At Appledore Book Festival

What a lovely experience…everyone came and sat down, the place was full, they laughed at my jokes, they listened, they bought my books. Lots of them. Books, I mean. The people. I even signed some with Christmas salutations.  At one point while standing on stage, recounting a particularly nasty moment in the round the world saga which my book Bonnes Vacances describes – I thought to myself

“This is the point of it all. This is what I dreamed of when we were doing the voyage. That we would all get back OK and I would manage to get a book published, and manage to write it. And then a year later I would go to North Devon and appear at the Appledore Book Festival, and give a talk about it, and everyone would laugh.”

It was a sort of out-of-body experience. And it was just SO lovely. Actually to meet people who want to read your book. It validates everything.

This is me in the Writer’s Yurt at Appledore. Yurts are crucial. Yurts are now as vital to a self-respecting Book Festival as signing books. Can I alert all writers and indeed audiences to this lovely festival? Happens every year.