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She looked extraordinary, she sounded incredible and she wrote some of the most iconic songs of our time. What's more, she had a huge heart and was generous, honest, wise and charming.

This is the consensus of opinion towards the legend of country music that was Dolly Parton who sadly died this week.

Certainly we're all aware of her impact through a songlist that includes 'Jolene', '9 to 5', 'I Will Always Love You' and 'Coat of Many Colors', displaying huge range and musicality but also profound and powerful storytelling. She's believed to have written more than 3,000 songs.

She was able to make quips about her looks - 'it costs a lot of money to look this cheap' - but it was clear that 'she was the smartest person in the room', always in control, being determined and driven in her goals to succeed, seeking to make a difference and bring hope and joy to others, and having a strong faith and moral code.

She never lost sight of where she'd come from and sought to help others realise their own dreams in life.

Through scholarships, disaster relief funding, donations to medical research and healthcare, and her Imagination Library, founded in memory of her father who couldn't read, she made a huge contribution to the lives of people throughout the world who were struggling with poverty, hardship and deprivation.

She gifted some 300 millions of books to children, choosing Rotherham as the town where she launched her Imagination Library in Britain in 1995. The scheme saw books posted to children each month of their life until they're five years old. 

To recognise something of the legacy of this formidable and inspiring woman, buildings in New York were lit up in pink on the news of her death and, for Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace, the Coldstream Guards played '9 to 5'.

Though it's very sad that she's no longer with us, let's hope her example will live on. She shared some unforgettable lines to inspire and encourage... 

'If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain'.

'Don't get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.'

'If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.'

'I always just thought if you see somebody without a smile, give 'em yours!' 

There are many, many more. She certainly had a way with words.

'I hope that when my time comes,' she said, 'I'll leave something behind that others can use to lift themselves up.'

Thank you for reading. 

As you receive this email, I'm just getting home from this year's FolkEast Festival. I was taking part in the programme of author talks taking place over the weekend throughout the Sotterley Estate, alongside the music, arts and crafts of this very lovely annual event.

There have been some familiar names, and faces, speaking. Among them, the nature writer Simon Barnes, novelists Melissa Harrison and Rob Parker, and former BBC Look East presenter Stuart White. But there have also been debut novelists, historians, nature writers and children's writers and illustrators sharing their insight and experiences.  

And this is what I've always enjoyed about attending festivals - discovering new subjects, authors and books to explore. Event prices today, by necessity, have risen and very often at dedicated book festivals we have to make a decision between the headline speakers with whom we are familiar, and the new and emerging talent who may pique our interest but for whom we may not want to risk the price of a ticket.

It's interesting to see, then, that we have two festivals in Suffolk in the coming months where we are invited not to go to individual talks, but to attend an all-day event. 

The Leiston Book Festival on 19 September is themed on our natural environment while the Flipside Festival in Framlingham on 3 October promises to take us on 'Travels in Time and Space'.

Both festivals require more upfront commitment in time and money for the audience member, but when we are all aware of the constraints of life with algorithms feeding back to us material we have already discovered, this is a great way to be challenged, stimulated and surprised through carefully curated programmes. Will you join me there?! 

Thank you for reading. 

This summer's blockbuster, Christopher Nolan's movie 'The Odyssey' has met with mixed reviews. Some have considered it superficial, too long, and obsessed with spectacle, overlooking deeper psychological and ethical messages. Others were delighted at the special effects, music and the casting in an epic piece of cinema.

Either way, there have been huge attendances at cinemas and also a vast increase in sales of the original text - up by 1,400% in the weeks around the release of the film. The audio by Stephen Fry has also proved popular, in the top 10 on Spotify, with Ian McKellen's narration appearing in the US chart.

Press coverage has been keen to highlight that poetry in general has risen in popularity in recent times - not solely due to the interest in Homer this year. With increases in sales for the last three years, this year is projected to be the best yet for poetry collections - at £17m. 

