With the hot weather we're enjoying at the moment I'm glad that I don't live or work in a city. But being in a market town or village, we can sometimes feel overlooked in the grand scheme of things. Life here is just as vibrant as anywhere else, though, as I found two writers commented this week.
In a broad-ranging and entertaining conversation with the Reverend Richard Coles at the Riverside Cinema in Woodbridge on Wednesday we heard about the inspiration for his new series of murder mystery novels.
"I think the first lesson I had as a vicar," he said, "was to explode the very persistent myth that only things of national interest happen in big cities. They don't, they happen in Woodbridge and in Finedon [his former parish in Northamptonshire] and in Champton St Mary [the fictional parish of Canon Daniel Clements] and all sorts of places because human beings are human beings and when you put them all together human dramas play out."
Village life in all its richness is presented in his latest novel, 'A Death in the Parish' and we very much enjoyed hearing all Richard had to say about how the books have come together and his plans for future stories too.
Barbara Kingsolver, picking up her second Women's Prize, spoke about rural life as the inspiration for her novel 'Demon Copperfield'. In an article for the Guardian, she said: “I understand why rural people are so mad they want to blow up the system.
'“That contempt of urban culture for half the country...The news, the movies, TV, it's all manufactured in cities about city people. We're nothing. We don't see ourselves at all. And if we do show up, it's as a joke, the hillbillies. We are the last demographic that progressive people still mock with impunity."
It's village life in the 17th century that we turn to in a few days' time, though, when novelist Margaret Meyer will be joining us to present her new book 'The Witching Tide'.
Margaret was inspired by the notorious witch trials that took place in coastal Suffolk and has written a stunning and acclaimed novel based on these real events. You can read more in my article for Suffolk magazine here.
She'll be visiting two days before the official release of the book, so come along and be the first to hear all about it! Scroll down for details and get your ticket online here.
Finally, it's our book group meeting tomorrow when we will be discussing 'The Slaves of Solitude' by Patrick Hamilton (details below). Please reply to this email to let me know if you can be there.
Thank you for reading.