Fourth Alderney Literary Festival ‘is the best yet’
Alderney’s fourth Literary Festival was the best yet, said its organiser, with dozens travelling to the island specifically for the event.
The festival took history as its theme and this year 12 authors travelled to stage talks in the Island Hall’s Anne French Room and informal gatherings at the island’s library and various pubs and hotels.
Founder Isabel Picornell thinks more than 30 people came for the weekend, including all seven members of Guernsey book club, the Book Ends.
‘I haven’t got the adjectives to describe how well this year’s festival has gone; it simply exceeded all of our expectations,’ she said.
‘All of the talks were sold out or almost sold out and all of our authors said it was the best festival they had been to because they are so well looked after, and they can interact with each other and the audience in an intelligent way. I think we’ve had more visitors because of the momentum we’ve gradually being building up – word of it has got round. I’m tremendously grateful for everyone who has helped make it such a success.’
Among the speakers were Guernsey historian Liz Walton, who gave a very popular talk on the Channel Islands in the Great War, novelist Antonia Hodgson and Keith Lowe who talked about the mythology of the Second World War and how the conventional and convenient narrative of good versus evil was more ambiguous than people were led to believe.
Mr Lowe’s talk was fascinating for Jay and Michael Warren, from Pershore in Worcestershire, as they were perhaps the only people in the room who remembered the Second World War posters that Mr Lowe referred to.
They were attending the festival for their 60th wedding anniversary.
‘There was some doubt as to whether some of the posters actually went up,’ said Mrs Warren.
‘I grew up in Plymouth and I remembered seeing them, so I was able to say that they did.
‘I remember the Dig For Victory posters and Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases.
‘I remember my class at school being asked to board a bus and being told it was to see if it could withstand a gas attack.
‘The talk for me was fascinating, because so much of it evoked memories.’
