News

The Easter break is over and I hope you had safe travels in your visits to friends and family or time away. 

I haven't had any extended journeys recently but always welcome the opportunity to get on the quiet carriage of a train, snuggle into a window seat and get out a good book. Get it right and it's a time of uninterrupted bliss when I can lose myself in another world without the distractions of emails or household tasks. It feels such a gift.

But what if I'd forgotten my book? Or on a particularly long journey, what if I'd finished my book and had a few more hours to fill? Well, in the West Country Penguin Books has the answer. The company has created a paperback vending machine and installed it on a station platform!

Penguin teamed up with Exeter UNESCO City of Literature and Great Western Railways to make a range of titles available to travellers at Exeter St Davids station. These books - fiction and non-fiction - will be changed regularly and will feature new releases as well as old favourites. Key moments of the year will be recognised in the choices too.

The initiative marks 90 years since Allen Lane founded Penguin in an endeavour to make books affordable and accessible. He got the idea for the company when he was at Exeter St Davids, returning home after a meeting with Agatha Christie.

The vending machine is a fun idea and it's always interesting to look at selections of books - there's usually something surprising. But it's a long way to go to see the machine for ourselves and Penguin only has plans to install one more. It hasn't been revealed where that will be but Penguin has said it won't be in a town which has a bookshop!

Now, the month is flying by so this is the first call out for the book group meeting! We'll be gathering together on Monday 24 April to discuss 'Wivenhoe' (scroll down for more details). If you are planning on coming along, please let me know so that I can make all the necessary arrangements for chairs and catering.

Thank you for reading.

Sunshine, spring flowers and birds singing. It's been a lovely few days and good to be reminded of new life and hope over this Easter weekend.

Perhaps you've been able to enjoy spending time with friends and family over this long weekend. The gathering together for a meal or an occasion is important to our relationships and in marking the passing of time.

And it's why novelist's Kate Sawyer's new book is particularly meaningful. Thank you to everyone who has already reserved their place at our event in May (scroll down for details). It makes things so much easier to organise when there is an indication of interest and commitment! If you have your diary to hand, here are a few more events locally which might appeal to all the family.

Later this month on Wednesday 19 April, Sophie Green will be speaking at Suffolk Book League in Ipswich about her Potkin and Stubbs detective series for children aged 8-12. On Saturday 29 April, the children's writer and comedian James Campbell will be popping into Browsers Bookshop Woodbridge to talk about his latest book 'The Funny Life of Football'. And next month, on Saturday 13 May Tracey Corduroy will be in Ipswich for the Children's Book Group talking about her books as part of National Share a Story Month.

And don't forget that it is the INK Festival next weekend in Halesworth, presenting original short plays at venues throughout the town. It might give us some ideas as we consider how the books we're currently reading could be dramatised...Kate Sawyer is currently working on a film adaptation of her debut novel 'The Stranding', and 'Wivenhoe', our book group title this month, is being turned into a play. We have an invitation to attend a reading as that play takes shape and I'll have more details about that next time!

Thank you for reading, and Happy Easter!

Over the past few years, more than ever, we've turned to books for escape and distraction and they've served us well! But I think we all still missed the opportunity to meet together to talk about our discoveries and opinions, or to have a book handed to us in a recommendation. So it's wonderful to find that attending a book group and browsing a bookshop are both natural and easy pursuits once again. 

And I'm pleased to be able to announce the return of another of our regular activities to stimulate our reading habits - the author event!

In a few weeks' time we will be hosting a book launch for the fabulous new, local, talent, novelist Kate Sawyer. This event is particularly special because Kate's first book was released during lockdown so, despite getting lots of much-deserved attention and acclaim, she wasn't able to have the usual rite of passage by introducing it to readers in person. We hope to put that right for this her second novel, called 'This Family', in an evening celebration at Woodbridge Library on 11 May. Please scroll down for more details or read more about Kate here.

Though Kate's first story 'The Stranding' was about a global disaster, set on the other side of the world, beside the carcass of a whale (if you haven't read it, do give it a try, I think it's amazing!), this book is set nearer to home in the Suffolk countryside and explores the events and relationships that shape us all in life, told through the prism of preparations for a family wedding. 

We'll have more details in the coming weeks but I hope you'll put the date in your diary and look forward to seeing you there!

We've often had the debate of whether we like to see our favourite novels turned into films or plays. If done well there's a great delight in seeing the characters, places and plots lived out in front of us. But the interpretation and the adaptation for a different medium often means we're disappointed or frustrated. And the choice of which stories make good dramatisations is often puzzling.

In recent weeks there's been a great deal of coverage for the staging of the bestselling, awardwinning novel 'A Little Life' which has just opened on the West End. I confess I haven't read the book but from what I understand it won't make for cheery viewing, assuming you can afford or acquire a ticket.

And tonight we'll see another Dickens tv adaptation with a new version of 'Great Expectations'. Of course many of us will be watching it to see Olivia Colman play Miss Haversham, but sometimes there have been such seminal productions in the past that the only way to challenge our viewing is to shock or push the boundaries. 

While we can understand programmers wanting to have a readymade audience for productions, achieved by adapting already popular stories, it seems a shame that we're not supporting more new work by the many screenwriters and playwrights eager to reach an audience. 

The annual INK Festival in Halesworth, Suffolk in a couple of weeks' time is a great way to sample new writing. For a day ticket, you have access to a number of venues throughout the town where short plays are performed by professional actors. For a small investment of time and money, you can be stimulated by and support new talent. It's a great idea.

But before then, we have our book group meeting! We'll be gathering together tomorrow evening to discuss 'The Sentence' by Louise Erdrich. If you haven't already replied, please drop me an email to let me know if you are coming along so that we can have everything in place and launch straight into our discussion. 

Thank you for reading.

It's lovely to see the spring flowers, hear the birds singing and hope for some warmer weather and sunshine very soon. Next weekend we'll be changing the clocks to enjoy lighter evenings, but it does feel as though time is rushing by!

Of course, with the end of the month in sight, this is the first call for the book group meeting. We'll be gathering to discuss 'The Sentence' by Louise Erdrich (scroll down for details) and if you'd like to come along, please do let me know by replying to this email. It's really helpful for me to know the numbers to expect so that I can have the chairs and catering in place. 

If you haven't been to the meeting before, do consider coming along. Whether you've finished the book, or not, enjoyed it or not, it's always so interesting to hear other people's comments and views on characters, themes or storytelling. 

It's great to try new writers or genres, but with so many books published each month the choice can sometimes feel rather overwhelming. This week I've found the shortlists for two book prizes rather interesting and may explore some of the titles that are unfamiliar.

The Yoto Carnegie prize for children's literature revealed an all-women shortlist, dominated by titles for young adults but which included The Blue Book of Nebo. This is one of my favourites and which we discussed in book group last summer. 

Meanwhile the New Angle Prize, which recognises literature associated with East Anglia, listed three novels, a book of poetry and two non-fiction titles in its shortlist. There were some familiar names here. Jill Dawson was recognised for her latest novel, and KA Hayton was nominated for her time-travelling children's story. The judges included children's writer Sophie Green and novelist Liz Trenow, both of whom have spoken to us here in Woodbridge. How good it is to bring some new writing to the fore.  

Thank you for reading.