My First Event
Photo: © Mike Lang
Burnham-on-Sea Book Festival
Saturday May 20th, 2023 was my first ever book festival. Lewis, the festival organiser, asked me to run a Travel Writing Workshop (together with Peter) in the morning and a book talk in the afternoon. There wasn’t a lot of time between events.
The theatre had a good atmosphere, and it had lots of little rooms upstairs and down. The committee members I bumped into and the people running the festival were all so helpful and friendly that it put my mind at rest and I stopped feeling nervous. My friend, Di Wells, along with a friend of hers, Gill, made the one-and-a-bit hour drive from Frome to come and support me and at the same time enjoy a trip to the seaside. It was a lovely sunny day, so they couldn’t have chosen a better one.
The workshop went well, and two of my class of ten came on to the book talk afterwards. One of them was a lovely old boy called Gerard who who’d arrived in his camper van from near Wolverhampton, stayed at a caravan site on the outskirts of town and cycled in to the theatre on his e-bike each day. He’d originally Googled the Hay Festival but didn’t think it was for him (“a bit too clever for me”). He then came across Burnham Book Festival and bought a VIP pass for the whole three days’ of unlimited talks and workshops. I was very lucky to have him attend both my travel writing workshop and book talk. I’m not sure what he was expected from my talk, but he seemed to be enthralled, and in the travel writing workshop he was one of three people who wrote a short travel piece for critique. It was all about travelling around in his camper van.
For the book talk, I put out the props I’ve collected: two 1939 tennis racquets and a tennis ball, along with eight or nine large mounted photos from my book. I had a very small audience! However, they did seem to be engaged, and I quickly grew in confidence - especially in the chat and questions part of the talk. I gave three readings, which I think is too much, so I’ll drop one of them next time. The readings that contained the most action and suspense definitely went down best.
Amazingly, I got the timing right! I’ve been rehearsing at home, but it was tricky working out a talk that was neither too short nor too long. The whole thing took 45 minutes. Beforehand I’d talked to bookseller Lionel from Brendon Books in Taunton who is taking pre-orders of my book. He has invited me to speak at the Taunton book festival in November, so my list is growing!
My name is on the board!
Photo: © Mike Lang
