From 11th to 15th May 2016, East Anglia’s newest book festival, BooksEast, brings a range of celebrated authors to Suffolk’s county town for a festival with a difference.
Ipswich Corn Exchange, Film Theatre, Town Hall and its gallery spaces and café and other town centre venues, will be buzzing as a wide range of writers descend on the town to inspire and delight audiences of all ages from 4 to 104.
Horrid Henry author Francesca Simon will be talking about her latest book The Monstrous Child; intrepid adventurer and explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes will be in conversation with his long-time collaborator Anton Bowring in Life at the Limits in an evening sponsored by Fred Olsen Cruise Lines; Granta ‘Best of British’ novelist Xiaolu Guo will discuss her book I Am China; a Bright Futures panel will include Eimear McBride (author of the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction 2014 winning novel A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing currently touring the UK in an acclaimed stage production), Andrew Michael Hurley (The Loney, winner of the Costa First Book Award 2015) and Jessica Cornwell (The Serpent Papers, subject of an international bidding war); Britain’s leading thinker Charles Handy will reveal the thinking behind his latest book The Second Curve; and many, many more authors and events are planned, including pro cyclist David Millar and Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris, creators of the hugely popular Ladybird parody books (The Husband: How it Works et al..)
Adding theatre and community spirit to the festival, there will be a literary pub crawl created by Eastern Angles’ Ivan Cutting, inviting audiences to join George Orwell and Arthur Ransome as they work out their differences while wandering from pub to pub. Best-selling adult colouring author Millie Marrota has provided colouring sheets for a competition everyone can take part in. There are short story competitions for young people and writing workshops from the likes of Jill Dawson whose latest novel The Crime Writer will also be launched during the festival.
BooksEast is supported by Arts Council England, the Seckford Foundation and Ipswich Borough Council and Festival sponsor Gotelee Solicitors, the Salthouse Harbour Hotel and Kite Opticians, the Ipswich Society, Jayrest, Let’s Talk Reading and the Ipswich Children’s Book Group. Media Partners are EADT / Ipswich Star and BBC Radio Suffolk.
BooksEast Director Assis Carreiro said: “I’m thrilled that our vision to create an exciting and vibrant book festival for Ipswich has become a reality. Thanks to the incredible support of our funders, sponsors and partners, the first BooksEast Festival brings an eclectic mix of events with something for audiences of all ages.”
Full details of the BooksEast Festival: www.bookseast.co.uk
Follow us on Twitter: @books_east
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Tickets on sale via www.ipswichregent.com / 01473 433100
