historical novel based on a true story in Patrick’s own family history.

Everyman’s Castle: the story of our cottages, country houses, terraces, flats, semis and bungalows by Philippa Lewis

Philippa Lewis has worked as a picture editor, photographer and writer. She founded and, until its recent transfer to English Heritage, ran the Edifice Architectural Photo Library, which compounded her enthusiasm for British Domestic architecture, from the grandest to the scruffiest.  Everyman’s Castle combines social and architectural history making for a fascinating read.

Little Egpyt by Lesley Glaister

Lesley Glaister is the prize-winning author of thirteen novels, including Little Egypt, which won a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize in 2014. A gripping, eery and darkly humourous novel about two sisters and their life in their decaying family home.

2015 was another excellent and varied year – alongside the guests mentioned above we were visited by many other fascinating writers and speakers. You can peruse the entire 2015 for further ideas for things to read here.

Take care everyone and keep on reading!

 

Hello booklovers,

It’s January again… the decorations are back in the loft and its is highly likely that some of us are wolfing down some beautiful new books received for Christmas. In light of the latest lockdown announcement, perhaps you are looking for some fresh literary inspiration. We have delved into our archives to cherry pick the works of some of the excellent authors who have graced our stage at previous festivals.

We’re starting off with our 2014 festival and have a delightful smorgasbord of fiction and non fiction for you to peruse at your leisure.

A Song of Their Own: the Fight for Votes for Women in Ipswich by Joy Bounds

Much of what we know about the movement for votes for women revolves around a handful of well known names. A Song of Their Own is a record of what women in and around Ipswich did to increase pressure on the Government to allow them to vote. In it, she explores the burning down of the Bath Hotel in Felixstowe just a hundred years ago, and the ensuing furore.

The Village by Nikita Lalwani

Set in a village modelled on a real-life open prison in India, The Village is a gripping story about manipulation and personal morality, about how truly frail our moral judgement can be.

William Brodrick’s ‘Father Anselm’ novels

William Brodrick’s hugely enjoyable crime series featuring his much loved character Father Anselm, a monk turned barrister, who seeks to bring justice beyond the reach of the law.

First World War: Still No End in Sight by Frank Furedi

A fascinating piece of non fiction which explores how, in many ways, World War One never truly ended.

A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie

A gripping story of friendship, love and betrayal, set to the backdrop of the First World War and a crumbling Empire.

My Life as a Hooker by Steven Gauge

My Life as a Hooker was shortlisted for the British Sports Book Awards 2014 and is about how local sports teams can bring a community together as well as help a middle-aged bloke avoid a  mid-life crisis.

Madame Mephisto by A. M. Bakalar

Meet Magda: a drug dealer new to living in the UK who will stop at nothing to expand her lucrative business… yet her family know nothing of this aspect of her life. Heart stopping and menacing, A. M. Bakalar’s first novel provides an interesting commentary on the lies we tell and the people we really are.

 

What a brilliant year 2014 was, with such a wide range of guests and interesting works brought to the table. We hope that our perusal through the 2014 festival archive has provided you with some ideas for some new books to try!

Bookish best,

The Felixstowe Book Festival Team x

 

 

 

Hello booklovers,

It’s Christmas Eve! Sending you all lots of love and bookish thoughts during yet more odd times. I’m sure we’ll all agree that great solace has been found in reading this year – I intend to embrace this further going into the new year. I’m currently tingling in anticipation of which books may be waiting for me under the tree as I write…

Over the course of December we have delivered slices of festive cheer in the form of our Comfort and Joy blog series. Each week a variety of authors and other bookish folk have shared with us their Christmas traditions and musings, with the aim to provide some merry distractions and bring a bit of joy to the build up to a rather odd Christmas.

And so here we have a compilation of each entry for you to peruse, in the manner of a box of cherry liqueurs or marzipan fruits (or, for the Edmund Pevensies amongst us, Turkish Delight…), over the Christmas break.

