News update from Meg, festival director

Event tickets are selling out fast!

There are only 2 tickets left for the supper with Barbara Erskine on Sat 16th June. If you'd like to attend this event please email Meg@magreid.co.uk. Further details can be found here

Nicola Upson, the panel event "Deadlier Than the Male", the cookery demo, Vintage tea parties, Liz Trennow and John Saul are all selling quickly too.

Don't forget to get your children involved - events at the library for little ones up to teenagers (library coffee bar event with Hayley Long)


Recommended events

Two events I would personally recommend are Boris Starling 9.30am Sat 15th June - our opening event - and Breakfast with Stephen May on Sunday 16th at 10am.

I'm currently reading and very much enjoying and appreciating Boris'novel "Visibility"- a very atmospheric, thought provoking thriller set in the London smog of 1952.

One of the events I most enjoy at the Edinburgh Book Festival is the breakfast event each day and I have been known to book in even when the speaker was a poet reading part of his work in Icelandic! What better way to start the day than having coffee (or tea) and a breakfast pastry while listening to an author?

In the news

There is a feature in the glossy EADT Suffolk Magazine coming out this week as well as a feature  today in the EADT and the Star. I'm also being interviewed later on BBC Radio Suffolk so get in quickly if you want to buy your tickets!

I turned on the Radio today and heard Liz Trenow talking on "Start the Week". The programme repeats this evening on Radio 4, or you can listen to it on demand by following this link  Liz is appearing at the Festival 4.30 on Sunday at the Orwell Hotel.

Sara Sheridan bootcamp update

Finally, if you have booked for the Sara Sheridan boot camp, please note that this event to Sunday 11.30 - 1pm. If you have any questions about this event or anything else please email meg@megreid.co.uk

Tickets for all events can be purchased here or in person at Abbeygate Lighting in Felixstowe.

Introducing Adele Geras

Adele Geras is a writer of books for children, young adults and adults and has published over 90 books. Adele will be appearing at the festival on Saturday 15^th June with crime writer Geraldine Evants to talk about the highs and lows of being a writer.

Thank you for giving  up your time for this interview Adele. 

Firstly, tell us a bit about yourself…

I've been writing books since 1976 and have published 95 or so....mostly for children though four adult novels as well. These are going to be reissued by Quercus (publishing house) as ebooks when they publish my fifth adult novel next year. That's called 'Cover you eyes'. I live in Cambridge now but for 43 years we lived in Manchester.

At the festival you will be discussing what it's like to be a writer, what are the most common questions you get asked about being an author?

Children ask things like: “Are you rich?” and “How long does it take to write a book?'”

Before I published books for adults, they would always ask:  “Will you write a real book when you've had the practice?'” ALL children's writers get asked that question which makes us want to scream! The others are: “Will you be the next JK Rowling?" or else "Should I have heard of you?"

You’ve written books for children, young adults and adults, do you prefer writing for one particular audience? What are the different challenges of writing for different age groups?

I love writing for young adults and adults best. I don't differentiate much between those two groups except for the fact that the protagonists are younger in the YA books. And adult books are generally longer.

I recently discovered that Sophie Hannah, crime writer, is your daughter and will also be attending the book festival. Are you happy that Sophie became a writer like yourself?

I am thrilled skinny that she's  a writer and more than that, she's an extremely successful one and I love her books! What would have happened if she'd written books I found hard to read, I don't know but as it is, I look forward to every new one from her and she's also amazingly prolific and hardworking. She is an example to her mother, really which is just as it should be!

This year’s festival is ‘a sense of place’, have you read anything recently that really captures the sense of a place and made you want to visit?

Well, it didn't make me want to visit but you get a very good idea of Alaska from 'The Snow Child' by Eown Ivey. And I'm enjoying 'In Zodiac Light' by Robert Edric which is set in a lunatic asylum as they used to be called. I can visualize that exactly from the novel, which is about Ivor Gurney, the poet and composer.

How did you get involved with the Felixstowe Book Festival? 

Elaine Simpson-Long, whose blog I have been reading for years, and who's always reviewed my books most kindly, invited me to get involved. I had no idea Sophie was also on the programme till much later...shame we're not on the same day or she could have given me a lift! I recently met Elaine when we moved to Cambridge.  We share a love for baking cakes and the 'Mapp and Lucia' books!

When you’re in Felixstowe, aside from appearing at the festival, what else are you looking forward to doing or seeing when you're in town?

