OUR 2023 ESSEX BOOK FESTIVAL IS HALF WAY THROUGH - STILL GREAT AUTHORS AHEAD!

Sandra Lawrence in conversation with Chris Penhall

It's our annual Essex Book Festival time again and, as always, a great pleasure when Essex Book Festival Director Ros Green and her team provided us with a selection of super authors, many of them well known; others appearing at events in debut author mode. Ros found time to talk to our listeners on PhoenixFM earlier in the month and other radio channels.

As a patron, I have managed to attend some of the events and it's great to see familiar faces and meet so many talented writers and entertainers at various events around our county. 

We launched on 2 June with Polly Toynbee talking about her memoir An Uneasy Inheritance, which followed on 1 June 'In conversation between the lovely Syd Moore and Seema Anand (Syd wrote Essex Liberation Front). Since then, of course, as our programme catalogue (from all libraries) outlines, more than around 100 events at 40 venues with 200 contributing writers and artists taking part.

One especially enjoyable event was meeting Essex author Sandra Lawrence at the beautiful Hylands House in Chelmsford last Sunday. Sandra has written numerous books,the latest being Miss Willmott's Ghosts, a memoir I've already read and enjoyed. I bumped into several good pals from the past and the day was glorious. More to come, so do check out www.essexbookfestival.org.uk and if possible, treat yourself to some wonderful reading. 

EBF Trustee Pat Gaudin and wonderful author Eleanor Shearer