Our literary journal, exclusive to members of Suffolk Book League |
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LETTER FROM THE CHAIR Welcome to this edition of BookTalk, in which we record and review our recent 2022 activity as well as events to come at Suffolk Book League and elsewhere in the area. We aim to stimulate a shared interest in the pleasure of books. In the year of our 40th Anniversary, we are very aware of the Suffolk part of our name. In front of me is the list of our speakers over the years. It runs to sixteen pages, and I find it impressive that there has throughout our history been a balance between literature in general and its expression in our own locality. Jeff Taylor, one of our committee, has been gathering memories from the past and trawling the archives to find just some of the valuable events which members of the Suffolk Book League will not want to lose. This edition of BookTalk reflects this interest in particular, and when Jeff has finished his explorations we shall be still more aware of how wide and how deep has been our range of interest. For most of us, the website provides a handy source of information and a way to store the records of what we have enjoyed in person. Please contribute your own views and reviews, and remember that an active website gives us a higher profile when people Google us! Please send suggestions for future events and let us know what you have been enjoying by writing to enquiries@suffolk bookleague.org The list of events for 2023 is approaching completeness, and details can be found in Gill Lowe’s preview article below. Next year promises to complement the extremely interesting current programme. I was delighted to find at a recent meeting that a local book group had come along, and some of the newcomers had already joined Suffolk Book League. Personal recommendation is of course the best way to enable the future, so if you are in a book group. bring them all along. With so many warnings about the cost of energy this coming winter, many of us will be deciding that warm clothing, good books and the opportunity to share the pleasures of the written word are just the way to endure our present time. And in terms of outlay, unmatched benefit. Keith Jones Chair of Suffolk Book League enquiries@suffolkbookleague.org |
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N.B. BookTalk online has links to more than twenty articles and might be shortened by your email provider. You may want to choose View in a browser - at the very top of this email. |
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Upcoming Events Tickets to our exciting 40th Anniversary Events are now on sale. You can book your tickets on our website via the following links: |
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| | Coming up soon: Rupert Thomson Ipswich Institute 7.30 pm Wednesday 14th September | | |
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| | A.K. Blakemore Ipswich Institute 7.30 pm Thursday 13th October | | |
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| | Richard Jenkyns Ipswich Institute 7.30 pm Wednesday 9th November | | |
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And our Christmas Special: Brian Ralph reads Dylan Thomas's A Child's Christmas in Wales Ipswich Institute 7.30 pm Wednesday 7th December |
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Recent Author Events and Authors' Book Recommendations |
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Patrick Barkham and Richard Mabey We were treated to a feast of conversation as we joined Richard Mabey in discussion with fellow author Patrick Barkham at the University of Suffolk. The event marked the fortieth anniversary year of Suffolk Book League and fifty years since the publication of Richard’s first book, Food For Free (1972). | | |
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Annabel Abbs On Wednesday 15th June we had the opportunity to meet the writer Annabel Abbs and hear her discuss her new novel The Language of Food, based on the true story of Eliza Acton who has been described as Britain’s first ‘domestic goddess’. | | |
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Pamela Holmes For the last event before the summer break, Suffolk Book League welcomed Pamela Holmes, who enthralled the audience with her talk on her debut novel The Huntingfield Paintress (2016). The novel seeks to shine a light in a local Suffolk glory that is often overlooked: St Mary’s Church, Huntingfield. | | |
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Please see BookTalk # 179 for a review of The Huntingfield Paintress as well as a piece about St Mary’s Church and Mildred Holland. To access Simon Knott’s richly illustrated article about Huntingfield Church see http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/huntingfield.htm |
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| | Wild Child by Patrick Barkham Read by Tricia Gilbey | | |
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| | Phenotypes by Paolo Scott Read by Keith Jones | | |
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| | The Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore Read by Janet Bayliss | | |
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| | Barcelona Dreaming by Rupert Thomson Read by James Phillips | | |
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| | The Foundling by Stacey Halls Read by Janet Bayliss | | |
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| | The Easternmost House by Juliet Blaxland Read by Janet Bayliss | | |
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New poems for our members |
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We are very lucky to be able to share another wonderful poem from Amanda Hodgkinson. |
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In May 2022 A New Suffolk Garland: an Anthology of Suffolk Writing and Art was published. Although not mentioned in the text it is the fifth in a line of Suffolk Garland volumes stretching back over 200 years. The first, The Suffolk Garland, was published in 1818, by John Raw of Ipswich and edited by the Reverend James Ford (1779-1851). The title page shows a ‘Representation of St Edmund’s head, copied from a pane of painted glass, which was taken from a window of the Abbot’s Palace at Bury…’. This was essentially a literary volume, ‘a collection of poems, songs, tales, ballads, sonnets, and elegies’ |