Meg Reid, our festival director, shared with us her favourite Christmas books: Comfort and Joy with our Festival Director (felixstowebookfestival.co.uk)

Children’s author Sophie Green evoked the scent of Christmas: Comfort and Joy with Sophie Green (felixstowebookfestival.co.uk)

Biographer Nick Holland brought to life Christmas as the Brontë parsonage: Comfort and Joy with Nick Holland (felixstowebookfestival.co.uk)

Author Louise Millar shared with us the music of her family Christmases past and present: Comfort and Joy with Louise Millar (felixstowebookfestival.co.uk)

Local bookseller Helen Bott reflected on a favourite childhood novel that always makes her feel festive: Comfort and Joy with Helen Bott (felixstowebookfestival.co.uk)

Writer Esther Rutter shared a precious family Christmas item that brings a little magic into the celebrations: Comfort and Joy with Esther Rutter (felixstowebookfestival.co.uk)

FbF blog writer Elizabeth Carpenter whisked us away to the wilds of wintery Russian literature: Comfort and Joy with Elizabeth Carpenter (felixstowebookfestival.co.uk)

Children’s author Francesca Armour-Chelu welcomed us into one of her family Christmas traditions: Comfort and Joy with Francesca Armour-Chelu (felixstowebookfestival.co.uk)

Local author Ruth Dugdall transported us around the world via her Christmas Tree decorations: Comfort and Joy with Ruth Dugdall (felixstowebookfestival.co.uk)

FbF volunteer and blog writer Anna Tink mused on the significance of Christmas trees and the beautiful things that bedeck them: Comfort and Joy with Anna Tink (felixstowebookfestival.co.uk)

Writer Elly Griffiths shared with us her family Christmas eve tradition: Comfort and Joy with Elly Griffiths (felixstowebookfestival.co.uk)

We do hope this project has brought a little joy, comfort and familiarity to a year such as 2020 and that it brings you a smile in the days to come. Now it’s time to sit back with a mince pie and something mulled and enjoy what the festive season brings, in whichever shape or form that may be. From the bottom of our bookish hearts we wish you a merry and peaceful Christmas with hope for a brighter new year ahead.

Merry Christmas everyone!

With love,

Imogen and the Felixstowe Book Festival Team x

 

Hello booklovers,

Today we bring you our last instalment in our Comfort and Joy Christmas blog series. We do hope you have enjoyed the bookish insights from authors and other festival folk over the past few weeks and that it has brought some festive cheer into your December. Today we round off with the Christmas musings of one of our best loved guests to the Felixstowe Book Festival, Elly Griffiths. Join Elly as she shares with us the Christmas Eve tradition that brings comfort and joy to her Christmas celebrations…

On Christmas Eve when they were two, my twins were given a copy of The Night Before Christmas by Clement C Moore illustrated by Douglas Gorsline. I read it to them that night and we were all entranced by the words and the pictures: the mantelpiece with the stockings hanging from it, the cat on the snowy window ledge, Mama in her kerchief and Papa in his cap, the tiny reindeer on the roof. And has there ever been a better description of Santa? He’s dressed all in fur, ‘a right jolly old elf’, bringing a touch of folkloric wildness into the cosy domestic scene.

It became our tradition to read the book on Christmas Eve every year. Even when the twins became teenagers, they humoured me and let me read to them about the angelic children nestled in their beds dreaming of sugarplums. The book has been influential in many ways. We realised, a few years ago, that at Christmas we decorate our sitting room to resemble Garsline’s illustration as closely as possible, with the tree to left of the fireplace and greenery along the mantelpiece. The poem is also a very useful aide-memoire for reindeer names (although Rudolph doesn’t appear), which has proved invaluable in more than one Christmas quiz.

In recent years my little angels have been out partying on Christmas Eve but this year, of course, that won’t be possible. We’ll have a cosy evening at home with our decorations and our cat snoozing in front of the fire. And, yes, there will come a point when I will get out our battered copy of The Night Before Christmas and start to read.

Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Elly Griffiths x

Elly Griffiths is a British crime writer and author of the fascinating Dr Ruth Galloway series and the Stephens and Mephisto novels. Her latest standalone novel, The Postscript Murders, was published in October this year. Elly is a long standing supporter of the Felixstowe Book Festival and we look forward to seeing her again very soon.