LASTWORD Tried


tested


This year’s Guernsey Literary Festival attracted record numbers of visitors. TravelGBI editor George Clode was among them


Bibliophiles’ paradise


Earlier in the year I joined 6,000 bookish tourists who flocked to Guernsey to hear pearls of wisdom from the scholarly bigwigs assembled for the island’s fifth literary festival. I arrived for the final three days,


and set up camp in the recently refurbished four-star St Pierre Park Hotel, Spa and Golf Resort. Just a leisurely 20-minute


amble from the heart of the action, this is an ideal place to recharge, eat, or be pampered in between literary events. After dinner, I walked to the


Guernsey Museum for a showing of 2016 English drama The Departure, followed by a Q&A with writer and director Andrew Steggall.


Workshops and education


During the five-day festival, there were 76 talks, workshops and sessions, 18 educational events and several family activities – including a Roald Dahl Tea Party and the opportunity to meet Children’s Laureate and illustrator extraordinaire Chris Riddell at the Guille-Alles Library. If my trip had been on the


pages of a work of fiction, I could have discovered some magical way to be at all the events. Sadly, it wasn’t, and constrained by reality, I missed some excellent speakers, including rapper, poet and political activist Akala, the aforementioned Chris Riddell and science author Simon Singh. On Saturday, Market Square


Antony Gormley Statue, Margate


was alive with pop-up second- hand book stalls and punters


TravelGBI | November 2017


waiting for the sessions to begin. In a packed, inflated marquee,


Victor Hugo aficionado David Bellows gave his fascinating talk, ‘Les Misérables: Novel of the Century’, which he delivered as if, rather than discussing one of the greatest novels of the 19th century, he were talking about a person. The session was essentially a


biography of Hugo’s epic novel, charting its conception, publication and the many, many mixed-media interpretations of it over the years.


Literary criticism


After purchasing one of Bellows’ signed books, I soaked up the vibrant atmosphere around St Peter Port before attending a creative writing workshop with novelist, non-fiction writer and professor Richard Beard at the Guille-Alles Library. Beard had asked the attendees


to submit short stories or passages from longer works they had written in advance of the session, which, one by one, he helpfully, if a little ruthlessly, tore to shreds. I loved this format, and thought Beard was just the sort of harsh, constructive critic that every aspiring novelist needs. Historian Tom Holland talked


about the making of England, with a particular focus on 10th-century


monarch, King Athelstan. Holland’s passion for the subject was infectious, and the queue to meet him afterwards stretched towards the seafront. I managed to catch author


Sebastian Faulks’ talk at the St James Concert Hall before a night of music and poetry at the Fermain Tavern, where slam poetry champion Harry Baker brought the house down. Faulks was also there as part


of the Authors’ XI, a cricket team made up of writers who travel the world to indulge their passion for the game, and whose alumni includes Arthur Conan Doyle and PG Wodehouse.


Seafood galore


The final day was family-focused, so I spent the early afternoon exploring the island’s first Seafood Festival. Seafront stalls selling shellfish, mini fish and chips, paella, gin cocktails and craft beer were dotted around St Peter Port, and musicians gathered on the pier to sing their songs out to sea. Guernsey had provided me with


a weekend of all the things I love. Luckily the next event is in May, so


I had better get booking! guernseyliteraryfestival.com


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