This year’s sell-out Alderney Literary Festival has been hailed as the pinnacle of author-reader engagement after 10 top-selling authors mingled with local fans and international visitors over three days of talks and book club fringe events.
Themed ‘Weaving the historical narrative’, this was the ninth festival since its launch in 2015 with the pandemic interrupting during lockdown.
In addition to three days of packed talks at the Island Hall, the six Book Club ‘meet the author’ fringe events in local venues were also well attended.
Martin Belcher, Chairman of main sponsor Polygon Collective, commented: “I love the Alderney Literary Festival because it is small and intimate and you get a much closer relationship with the authors and organisers than you do with a larger event like the Guernsey festival. We’re delighted to be involved with an event like this that helps the economy of Alderney.”
One of this year’s visiting authors, Sunday Times bestseller Simon Scarrow, helped to form the Alderney Literary Festival when a writing workshop inspired the first event in 2015. He was then festival chairman for three years.
“I was raised on Enid Blyton and the Kirrin Island stories came flooding back when I discovered there was such a magical place as Alderney,” he said. “It was like a door opening with its breathtaking nature and history.”
Current festival chairman Anthony Riches added: “Not only has this festival been a masterfully curated mixture of periods and perspectives, but the organisation has also been superb and the generosity of our sponsors, especially the main sponsor Polygon Collective, has enabled us to bring such an impressive line-up of authors to this endearing and highly enjoyable event.
“Ask any of the authors who have spoken at the festival in the past and they would all agree to come back in a heartbeat, which is testimony to just how special an experience the Alderney Literary Trust has created.”
Floor manager Jason Monaghan said: “The great thing about the Alderney Literary Festival as opposed to a lot of other book festivals is that the writers can interact with each other as well as their audience. The authors themselves have a lot in common and find this festival is an opportunity to exchange ideas.”
In addition to Simon Scarrow (A Death in Berlin), the authors taking part were Ellen Alpsten (The Last Princess); Anna Abney (the Measham Hall novels); Lesley Downer (The Shortest History of Japan); Clare Mulley (Agent Zo); Rosie Garland (The Fates); Leo Vardiashvili (Hard by a Great Forest); Flora Johnston (The Paris Peacemakers); Eleni Kyriacou (The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou) and Lavie Tidhar, who works across genres combining thrillers with poetry, science fiction and historical material.
Alderney Literary Trust’s Isabel Picornell said: “A lot of people made this year’s festival so successful – from our sponsors to the authors and our team of volunteers. We’ll be making announcements soon about further events this year.”
Pictured: Anthony Riches (left) interviews (L-R) Anna Abney, Lavie Tidhar and Ellen Alpsten