I will try and come early in the day and look about a bit and maybe go to an event which is earlier than my own! I love going to new places. I wish I could stay overnight but alas I have to get back...

Adele's talk will take place on Saturday 15th June between 3.30 and 4.30 pm at The Orwell Hotel.

Tickets cost £5 and can be purchased here.

Writing workshops: Setting the scene, Literary Bootcamp and Self-publishing

Sunday 16th June at Felixstowe library is all about your writing!

Come along to these great workshops to help improve your craft:

9.30 - 11am Author Rosy Thornton facilitates a workshop exploring the challenges of establishing a setting in the mind of the reader. *More details about this workshop can be found below.

11 - 1pm Author Sara Sheridan will hold a 'literary bootcamp' for writers who are struggling to write. Planning techniques, discipline, PR strategy and securing an agent will be covered so by the end of the bootcamp you should have a plan that works for you.

2.30 - 3.30pm Queen of self publishing, writer Linda Gillard will talk about self publishing, from writing and editing to marketing, design and getting those all important reviews.

*Additional information for Rosy Thornton's workshop*

“The impression produced by a landscape, a street or a house should always, to the novelist, be an event in the history of a soul, and the use of the ‘descriptive passage’, and its style should be determined by the fact that it must depict only what the intelligence concerned would have noticed, and always in terms within the register of that intelligence.” (Edith Wharton, The Writing of Fiction).

This workshop will explore in a practical context the challenges of establishing setting in the mind of the reader.


What is the relationship of setting to character and viewpoint? How can landscape be used to reflect mood, heighten emotion or enhance dramatic tension? What specific methods may be employed to conjure setting in the reader’s imagination without resort to excessively long description?


Other particular issues may be addressed, according to participants’ preferences. For example:

          Writing a story with a foreign setting
          Conveying historical settings
          World-building for fantasy, sci fi or futuristic stories

Participants will be invited to submit in advance (anonymised if desired) a sample of their writing in which setting or landscape are described; these will be used as a basis for feedback and discussion.Writing exercises will also be undertaken during the workshop.

Submissions should be 1000 words and sent by 1st June to info@felixstowebookfestival.co.uk and she will give feedback on as many as possible in the workshop. 

Introducing Helen Rappaport

Helen Rappaport, author, historian and former actress, will be discussing her novel 'Ekaterinburg', at the book festival on Sunday 16th June. 

'Ekaterinburg' tells the story of the final days of the Romanovs, the last Imperial family to rule over Russia.

Helen kindly agreed to be interviewed for the blog.

Thank you ever so much for agreeing to be interviewed.

You've written a number of books about Russian history, tell us a little bit about yourself and where your interest in Russia came from.

I came to writing quite late and by a rather long and circuitous route, but thankfully this is one profession where you can begin at any age.  My interest in Russian goes back to my teens when I first read the short stories of Anton Chekhov and fell in love with all things Russian. I remember struggling with Dr Zhivago at the age of 15, and with it the enigma that was Russia – I was hooked and have remained so ever since. I read Russian Special Studies at Leeds University, but during my time there became heavily involved in student theatre. An on-off career in acting followed, during which I also  worked as a literal translator of Russian plays for the theatre, as well as taking on small writing commissions for historical reference books.  Later, I took up copy editing and proof reading and after I moved to Oxfordshire I became an academic editor for Blackwell and OUP before finally moving into full time writing.

Your talk will be around the 1918 murder of Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and his four daughters, and your next work will be about the four girls in particular, is this a favourite period of history for you and what makes it so intriguing to you and so many historians?

I was relatively late coming to the Romanovs, at my agent's suggestion. They are indeed a fascinating and tragic family – there are so many what ifs in the story that it is of course a minefield for conspiracy theorists.  I have never believed that anyone escaped the bloodbath in Ekaterinburg but the rumours still persist, making the story endlessly intriguing.
My preferred historical period is from the reign on Queen Victoria, 1837, to the end of the Russian Civil War in 1920. I find late imperial Russia particularly interesting though my interest originally was in the revolutionary movement.

This year’s festival is ‘a sense of place’, is there anything or anywhere in particular you’ve visited in Russia which feels unmistakably 'Russian', and if so, why? 

