Ipswich Book Festival - October 3 2026

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On Saturday, Peter and I were part of the Ipswich Book Festival, speaking at The Old Custom House by the waterfront.  This event was organised by Dial Lane Bookshop and a host of volunteers.

Peter and I were joined by actress, Beth Tuckey, who stood in brilliantly for Rosanna Miles (Rosanna had the cheek to have been selected through an audition and was rehearsing for The King’s Speech which is touring the UK soon but, despite having to abandon us, we obviously do wish her the best of luck in this play). 

 Beth and I met for the first time last week at Campsea Ash station and, over a coffee, ran through the structure of the talk.  It was apparent to me that Beth was taking her part in the talk much more seriously than either Peter or I were, rehearsing and finding the right nuance and intonation for each of the excerpts she read from the books – plus perfecting  her Suffolk accent. After our meeting I realised that I needed to do more than just 'blag' the talk and cracked on with making some more relevant notes (other than the blah, blah, whatever sort of notations I had written down on my sheets on paper). Meeting Beth and seeing how hard she worked to get her readings perfect was another one of those ‘I won’t forget this’ moments for me and it reassured me, too, that everything would be ok on the day.

We had a decent sized audience who were engaged by our talk and the session went smoothly.  I can’t thank Rosanna enough for sending Beth to us; I can’t thank Beth enough for flinging herself with such enthusiasm into the project and, as ever, I can’t thank Peter enough for continuing to be the catalyst behind our invitations to talk at these events.  For me, as a writer, that’s now three book festivals: Felixstowe, Gibraltar and Ipswich.  Each has its own merit and I will forever be grateful for having the opportunity to participate in these events.

Credit must go to Andrew and Jonesy and the entire team of volunteers for putting together a flawless weekend of literature and arts.  I don’t actually understand how Andrew finds enough hours in the day to read everything he reads, run his shop and create all of these community events.  And eat. But, clearly he does and long may he continue to do so!