Library Tour

Somerset and the West Country

I have been on a book tour around the libraries of my home county, Somerset in the west of England. The libraries all seem delighted to host author talks, and I can sell books there, too. The audiences are smaller than at literary festivals, but it’s just as fulfilling to talk to small audiences as big ones – and much more intimate. The talks are more like conversations than lectures.

Yesterday, I was at Glastonbury Library, where I had to resist the temptation to start the talk with, ‘Hello Glastonbury!’ like world-famous musicians do on the big stages at the summer music festival. On Monday I was in the historic town of Langport near Taunton. Last week, I was in Minehead, where I had a lovely audience with lots of questions about my book. Before that, I was at Bridgwater Library. In the spring, I will be in Wells and Yeovil, but I hope to add even more to the list, and branch out into libraries in neighbouring counties like Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire.

On my way to my talk in Glastonbury, I walked past a bakery called Burns The Bread. Displayed in the window were biscuits labelled ‘Viennese Finger.’ I’d never seen biscuits with this name before and it was pretty eerie, since the main location of my book is Vienna!

Burns The Bread bakery shop window, Glastonbury. Photo: © Felice Hardy

Coming soon is Blandford Literary Festival, where I’m on a panel discussing how real women inspired fiction and non-fiction.

I’ll be participating at Frome Festival this summer, where I’m on a panel with two other Frome authors in a talk entitled, The War’s Long Shadow: Writing WW2 80 Years On. I’ll also have a table at Frome Publishing Fair, so watch this space!