The Isle of Wight Literary Festival
Welcome to Cowes. Photo: © F. Hardy
My Biggest Festival So Far…
The Isle of Wight Literary Festival took place last week at the magnificent Northwood House & Park in Cowes. I caught the convenient Red Jet ferry from Southampton to Cowes (a twenty-minute crossing), then one of the festival cars picked me up and took me – briefly – to Villa Rothsay, which was where I was staying the night.
My talk took place in the ballroom of Northwood House, and the other venues for the festival were the LitFest Marquee and St Mary’s church next door. The whole place was buzzing with festival goers, and because the weather was so lovely, people overflowed from the large cafe/bar into the garden outside.
Northwood House, Cowes. Photo: © F. Hardy
My audience was slightly smaller than for my last festival at Appledore, but it was fun and there were plenty of questions. A friend came along with two of her friends, which was a lovely surprise. I wasn’t at all nervous about public speaking this time, although it was slightly too hot to be comfortable.
My normal ‘in conversation’ style talk was followed by a book signing in the cafe. Lots of books were sold and the festival shop sold out of my book…a bit too quickly!
Cowes High Street Photo: © F. Hardy
In the evening there was a drinks party for authors at Kendalls Fine Art. I talked to the wonderful Michael Morpurgo, whose event I’d been to earlier in the day. Villa Rothsay, was full of authors during the festival. It looks much like a museum of Victoriana, is extremely comfortable, walking distance from both the festival and the town centre, and serves a delicious – and huge – breakfast.
