It is now just under six weeks until this year’s Clapham Book Festival takes place on May 12th in Omnibus Theatre and Clapham Library. So publicity and promotion activity is cranking into gear. Yesterday a fellow volunteer and I collected several thousand printed leaflets, all for handing out or posting through letter boxes around Clapham and nearby parts of South London. Thank you Dhaval at First Stop Print for doing such a good job (we use local Clapham businesses where ever we can).
So don’t be surprised if you live in SW4 or SW11, if you find one on your doormat. Please read it, don’t bin it.
You will also find leaflets and posters in the businesses along Abbeville Road – thank you Vince at No. 33, (a Stephen King reader) the lady at Bistro Union, 
another at Bottle Apostle, the man at Diba’s and the butchers in The Ginger Pig (interested in the Patrice Lawrence event for their children).
Residents should not be surprised to encounter Clapham Writers and other volunteers on street corners around Clapham and Battersea. At Venn Street Market and Northcote Road market on Saturdays, at Macfarlane’s Deli in Abbeville Road, at St Luke’s Church, The Church of the Holy Spirit and Clapham Leisure Centre. There’ll also be one of us, at least, with leaflets, at Words Away Literary Salon at the Tea House Theatre on 30th April, where discussion, with Michèle Roberts is on The Agony & the Ecstasy; Writing Sex in Fiction. (Have I ever? No, I don’t think so. Post coital is as close as I’ve got.)
Shops, cafes and restaurants around Clapham Common will be carrying the flyers as will other local businesses (together with copies of the Clapham Literary Trail, of which more later). And we have a supporter within Clapham 
Police (who promises to put us on their Twitter feed). We hope that there’ll be window displays at Clapham Books, Waterstones and WHSmiths and, of course, at the venues themselves.
Our social media wizards are already at work with our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts and e-mailing out to networks such as Mumsnet and the Clapham W.I. and local societies like The Clapham Society and Friends of Clapham Common. Follow us on twitter at ClaphamBookFest. There’ll also be interviews on Radio Wandsworth and in the local press. Who knows, with Mark Lawson and Daljit Nagra appearing this year, we might even get a mention on Radio 4.
The brilliant Colette and Rosella from Lambeth Libraries will be taking the leaflets into schools and school Libraries, together with our flyer for the Patrice Lawrence free event at Clapham Library on 12th May. Bring your children along.
Celebrate reading and the written word, come to the Clapham Book Festival on 12th May and discuss books and writing with internationally acclaimed authors (and local authors too). It’s all on the web-site at www.claphambookfestival.com.
If you enjoyed reading about the Clapham Book Festival why not try The Countdown Begins The Department of Security & Crime Science Crime Land Walls Have Ears
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