All of Russia used to be unmistakably Russian from the minute you stepped off the plane, but now, sadly the big cities are becoming very westernised and commercial and I absolutely hate that. I sigh when walking down the Nevsky Prospekt and seeing Next and Gap and all the British and US stores. I want Russia to stay Russian – and it is, quintessentially so, once you go out of the cities.
St Petersburg, for all the westernisation, still has a magical quality all its own. I adore it – it's my favourite city in the world. I have loved everywhere I have been in Russia – it has such a powerful spirit of place that it sucks you in and you are beguiled by it. I always feel very spiritually at home there.

You were an actress before becoming a full time writer, what made you change career?

Being broke, unemployed and depressed. It's a horrible profession for women as they get older, so cruel and unforgiving, and so much rejection unless you are at the top of the tree. The insecurity was terrible, although having had a period of reasonable financial security as a freelance editor I then took on another insecure life – that of the writer. And it is a very solitary life too, for much of the time.

How did you get involved with the Felixstowe book festival?

Book blogger Elaine Simpson-Long, who is friends with the organizers, asked me if I would give it my support in this, its inaugural year, and I was only too happy to do so as I am a champion of the smaller, more intimate literary festivals.

Aside from appearing at the festival, what are you looking forward to seeing and doing in Felixstowe when you’re here?  

I don't know the area at all, so I look forward to discovering it!

Helen Rappaport will be speaking at The Orwell hotel at 11.30 on Sunday 16th June.

Tickets cost £5. Click here to book your tickets.

Barbara Erskine event (very nearly) SOLD OUT

We're happy to announce that supper with Barbara Erskine on June 15th is nearly Sold Out!

Other events are filling up too, so head over to our booking page to buy your tickets before they disappear. Click here to be redirected to the ticket sales page 

If you would like to buy your tickets in person you can do so at the 'Abbeygate lighting' shop in the center of Felixstowe town (opposite the triangle near Tesco).  

Tickets for the children's events can also be purchased from Felixstowe library.

News flash! Writing Competition, Programmes, Sara Sheridan

Good afternoon all,

We have a few exciting bits of news to share with you today...

Writing competition

We are now able to offer a £50 cash prize to the competition winner, AND they will have their entry featured in 'Suffolk' magazine. Pop over to the competition page for further details.

Programme

The festival programmes have arrived and Meg and our kind volunteers have been distributing them around over Suffolk this week.

Here's a snap of the front cover:

(It's a bit small as it was taken on a phone, but it still looks pretty doesn't it?) 

The posters are on their way and should be popping up in Felixstowe town and around in the near future.

Sara Sheridan

And finally, our lovely author Sara Sheridan is featured in the Huffington Post today. You can read the feature here .

Sara will be hosting a vintage tea party and discussing her novel 'Brighton Belle' at 'Delicious Nutricious' in Felixstowe on Saturday 15th June at 3pm & 5pm. That's a lot of cake eating!

Book your tickets here 

Meet Guy Fraser Sampson

Guy Fraser Sampson is a London based an author and lecturer, and has published work on so many different subjects that he will be appearing twice during the Book Festival.

Thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions for the Felixstowe Book Festival.

First off, please could you introduce yourself to the audience in your own words…

I sometimes think that I am several different people inhabiting the same body. I am a writer, novelist, lecturer, public speaker, investment manager. I have also been a commercial lawyer and an investment banker. I am a Londoner born and bred, though I have also lived in other parts of the world such as Abu Dhabi and Paris, as well as spending a lot of time in San Francisco. For other Londoners out there, I live in Belsize Park and my nearest tube station is Swiss Cottage. I teach at Cass Business School in the City of London but am also Chief Investment Officer with a family office in Mayfair. I have two grown-up sons, one of whom recently did a tour in Afghanistan as a platoon commander with the Welsh Guards.

How do you find time for all of your work from economics to lecturing, history, novel and detective fiction writing? What do you do to relax?

I think it helps that I am a chronic insomniac, which explains why much of my email correspondence is timed at about 0400 local time. Seriously, though, it's actually a very boring matter of planning one's time in advance and then being very disciplined about working to deadlines. Like most writers, I read a huge amount, helped by the fact that I do not have television. I also enjoy listening to music. There comes a time in every man's life when he buys a Mercedes. I haven't got there yet, but I do find myself listening increasingly to Schubert lieder and string quartets, which is probably the musical equivalent. I also retain an enormous enthusiasm for Wagner, if only to annoy the hell out of the neighbours.