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We are delighted to partner with Andrew Marsh from Dial Lane, Ipswich’s only independent bookshop. Andrew runs a pop-up book shop at our events and is active in advertising Suffolk Book League. He is also enthusiastic about promoting local authors. We asked him to list 40 local writers in celebration of our 40th Anniversary. Typically generous, Andrew added a few extras. You might want to visit his shop and ask him about some of the titles he chose. |
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Clays the book production specialist and supplier to many leading publishing houses |
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Did you know that for over 200 years Clays, a Bungay business, has been producing some of the most well known and best-selling books in the UK? Tricia Gilbey spoke to Greg Manterfield-Ivory to find out more. | | |
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Local Festivals and Events If you have a literary talk, festival or project that you would like to include please contact us at enquiries@suffolkbookleague.org |
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Upcoming Literary Festivals in Suffolk Poetry in Aldeburgh This annual celebration of poetry and poets in Aldeburgh will be running from Friday 4th November to Sunday 6th November. Planning for the weekend is well underway and the team write ‘….we are looking forward to returning with some workshops and reading events to Aldeburgh, our town by the sea. We will also continue to have a live online offering for events and many workshops on days around the core weekend as we recognise that, for many, travel may still not be easy or affordable. We are keen to retain the sense of community built up at our recent online festivals.’ Details of the weekend will eventually appear on the festival’s website https://www.poetryinaldeburgh.org/ and on their Facebook page and via Twitter @PoetryAldeburgh Lavenham Literary Festival This year’s festival runs from Friday November 18th to Sunday November 20th. On the Friday, 10.30 am – 4 pm, Tom Henry is running a creative writing workshop about memoir writing at the Swan Hotel. Between 5 and 6pm, Simon Edge, author of Anyone For Edmund is appearing at The Guildhall. The major event of the weekend is the Festival Dinner with Kate Humble at the Swan Hotel from 6.45pm. All the Saturday and Sunday events are held in Lavenham Village Hall and include writers Patrick Barkham, Tracy Borman, Lady Colin Campbell, Wendy Cope, Roopa Farooki, Alan Johnson, Rachel Joyce, Andrew Lownie, and Kate Sawyer. More information is available on the festival’s website www.lavenhamliteraryfestival.co.uk/ and includes a link to buy tickets via the Apex box office in Bury St Edmunds.
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As part of the Women Don't Do Such Things! The Hold's exhibition and series of workshops, lectures and films celebrating the achievements of women past and present, Gill Lowe gave a fascinating talk about Virginia Woolf and her time in Suffolk. |
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Notes from Felixstowe Book Festival |
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Isla Clough gives us a flavour of the festival The Felixstowe Book Festival is almost ten years old. Quite an amazing success due to Meg Reid, the Director.
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From 19th June to 3rd September 2022, St Elizabeth Hospice, brought a Wild in Art Trail to Ipswich, following the successes of Elmer’s Big Parade in 2019 and Pigs Gone Wild in 2016. The 2022 trail has fifty individually designed Big Hoot owls placed around Ipswich for everyone to see and enjoy. Emma Graham designed and painted ‘Owl Tell You a Story’, sponsored by The Hold and which sits outside the Suffolk Records Office, near Ipswich Waterfront. Here Emma outlines how she went about designing and painting this very literary owl.
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For more on the Big Hoot, see Amber Spalding's article below. |
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Primadonna Festival 2022: The Big Hoot competition and readings of Rebels with a Very Good Cause: Suffolk Stories for Young Adventurers At the end of July, we – the MA Creative and Critical Writing cohort at the University of Suffolk – attended the Primadonna Festival in Stowmarket, to promote our new anthology, Rebels with a Very Good Cause: Suffolk Stories for Young Adventurers.
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Primadonna Festival 2022 A Suffolk Celebration of Books, Ideas and Inspiration The Primadonna Festival took place over the last weekend of July 2022 in Stowmarket at what was formerly known as the Museum of East Anglian Life. Now renamed The Food Museum it makes for a wonderful site for a literary festival, providing a great opportunity to balance the buzz of artistic activity with the peace and quiet of the Victorian walled garden, the architecturally impressive Abbot’s Hall and the surrounding Suffolk countryside.
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Our Meet the Team page is currently being updated, so if you'd like to see who we are, please check here: |
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Meet The Team | Suffolk Book LeagueOn returning to live in Suffolk in 2012, the Book League was one of the first organisations my wife and I joined. I've been on the committee since 2014 and now am doing a stint in the chair as part of an excellent team. |
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We would always welcome more contributions if you have time and enthusiasm to bring to us, or a particular skill you could share with us. If you are interested in being involved please get in touch: enquiries@suffolkbookleague.org or feel very free to approach any committee member at one of our Author Events. |
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