News

It's been nearly two and a half years since we met in person to hear an author speak in Woodbridge. But I'm pleased to say that the wait is over! And the event taking place in a few weeks will remind us of how valuable it is to be together in a real, live gathering.

Sarah Langford worked as a criminal barrister for 10 years and wrote of her experience representing "the mad, the bad, the vulnerable, the heartbroken and the hopeful" in her incredible memoir 'In Your Defence'. She launched it in Browsers Bookshop for an event which was sold out weeks ahead of the date. 

No longer working at the bar, she is raising her young family in Suffolk where she and her husband have been managing his family farm. It is this which prompted her latest book 'Rooted: Stories of Life, Land and a Farming Revolution'.

If you heard Sarah speak on BBC Radio Four Start the Week on Monday then I hope you're as excited as I am that she will be joining us again.

She is a passionate, engaging, eloquent speaker who is able to present facts and statistics in a compelling and memorable way, and whose compassion and concern for the land and the people who farm it is deep-seated and infectious.

What's more, in the face of a desperately bleak future for food, farming and the environment, she offers light and hope.

I've read an early copy of 'Rooted' and can't speak more highly of it, so I hope you'll join me in hearing more from Sarah and come along to the event in Woodbridge Library on Friday 8 July. Scroll down for more details or buy your tickets here.

Thank you for reading.

It's been lovely to see people coming together to mark the Platinum Jubilee these past few days. Towns and neighbourhoods have looked cheery bedecked in bunting and happy crowds have gathered once more. The weather has been a little variable but hopefully all the planned tea parties have been able to go ahead.

Among all the events staged for this Platinum Jubilee, though, a highlight for me was yesterday's screening of the Queen meeting Paddington at Buckingham Palace!

It was such a surprise and exhibited a delightful simplicity, innocence and charm, with great creativity and good humour, it seemed a pitch perfect contribution to the celebrations and was actually rather moving! All this from the character in a children's book.

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The Jubilee celebrations are all set for the coming days. Trooping the Colour, Buckingham Palace concert, street fairs, tea parties...reinstating imperial measures?

Strange times. But if you'd like to receive some interesting, stimulating commentary on modern society, politics and economics, as well as discussions about memoir, fiction, history, works in translation and much more, the Hay Festival is once again available online. 

It's always refreshing to hear intelligent, informed individuals speak passionately and eloquently about their subject of expertise and after only viewing four speakers I feel more energised and inspired, though my reading list has once again been extended.

I have always wanted to visit Hay but it's been wonderful to be able to view the talks online in the past couple of years. Here in Suffolk, we do have the opportunity to hear authors in person in the coming days and weeks, and there's something to be said for being in a room with like-minded individuals and having serendipitous conversations with other audience members.

This coming week, there are events held in Southwold to mark the Jubilee and I will be talking to Stewart Ross about the research for his latest book, an entertaining and informative compendium of information about Queen Elizabeth II.

In the coming weeks we'll have the crime writing festival Slaughter in Southwold and the Felixstowe Book Festival. More about them nearer the time.

But for book conversation in Woodbridge, perhaps you'd like to join me at book group tomorrow evening. We'll be meeting at 8pm to discuss 'Still Life' by Sarah Water. I'd be grateful if you would reply to this email to let me know if you are coming, so that I can make adequate preparations! Hope to see you there! 

Thank you for reading.

With the glorious weather this weekend I've realised how my interests and habits have noticeably altered in the past two years. 

Now instead of setting out a chair to relax in the afternoon sun, I'm on my hands and knees weeding the veg plot and the highlight of my Friday evening television is 'Gardeners' World'!

Gardening has been such a tonic and I particularly enjoy finding out what other people have achieved - the plants they've chosen and the designs they've created.

It's lovely to visit gardens in person too and Helmingham Hall just up the road from us in Woodbridge has always been rather magical - I love the idea of the drawbridge being lifted and lowered each day! 

So I was thrilled to talk to Xa Tollemache recently about how she first created the gardens there, and how she is now handing them on to the next generation. You can read my interview with Xa in the June issue of 'Suffolk' magazine. And scroll down to find out more about the beautiful new book Xa has written, her 'love story' about Helmingham.

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A 'celebrity' court case has rather dominated the news this week, being accorded attention that seems rather disproportionate, to say the least. The BBC website refers to the case between two footballers' wives being about a "tweet that brought the nation to a standstill"...?

Away from the front pages, though, there was a report of the quite different actions and motivations of one international star. 

Singer and songwriter, Dolly Parton, who funded research into a coronavirus vaccine in the early days of the pandemic, has once again used her wealth and influence for good, seeking to aid healing in a population which is experiencing huge trauma through recent events. She is partnering with the publisher Penguin Random House and the charity Give a Book to provide 200 refugee children in London with a book each every month until they turn five years old.

One of the books chosen was 'Billy and the Dragon' by Nadia Shireen, who said of the initiative: "Children's books are magical portals that can comfort, console and delight. For families who have been through unimaginable upheaval, receiving a book to share may be a small thing, but it will hopefully also be a loving, warm and familiar thing."

This is part of the Imagination Library, a flagship programme of the Dollywood Foundation which was launched in 1995 in honour of Dolly Parton's illiterate father. It has subsequently distributed more than 100 million free books, with 618,000 books given to children across UK and Ireland last year.

Executive director of the foundation in the UK, Marion Gillooly told the Guardian: "Delivering books to these children every month will give them the opportunity to experience the joy of reading with their families. We hope that this will support family relationships and inspire a love of reading that will last a lifetime."

It is encouraging to see such a programme in place. We can all do our part, though, in choosing a book for a child or a friend to help them through difficult times. I'm pleased to say that there are more and more uplifting and joyful stories being published for readers of all ages! Take a look at my website for my suggestions for great fiction and non-fiction titles, or ask for recommendations from the team in your independent bookshop and support your local community too!

Thank you for reading.