Felixstowe Book Festival – Afloat!

This year’s Felixstowe Book Festival returns from 16-25 June, and just to whet your appetite there’s a special event prior to that on Sunday 14 May onboard the Orwell Lady. 

Don’t miss your chance to meet a best-selling author while cruising the river on the graceful Orwell Lady as part of a special Felixstowe Book Festival inspired river cruise. It’s your chance to hear from Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Birds Without Wings, A Partisan’s Daughter and Notwithstanding: English Village Stories, and exponent of the magic realism school of literature. Louis was with the Antonius Players for ten years, performing music and poetry, and he also writes and performs his own songs. It promises to be a river cruise like no other. 

Louis will be discussing his latest book, Light Over Liskeard (which is available to pre-order) as part of this picturesque cruise onboard the popular Orwell Lady. The cruise will depart from Orwell Quay (IP3 0FS) at Ipswich waterfront, leaving at 2pm for a three-and-a-half-hour river trip, returning by 5.30pm. There will be a talk by the author and music on the outward journey, plus a book signing, and there’ll be commentary on places of interest along the river on the return journey. Louis’s books will also be on sale, provided by Woodbridge Books.

Tickets for this special event are strictly limited. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit: https://orwelllady.co.uk

In June, the festival will be in full flow and will take place, once again, in the iconic Edwardian cliff top rooms of Harvest House in Cobbold Road, Felixstowe. 

Already announced as part of this year’s Felixstowe Book Festival in June are:  

• Robin Ince Bibliomaniac: As part of his tour – An Obsessive’s Tour of the Bookshops of Britain.

• Festival Patron, Esther Freud and her sister, Susie Boyt, chaired by novelist Ruth Dugdall.

• Louise Doughty, author of number one bestseller, Apple Tree Yard, which was turned into a top TV series.

• Suffolk’s own Terry Waite, also one of the Festival’s Patrons, will be offering an evening of poetry and music.

• Siobhan Daniels, retired TV and radio journalist, will be talking about her latest book. 

The festival also spills over into Two Sisters Arts Centre in Trimley, and on the Sunday it will host a Cosy Crime Workshop run by Cathy Stafford and Carole Athroll. It promises to be a fun and informal all-day workshop exploring the cosy crime genre, with specific focus on Agatha Christie.

Full details about the authors taking part and workshops available to book will be available soon at: https://felixstowebookfestival.co.uk, and tickets will be available at: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk