First things first.
Thanks to everyone who helped and volunteered to do the
readings at the Book Festival. I really do mean everyone. From Caz who helped
set up and take down the display, Cathy for being the cool head amongst us and
for providing plenty of tea and coffee throughout the two days, to Beryl, Liliane,
Dick and Mairéad and the others for being prepared to read their stories. Jane,
busy with her coaching one to ones still managed to read on one of her many
visits to our table. Good to see Carolyn
and Clive in attendance too.
The event seemed to have been a huge success with masses of
people attending the talks and flooding the bookstall afterwards. Even Terry
Waite found time to chat to Cathy in the reception area.
Maybe the downside of the event was the noise which meant
that we abandoned reading out our stories. I don’t think this detracted from
our presence at all. We had a number of enquiries about what we do and took
heart when a new but small ‘Scribblers’ group from Eye in Suffolk made
themselves known to us, and also a group from Woodbridge library. Many years
ago the Scribblers went over to the former library when the group was being
formed. We took a display of work and stories and had a discussion which
included a question and answer session.
We also learned of the East Anglian Story Telling Festival
at the Blaxhall Ship from 24th to 27th July inclusive.
Details can be found on their website at https://m.facebook.com/eastanglianstorytellingfestival.
It was so nice to see some former members of our group,
especially Morag who tells me that she has now finished her novel ‘The Coach
Trip’ after something like seven years in the making. Ally came along as well,
explaining her little boy is now nearly two years old and keeps her occupied.
Tremendous that she showed her talent in the flash fiction event. Wendy who was
married to another former member Arnie Rainbow also came over. They used to
have a small group, Arnie on guitar and Wendy with her superb singing voice. It
was also nice to see Maureen Budner there as well. She is surprised that Bills
competition is still so popular.
We mustn’t forget Ruth either. She is looking forward to her
evening on the 7th July at Scribblers. (So are we!)
I really must mention the fantastic contribution Ed Broom
made in both organising and running the Flash Fiction event. It was a really
successful session despite the numbers being low. Next time we will try and get
a little more advertising that should help boost the number of participants.
So there we are, our third year of exposure at the Book
Festival. So now we have to plan what we will do next year.
Dave
