The Festival was delighted to welcome John Boyne (Boy In The Striped Pyjamas) to the Festival. John's work has been on our radar for a long time, and we were pleased to finally manage to invite and welcome him this year. Even better was his introducing us to friend and fellow novelist Janette Jenkins (Angel Of Brooklyn), who, like John, studied creative writing at the University of East Anglia and has had several successful novels since.
The conversation soon turned to labels and the feelings each writer harboured about being slapped with a particular genre. Both, technically, write historical fiction, but only in the sense that the stories they fell in love with the idea of writing were set in the past, rather than from a great desire to write (or rewrite) history.
Both talked of the process of writing and getting published and offered some great advice for aspiring writers.
Let Me Tell You : Ophelia In Her Own Words
This strange and beautiful Ophelia story came to our attention months ago thanks to its author Paul Griffiths, who sent us a copy and explained his idea, which was to rewrite the story of Ophelia using only the 492 words Ophelia was given by Shakespeare in his Hamlet.
Helen Monks, Archers actress and former young poet laureate for Birmingham was a perfect Ophelia, performing sections of the book to an audience last night, bringing to life the text and the craft of weaving the limited vocabulary into a coherent narrative.
A unique, interesting and thoroughly enjoyable event.
Tonight : KATE MOSSE, TRISTRAM STUART, POSTGRADUATE POETRY PLATFORM, TINDAL STREET BOOKER TRIO, WRITE ON SISTER.
Tickets available on the door or on 0121 303 2323.
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