Mollie Davidson tells us about a family writing workshop she took part in as part of the Birmingham Book Festival and gives details about the next one in October 2009 . For adults and young friends/relatives in pairs, these are a great way to get your kids(and yourself!) writing...

Festival Artistic Director Jonathan Davidson tells us about a forthcoming Helen Cross/Tommy Wierenga event at the Birmingham Book Festival in October 2009, and more about the book behind it...

Joe Speedboat Review

Festival Author Tommy Wieringa's 'Joe Speedboat' tells the story of Frankie, who emerges crippled from a 200-day coma to find his small town, Lomark, is being turned on its head by a new arrival with the unlikely name of Joe Speedboat. Frankie proves an intriguing narrator; despite his immobility (or perhaps because of it) he is by far the most insightful character and often manages to unravel the motivations of the other characters. Frankie has one good arm, which he uses for writing and working his briquette presser. Until, that is, Joe sees something that only Joe would see: Frankie’s potential to become an arm-wrestling champion. Wieringa manages to fuse more fantastic story elements such as this with more commonplace events, chronicling ordinary life in a very ordinary town and the interactions between a group of adolescents moving into adulthood. At times comic, tragic and thrilling, 'Joe Speedboat' is, in a word, brilliant.

Work Experience

On Monday 17th of August, I started work experience for Midland Creative Projects, who are currently preparing for the Birmingham Book Festival in October. I was set to work proof-reading the brochure and checking it against the website. Later, I was asked to start updating the Facebook page by adding the events for the Festival; owing to the sheer amount of talks, discussions and performances planned, this was to take quite a while! Also, consulting the brochure, I compiled a list of relevant books and authors which would be of interest to Festival-goers. On the last day, I was given a video camera and charged with filming first Festival Artistic Director Jonathan talking about a Festival event (Spilt Milk and Speedboats) and secondly his daughter Mollie on a family writing workshop which was certainly not a one-take process! I also created a fan page for Dutch writer Tommy Wieringa’s new book, Joe Speedboat. Of course, interspersed were more normal office work experience tasks: stapling, label-sticking, posting parcels, but overall I had a great time and will definitely be attending the Festival in October.

Ben Gambles

Jenn Ashworth on Not The Booker Longlist

Festival author Jenn Ashworth is long-listed for the Guardian's Not The Booker Prize - please take a moment to vote for Jenn, and if you haven't read A Kind Of Intimacy, scroll down for our review of it...

Go here to vote:

http://tinyurl.com/mkp62z

Good luck, Jenn!

changes afoot..

It has been one of those months in the Festival office... busy, exciting and frustrating by turns.

We are pleased to welcome our new Administrative Assistant, Joanne Penn, who joins us from a traineeship at Wolverhampton Arts Gallery and is eager to take on some of the Festival's blogging in the near future.

We are happy to report that the Festival programme is now up and running, and all listings bar a few elusive ones are live on our website (www.birminghambookfestival.org) and also at Birmingham Box Office (0121 303 2322).

A few programming rumours that have escaped the mill and ought to be quashed...

There was much talk of River Cottage chef and writer Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall appearing at the Festival, but unfortunately this is not to be. It was unavoidably cancelled in the late programming stages, and did make it onto some press releases, etc - so please bear with us if you have received any incorrect information about this.

There was also to be an event featuring playwrights Jim Cartwright and David Edgar, which sadly has also been cancelled, beyond our control. We apologise for any incovenience caused by these late decisions, and assure you that we have done everything in our power to try to make these events happen, and very reluctantly announce that they are no longer on the cards.

Do have a look at our website for up to date information and to book tickets - and we will continue the stream of information as we get it through this and other mediums.

The Festival Team.