Cheltenham and Wells Festivals

Here I am, getting ready to do the A Song for Issy Bradley Book Group event at Cheltenham with Cathy Rentzenbrink. I took my phone into the event so I could take a picture of the audience, but I forgot (and the lights were blinding, anyway).

Book group events are interesting. As usual, some members of the audience were furious with Ian Bradley while others empathised with him - it's always funny to watch people argue (albeit nicely) about someone I made up!

By the end of book group events people are relaxed and tend to ask quite personal questions. I don't mind answering, but the questions still surprise me - people expect you to talk about your own life as well as the book, something I didn't realise when I was writing A Song for Issy Bradley.

Cathy was a great chair/host and we even happened to come down for breakfast at exactly the same moment this morning (Cathy had been working on the final edits of her memoir for a couple of hours whereas I'd just got out of bed) which meant that we could carry on chatting. 

I love pretty much everything about being a writer (apart from the actual writing of novel 2, which is not proving to be much fun at the moment). One of the very best bits is being allowed to go into places like the Writers' Room and have something to eat while surreptitiously glancing at people whose books I've read and/or seen on the television.

Because I'm going to Wells Literature Festival tomorrow, I stayed in Cheltenham today and went to some really interesting presentations, including Marina Warner's Once Upon a Time, A Short History of the Fairy Tale (above) and Blood, Sex and Death - Ancient Greek Drama (below).

Deirde Le Faye's Jane Austen's Country Life took place in the gorgeous Spiegeltent, and there was afternoon tea. Lovely.









Tomorrow morning I'll be at Wells Literature Festival with Gabriel Gbadamosi, Fay Weldon and Emma Craigie. Can't wait.

** Edited to add...

I had a fabulous time at Wells Literature Festival. It was lovely to meet Gabriel Gbadamosi and Emma Craigie whose novels Vauxhall and Chocolate Cake with Hitler I really enjoyed. It was also fantastic to meet Fay Weldon who is not only extremely accomplished, but is absolutely charming and very kind.