Ipswich town centre
Saturday was the first day of the IpArt Festival in Ipswich so you could say Reads United were the opening act (though the organizers might not see it like that!). I’ve never been to Ipswich before and was really impressed – it’s an historic town with some beautiful buildings. I wished I’d had time to see more of it but being a writer on tour this week has been like being an air hostess – you get to visit interesting places but don’t get chance to explore them. By the time I’d dropped the stuff off at the Town Hall and had a quick coffee in Cafe Nero’s on the Buttermarket it was showtime.
Performing on Saturdays at a festival is different from when you are in schools and libraries. The audience is usually made up of families rather than classes and delightfully bookish families at that – who else come to sit for over an hour in a stiflingly warm room when they could be out in the sunshine, other than keen readers? Today we also had four young writers (aged 7-11) who had entered a short story competition run by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups and been shortlisted for a prize. The topic had been ‘Wire’ and all four pieces were excellent. The winners were announced at the end of our Reads United session but not before Shirley Imlach, in her Ipswich Town top, had served as guest goalie for the day. Hello to everyone who came today and well done to Innis, Emily, Rosie and Megan.
Shirley braces herself!