Wellington is a small town near Telford in Shropshire. For a number of years it has held an autumn literary festival. Today was their children’s day and Catherine Cooper (Author of The Adventures of Jack Brenin ) invited me to attend along with illustrator, Natalie Furnival, young children’s author ~ Ann Scantlebury, poet ~ Elizabeth Leaper, and Georgina Kirk who was a story teller for the day.
I decided to take along a bag full of Anglo-Saxon replica items including weapons, armour, musical instruments, a game and other bits and bobs plus of course my books. I do find that having the replica items really helps with the conversations. Children love trying on helmets, picking up swords and axes and even looking at the things Saxons used to clean their ears!
One of the most amazing groups present was Arty Party. These took up station in the cafe of the Library and gave poetry recitals. It is a local group of young people have various problems who publish poetry and books and work together as a team and run a market stall every week. Some of them cannot write but dictate stories which others publish. Their drive and enthusiasm was amazing and we other authors were soon taking down names of their printers and illustrators.
These types of activities are as much about “getting out there” and making connections and meeting readers as it is about actually selling books and today was enjoyable.
Many thanks to Catherine for the invitation.
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