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My Cheltenham Literature Festival
October is one of my favourite times of the year. Not just that it harbours the last vestige of summer warmth or the portent of the autumn still to come. Not even the childish pleasure that comes from crunching through the brittle golden leaves underfoot or delighting in finding shiny Horse Chestnuts - I love this time of year for The Cheltenham Literature Festival!
Cheltenham is a Spa town nestling on the edge of the Cotswolds and every October for 10 days the town is alive with all things literary - authors, biographers, illustrators, philosophers and critics.
I started going to the festival about ten years ago when I was still living in a sleepy village in Lincolnshire and my yearly excursion to Cheltenham felt like a journey to a different planet, not just a different town, although catching the train from Peterborough to Cheltenham Spa was nothing like space travel!
I can’t remember the exact details of my first visit, but the feelings, memories and impressions from my first festival still remain. I remember luxuriating in the richness of the spoken and written word, my trusty map of the second-hand bookshops prepared for me by my son (who lives in Cheltenham), drinking a glass of wine outside a café bathed in the autumn sunshine with, of course, a book in hand.
I loved the fact that you got to know the town through the different venues where talks took place - the Town Hall in Imperial Gardens, the Playhouse theatre which was originally medicinal baths and then a swimming pool, and the Everyman Theatre with its plush seats and feeling of intimacy.
Over the years I have been to many great talks and events. Talks given by Germaine Greer, Maya Angelou, John Irving, Alexander McCall Smith, Robert Fisk, Phillipe Sands. Talks on Samarkand, the Hungarian uprising, architecture, the decline of the apple orchard, the food of Laos and Cambodia, the All Star Poetry Slam, fairy stories for adults. There really is something for everyone!
In recent years my horizons have been expanded as I now take my granddaughter to talks as well – among others we have been to see Olivia the Pig, a talk on Ladybird books and Tony Ross of Horrid Henry fame. One of my sisters even flew over from Australia for the Festival’s 60th anniversary!
This year’s festival also looks set to inspire. My tickets have already been bought so here are some of the talks that have tempted me this year:
Sing Along with Julia Donaldson; Gareth Peirce; Christopher Brookmyre; Nikolaus Pevsner. I do hope that I have been able to enthuse you as well as my family and friends.
Contributed by Theresa.
A selection of LITERATURE books in stock
Rattlebrain, . Illustrated by Phiz, . Stock no. 1801575
Routledge, Warne, And Routledge. 1864. Good condition. How a Briton Drilled for his Fatherland; Won a Heiress; Got a Pedigree; and Caught the Rheumatism. Burgundy cloth boards with gilt titles and vignette to front, bevelled edges. All edges gilt. Written in verse. B/w humorous illustrations. 167 pages. Covers marked, corners worn. Inscription in ink to front endpaper. Scattered foxing throughout, heavy in places. Hinges pulled. [S]
Price: £18.00
Carey, Diane. No illustrator listed. Stock no. 1302242
Pocket Books. 1st. 1992. Fine condition in a nearly fine dustwrapper. The story of a young James T. Kirk's first adventure in space. Red cloth spine with metallic blue title, blue boards. 398 pages. Minimal bumping to spine and rubbing of wrapper edges. [R] 0671795872.
Price: £6.00
Allingham, Margery. No illustrator listed. Stock no. 1302239
Kaye & Ward. 1974. Very good condition in a very good dustwrapper. "A Tale of Mersea Island". The first book by the author originally published in 1923. Pale blue boards, metallic blue title to spine. 320 pages. Minimal bumping to spine. Light wear to wrapper edges, a small closed tear to lower front edge and a few dents to rear panel which also show through onto rear cover of book itself. [R] 0718206913.
Price: £30.00
Tolkien, J.R.R.. No illustrator listed. Stock no. 1302232
George Allen & Unwin. 2nd. 1977. Very good condition. Blue cloth, gilt title to spine. Published posthumously although the origins of the book stretch back 60 years long before the Hobbit! The story of the First Age in Tolkien's world. A few small, light marks to covers. Map intact and uncreased. Contents clean. [R] 0048231398.
Price: £6.50
Hargreaves, . Illustrated by Hargreaves, Harry. Stock no. 1801546
MacMillan. 1st. 1969. Very good condition. Oblong format. White pictorial glazed boards with blue title and spine. Cartoon illustrations, no text. Drawings originally appeared in various magainzes. Boards a little grubby and bumped. Contents clean. [S]
Price: £5.00
Tolkien, J.R.R.. No illustrator listed. Stock no. 1302184
George Allen & Unwin. 2nd. 1955. Very good condition. Red cloth, gilt title to spine. Folding map to rear of book. 416 pages. Top edge red. Spine and corners bumped and rubbed. A few light marks to covers. Contents clean. A nice copy of the 2nd impression of the first edition (published one month after the first edition). [R]
Price: £120.00
View all current stock of Literature books
