Parallel In-Person & Online Programmes

Calling all book lovers! That’s right, we can all rejoice as the annual Felixstowe Book Festival is back on for this year.

The 2021 festival will be dusting off book jackets and turning pages on the weekend of 25-27 June at Harvest House (formerly the Felix Hotel). The festival will run parallel programmes, with some authors coming to Felixstowe and others live streaming from their homes, both with completely different line-ups so that you can get the best of both worlds.

The festival promises to bring some much-needed fun to Felixstowe with some amazing authors in the line-up, including the amazing JoJo Moyes, Salley Vickers, Liz Trenow, Toby Faber and Iain Dale, as well as a panel of crime writers – Harriet Tyce, Kate Rhodes and Louise Millar.

The festival had a last-minute venue change but Festival Director Meg Reid has faith that all will go ahead smoothly: “We have done an event at Harvest House before and it’s the most incredible venue. We feel very supported by our patrons and we’ve got the extremely popular Jo Jo Moyes, who is selling incredibly fast so be sure to get your tickets for that before they run out!”

Joining in online will be at least 14 authors including Carol Drinkwater, talking about her latest novel An Act of Love, Andrew Lownie who wrote the acclaimed biography The Mountbattens, Their Lives and Loves, Helen McCarthy, author of The History of Working Motherhood, and Richard Dawkins talking about his latest work, Books do Furnish a Life: Reading and Writing Science.

Meg explained how vital it is that the festival goes ahead for the Felixstowe community: “When I started this festival all those years ago, people were so enthusiastic and they tell me how much they love it and want us to keep running it, which is always really nice to hear. There’s been so much in the media about how important reading is for mental health, it provides that escapism and knowledge that really helps people’s wellbeing.”

She is very grateful to everybody who is helping to make sure things runs smoothly, especially Mark Barham for printing support, designer Neil Cattermole of Elsey Adcock Designs and all her lovely weekend volunteers. She also wishes to thank Harvest House for coming to her rescue, the tech and media team, Rachel Sloane, who does PR for the festival and has been such a big support, Eastern Angles and the New Wolsey and business sponsors Kingsfleet Wealth, Seaport Freight and Jackamans Solicitors.”

Tickets for Harvest House and online events will be on sale from May 1 and be available via www.felixstowebookfestival.co.uk or by phoning Eastern Angles Theatre Company on 01473 211498 (Mon-Fri 10am-2pm).

Before travelling to the festival, please be sure to check the website for any updates.

www.felixstowebookfestival.co.uk
Facebook: FelixstoweBookFest
Twitter: @felixstowebookfest