The North Cornwall Book Festival
7th annual Book Festival at St Endillion
The A39, wet and windy on Saturday October 12th, swept us past fields bursting with displays of stone framed saturated greens toward the northern shore en route to St Endillion. Leaded windows and grey lichened gravestones welcomed us along the path into the 7th annual North Cornwall Book Festival.
The North Cornwall Book Festival is an independent, locally run literary festival, led by the internationally acclaimed Cornish author Patrick Gale. The festival forms part of Endelienta, the year-round arts programme at St Endellion. The venue supplements for its relatively small size with its passionate authenticity. Over the course of four days, the festival offers an abundance of intimate workshops, readings and performances for all ages. This year it welcomed many well-established names such as Michael Morpurgo, David Nicholls, John Boyne, Deborah Moggach, Phillip Reeve and Tessa Hadley.
A refreshingly intimate marquee hosted interviews and readings
A deluge of rain on Friday had relocated the book shop into the recently renovated café. Even at nine in the morning the room was abuzz with attendees, despite the damp weather, enjoying cakes, teas and bookish conversation.
The book shop located in the café was very much alive before the day’s events had even begun
The ‘Cream of Cornish’ showcase kicked off Saturday’s events. Featuring four Cornish authors discussing their recently published novels, S.K. Tremayne, Mary J. Oliver, Paul S. Fiddes and Natasha Carthew each took time to share their relationship to Cornwall and about their writing processes. It was a lively and engaging way to introduce the day’s upcoming events!
Cornish author Natasha Carthew discussed her new book All Rivers Run Free and shared her process of ‘wild writing’ with Patrick Gale
Interviews and conversations hosted by Patrick Gale were offered in the main marquee throughout the day, with talks given by authors in the church and workshops offered in the renovated stone barn. Book signings were available by the book shop, and exhibitions of art were displayed in the café as well as the church. There was no shortage of enticing activities. If you needed a break, the café was serving up delicious home-cooked food, a mobile coffee truck was frothing up steamy beverages, a beer tent was pulling local ale and the graveyard of St Endillion church offered a chance for quiet reflection.
The grounds of the 15th century church drenched in greens and greys
I am privileged to have had the opportunity to attend this event for the second year in a row with Falmouth University, who offered free transportation and access to most of the events. I am most grateful for the literary community of Cornwall for hosting such an exhilarating showcase. I look forward to seeing what next year will offer!
You can find more information at www.ncornbookfest.org
by Eileen Walden