Meet Meg, Festival Director

If you wondered who's behind this wonderful literature festival, do so no more! 

Here's a quick Q&A Meg kindly made time for in among all of the festival preparations.

Hi Meg,

Tell us a bit about yourself and your love of books

I am never happier than when my head is in a book. I used to borrow my parents’ library tickets so that I could borrow 12 books at a time and I saved up all my pocket money to buy Famous Five books.

I’m currently waiting impatiently for Alexander McCall Smiths next book in the Sunday Philosophy series and re reading a Somerset Maughan, Have just finished a Jim Kelly.

Something lovely about organising the Festival has been discovering authors I hadn’t read-Rosy Thornton and Linda Gillard in particular have become favourites.

I would read on a Kindle to make sure I had enough books on holiday- when in Italy last year I’d read all the books I’d taken by the fourth day.

What motivated you to start the first ever Felixstowe Book Festival?

I took my daughter in law to the Cambridge Word Fest and she said “why don’t we have one in Felixstowe?” which I thought was a very good questions, so I started this festival.

You must be a big book fan yourself, do you attend many literary events? 

I've been going to the Edinburgh Book Festival for many years and Cambridge Word Fest usually though I’ve missed it this spring - too much to do for our festival! But I will be going to Edinburgh.

How did you go about recruiting the festival speakers?

They're mostly people I or my friends knew. My greatest excitement was when Barbara Nadel emailed to say that her friend Nicola Upson would be willing to appear at the festival. I had heard Nicola talking at the Cambridge Word Fest and had read all her books. Her heroine is a fictionalised version of Josephine Tey, a favourite author of mine. One of Nicola’s books is set in the Penrose Estate  near Porthleven in Cornwall a very special place in my life.

What kind of reception has the festival had from people in Felixstowe so far?

Very enthusiastic!

What effect do you think the Book Festival will have on Felixstowe?

I hope that it will bring people into the town who will see how much it has to offer and keep coming back.

What has been the biggest challenge so far?

There are so many different things to organise at the same time as each other!

Has anything surprised you along the way? 

Generosity of the authors who have been willing to come even if we didn’t get funding to pay them. They have also been enthusiastic and supportive.

What’s the biggest task on your ‘to do’ list at the moment? 

Every thing!!!!

And on that note, I left Meg to get on with her work!

If you have any burning questions you'd like to ask Meg or the team, drop us a line at Felixstowebooksfest@gmail.com