The Word Dress.

Last weekend I went to the Lancaster Litfest to watch Claire Massey of New Fairy Tales read a brand new fairy tale wearing a dress made entirely out of the pages of books.

The dress was just the sort of thing that I might have imagined as a little girl (along with swimming in a lake of strawberry milkshake and other fantastical and physically impossible feats).

I took sons 2 and 3 with me and they both agreed that the dress was incredible - an admission which was refreshingly genuine and didn't have to be prised out of either of them. They also agreed that Claire's story was very enjoyable and son 2 explained to me on the way home what he thought a dress of 'smoke and feathers' might look like (such a dress features in the story).

Here is Claire's account of the event, complete with gorgeous pictures.

The event was mentioned on the BBC website.

I'm travelling back to Lancaster tomorrow to see Helen Simpson and Jane Feaver at the Litfest - I can't wait, Helen Simpson is one of my favourite authors ever.