Cold, crisp, clear winter weather was the order of the weekend for the fourth Lennoxlove Book Festival. On the opening night we welcomed two giants in the world of fiction to the stage; first up was Michael Morpurgo who talked about his life to biographer Maggie Fergusson and then came the much anticipated J.K Rowling event. The crowds poured in and the place was buzzing, the Lennoxlove flambeaux lit the landscape, adding to the fabulous atmosphere, and J.K. Rowling’s event went off without a hitch – she even managed to sign around a 1000 books in an hour!
The festival saw a host of fascinating events, with many audience members spending most of their weekend with us! Well over a thousand parents and children attended our family festival, enjoying the likes of Beast Quest, Astrosaurs, Story Consequences and Dear Zoo. Jugglers, performers and various monsters roamed through the grounds and entertained the crowds in between events.
We learned lots of interesting facts about World War II with Dam Busters, commandos, spies and weapons of war proving thought-provoking subjects. Fascinating life stories abounded; Jack Straw talked memoirs, along with Prue Leith, Claire Macdonald and Richard Holloway, Penny Junor told us about Prince William and Julie Davidson spoke about Mary Livingstone. The weekend was complemented by wonderful poetry from Roger McGough and the irrepressible John Sessions had everyone in stitches with his reminiscences of show biz life! Sunday evening saw more huge crowds coming to hear Neil Oliver talk about Vikings. And then our festival finale changed dramatically; Richard Wilson was unable to join us, but the unstoppable Kate Adie stood in for him at the last second. Kate unfortunately woke up on Sunday morning with NO voice, but after much steaming and lots of hot drinks she took to the stage and pulled off her event in true style – what a star!
Now that the festival is over and the clean-up has been done, all that remains is to say a massive thank you to our audiences, our authors, our sponsors, speakers and everyone who helped make it our best festival yet – THANK YOU!