One resident of south-west London is the lucky recipient of a prize of books from Clapham Book Festivals past and present.
Along with lots of locals in Clapham, Balham and other points SW, she signed up to the Clapham Book Festival e-mal list at the Clapham Writers stand at the Clapham Summer Fete last September ( see He shouldn’t have parked there ). Over a hundred people opted to receive news about the next Festival and they will, if their e-mail addresses have stayed the same, have received up-dates and e-mail earlier this year.
Now, with only a week to go until the 2018 edition of the Festival it was time to put all the names in a hat and draw out a winner.
The celebrated best-selling novelist and co-founder of the Festival, Elizabeth Buchan, agreed to make the draw. Elizabeth’s latest novel The New Mrs
Clifton (Penguin, 2016) is set in Clapham immediately after the second World War and is proving extremely popular. ‘Buchan brilliantly captures the blighted atmosphere of blitzed London’ Daily Mail; ‘The tension is palpable and the atmosphere claustrophobic. Buchan vividly conveys the mood of a post-war London brought to its knees. A powerful and emotional read’ Sunday Express.
Elizabeth has taken part in every Festival to date, appearing, with Matthew Beaumont and Julie Anderson in the discussion of Place & the Writer in 2016 and acting as moderator for the Spies Under the Bed panel discussion in 2017, with Jane Thynne, Andrew Lownie and Rick Stroud. This year she introduces novelist and screen-writer Deborah Moggach OBE in A Room at the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel at 7 pm on Saturday 12th May in the Omnibus Theatre. Deborah will be talking about writing books and writing for screens large and small.
Last Thursday, however, Elizabeth drew a name out of a hat ( well, a glass bowl ) with a bust of her illustrious relation by marriage, John Buchan, looking on. The sculpture is a copy of the one by Epstein. John Buchan is, of course, the creator of Richard Hannay in the most famous of his books, The Thirty Nine Steps. This has been adapted for TV and cinema on so many occasions, it is entirely appropriate that his grand-daughter by marriage introduces one of today’s highly successful screen-writers on Saturday.
Esther Pina will receive her prize, books from the Festival, past and present, to the value of £50, at the Meet & Greet event with local authors, which follows the brilliant Deborah Moggach’s closing session. Esther will join us all in The Greene Room for bookish discussion and live music from The Jags (Jago Poynter, guitar and vocals, Rick Holland, percussion). Why not join her and us to talk about books near where Graham Greene lived in Clapham on a Spring evening?
If you want to read more about the Clapham Book festival, this year’s edition or earlier, why not try Crime land A Literary Dame A Room at the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Books and Walking – the Clapham Literary Trail How to Get Published? Word Force
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