If you’ve never been to Felixstowe Book Festival, then put the date in your diary now for next year’s – 29th & 30th June 2024. The festival was first launched in 2013 by founder Meg Reid. It’s a place where you will find local, international and award-winning authors and this popular event is billed as “a celebration of Books by the Sea.”
Authors and audiences love this festival’s unique intimate, welcoming atmosphere. They appreciate the chance to combine a weekend packed with author events with seafood suppers, walks along the prom with its colourful beach huts (said to be the oldest in the country), a wander in the award-winning seafront spa gardens and for some even a bracing swim!
Author events are followed by book signings and the chance to meet your favourite author. There’s a mix of genres, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. At the same stunning venue, you can chat with very well-known authors plus also get the chance to discover up and coming writers. The festival also attracts experts in their field who talk knowledgeably and absorbingly about the environment, politics, history, science, art, economics and more.
The venue is the Edwardian and rather beautiful heritage building, Harvest House. Set in beautifully well-kept gardens, on the cliff tops above the sea, it’s also walking distance from Felixstowe town centre.
It also attracts some more unusual events too. In the past there has been a story about a poetry juke box in a beach hut, events in a historic fort. There has been storytelling in the woods, and in beach huts, sat in seaside shelters, in a chip shop and even on a passenger ferry nearby! The festival also has writing workshops for budding writers.
Some of the of the many fascinating speakers’ audiences have been able to meet in previous years include, festival Patrons Esther Freud and Terry Waite. Plus, Tracy Chevalier, Amanda Craig, Louise Doughty, Louis de Bernières, Patrick Gale, Elly Griffiths, Maggi Hambling, Sophie Hannah, A. L. Kennedy, Prue Leith, Stephen McGann, Deborah Moggach, Jenni Murray, Stella Rimmington, Nicola Upson, Salley Vickers, and Justin Webb.
Once announced, there will be a comprehensive look at all of the exciting talks, topics and workshops planned for 2024’s Felixstowe Book Festival on their website www.felixstowebookfestival.co.uk If you sign up for their newsletter you’ll be one of the first to hear the latest news. You can also follow them on social media @felixstowebookfestival