The first event you do will be about the sequels you wrote to the ‘Mapp and Lucia’ books written by EF Benson in the 1920’s.
Where did you get the idea of writing these titles?

I have always been a huge fan of the originals, which I discovered when Radio 4 did "Queen Lucia" as a Book at Bedtime when I was ten. As I grew up in a house without television I haunted the local library and soon found and went through the lot. I later discovered, albeit by accident, Tom Holt's books which are of course excellent. Incidentally, Tom has been hugely supportive of my own efforts and I would like to thank him publicly for that, as well as Gyles Brandreth and Alexander McCall-Smith.

It was always my dream to continue the series, but I was realistic enough to know that it would be very difficult to find anyone willing to publish them, even after the television series. The names of all the publishers and agents who rejected "Major Benjy" would make a very long list (almost as long as those who have rejected my narrative history of the Plantagenets!). Again, I would like to thank first Jeremy Thompson at Troubador and later Lorne Forsythe and Olivia Bayes at Elliott & Thompson for having the vision and the courage to support me in my endeavours.

Your second talk will be around your recent book ‘The mess we’re in: why politicians can’t get us out of this mess’. Tell us a bit about this book and what the audience can expect from your talk.

Everyone knows instinctively that things are falling apart around us, no matter how vehemently politicians may deny this, but do not really understand how or why. "The Mess We're In" aims at two objectives. First, to offer an alternative, non-etsablishment view of what has gone wrong. Second, to make this both intelligible and interesting for the general reader. Gratifyingly, the unsolicited feedback which I have received suggests that hopefully I have succeeded. I think it will resonate particularly with those "of a certain age" (45+) who are starting to realise with horror that the whole concept of a financially comfortable retirement can be consigned to the rubbish bin.

How different is writing fiction and detective fiction to writing about the economy and politics?

Very different, which helps actually, as I usually have at least two books on the go at any one time. I find it relatively easy to switch from fiction to non-fiction, even within the course of the same day.

Non-fiction is actually easier in the sense that you should know what is going into each chapter before you write it, which also means that you do not have to start at the beginning and work your way through if you don't want to, but can build the book up in modular fashion. Of course, there is the question of all the research which has to come first, but I do think that the actual writing process is much easier, at least for me (all writers are different).

With fiction you have a rough idea of how you want the plot to work out but really no more than that. For me it works best when the characters take over inside your head and start almost writing the book themselves. This can take you to some very surprising places but is enormous fun. With "Major Benjy" I started with the first scene but nothing else, and the story (and the ending) changed at least twice as I was writing it. With "Lucia on Holiday" I really had nothing more than the idea of moving the characters away from Tilling, and the location was inspired by a real life hotel in which I was lucky enough to stay. Again, various plot elements changed or vanished altogether. With "Au Reservoir", my current venture, I have the ending and an idea for the beginning, but nothing in the middle.

You write detective fiction under a pseudonym, why do you keep this identity a secret? Can we have a clue?

I now realise that writing in lots of different genres confuses people, many of whom want to put things and individuals into nice neat pigeon holes. For example, I write about history, economic history, hard core finance (for professionals), soft core finance (for the general reader), and cricket. I also write the Mapp and Lucia books, and have recently published a book on cricket ("Cricket at the Crossroads") albeit this is about class and colour prejudice as much as it is about cricket. Detective fiction would almost certainly be at least one genre too far! In fact, in hindsight I wish I had written the Mapp and Lucia books under a pseudonym - perhaps Rudolf da Vinci ...?
The detective book is not yet finished, but will be published by Elliott & Thompson in 2014. It is intended to be the first of a series based in and around Hampstead - (so that's your clue!).

What attracted you to the Felixstowe book festival?

I was introduced to Meg by my good friend Elaine of Random Jottings fame. She knew that I had spoken at quite a few festivals. I was really attracted by the idea of being part of getting something new off the ground.

What are you looking forward to doing in Felixstowe aside from appearing at the festival?

I have never been to Felixstowe before and so am really looking forward to exploring. It is also always a great opportunity to meet and talk with other authors. I am particularly looking forward to the book bloggers' session, since both Elaine and Simon are good friends.

Guy will be discussing his 'Mapp and Lucia' books between 11 - 12pm, and 'The mess we're in' between 1.30 - 2.30pm on Saturday 15th June. Both events will take place at The Orwell hotel.

Tickets can be purchased from the booking website.