Social media is believed to be key in raising the profile of poets such as Lucas Jones, Nikita Gill and Len Pennie. Donna Ashworth is Britain's bestselling living poet of the decade with her 2025 collection 'To The Women' selling almost 34,000 copies this year. Films of the poems of Hollie McNish have repeatedly gone viral with some gaining over one million YouTube views in just over a week. And Harry Baker has a growing presence at festivals, on radio, sell out tours and TedTalks. 

The reason? 'All writing is about connection,' says Ella Risbridger in her article in the 'Guardian' this week. 'But the immediacy of the connection between author and reader is somehow easiest in poetry: when it works, there's a direct shot to the heart...social media offers these poets a new way to gather people round the fire...Poetry needs the new so that it can keep on telling the oldest stories we have: love, despair, grief, hope, joy, community, companionship. Long may it live'.

Thank you for reading. 

Whether or not you're off to the beach, spending time in the garden or having a relaxing holiday by a pool, the summer is traditionally a time for taking things a little slower and diving into a good book.

Though I'm not a fan of random reading lists (as I may have mentioned!) I was pleased to see that once again former President Barack Obama has revealed the books he's enjoyed this year in his Summer Reading List (and Playlist).

Almost every year since taking office in 2009, he has shared the books he's enjoyed by his favourite authors and his most recent discoveries.

This year is another great selection - 'The Things We Never Say' by Elizabeth Strout which has been longlisted for this year's Booker Prize, and Ann Patchett's 'Whistler' which is one of my favourite books of 2026 so far. Also 'Vigil' by George Saunders which we read together at Framlingham Book Group and 'Cool Machine', the latest novel by Colson Whitehead (we read 'Harlem Shuffle' at Woodbridge Book Group recently). There are a number of other titles which, if they're not already on my own reading list, will soon be added.

So what does this list say about Obama? It's clear that he considers reading to be important enough for him to make room for it within his working life, and he reads intelligently and broadly. The mind boggles at the thought of seeing something similar from President Trump.

Will we see a reading list from our new Prime Minister, i wonder. He found the time to step into social media with his views on pub snacks in his first week in the role, and he's just back from a two week holiday. He might not have had time to pick up the latest Maggie O'Farrell this summer, though, having just moved into Number 10. 

It's been acknowledged that Andy Burnham differs from past political leaders in being an English Literature graduate. There has been speculation in how this might affect his perspective and his decision-making and in interviews he has been asked what he feels he has gained from studying English.

In these conversations I had hoped he might have gone further in his answer, but he's said that, in seeking to persuade his father, all those years ago, of the relevance and value of an English degree, he referred to the Yorkshire poet Tony Harrison. In an epigraph to his poem 'V', Harrison quoted the former miners' union leader Arthur Scargill saying: ‘My father still reads the dictionary every day. He says your life depends on your power to master words.’ 

Thank you for reading. 

We've begun! With the Booker Prize Longlist revealed earlier this week, we are on our way to finding out this year's winner of the most prestigious and coveted award in English literature.

And in Woodbridge, once again we're investing in the process as members of our Booker Book Group take on the challenge of reading all 13 books between us to draw up our own shortlist, and potential champion.

Fairly predictably, most of the suggestions by bloggers, critics and booksellers about who might make this year's Longlist were wide of the mark. So the choices from judges Mary Beard, Jarvis Cocker, Patricia Lockwood, Raymond Antrobus and Rebecca Liu have been declared 'surprising', 'mischievous', 'original' and 'risk-taking'. 

We'll let you know what we make of their decision when we've had our discussion on Monday 7 September. And, by the way, if you want to attend that meeting to hear the presentations and our deliberations, you will be very welcome. I'll be giving more details nearer the time.

As we divided up the books among our reviewers, there were some fascinating facts and figures to consider about the nominated titles. 

Seven nationalities are featured among the authors with representatives from Jamaica, Mexico, Turkey, England, Scotland, Ireland and the United States.

The longest book is Marlon James's 'The Disappearers' at more than 600 pages, and the shortest is 'Helen of Nowhere' by Makenna Goodman at just 140 pages - six of the books are under 250 pages.

There are two previous winners - in Marlon James and Douglas Stuart - and Elizabeth Strout has now been nominated three times, this year with her novel 'The Things We Never Say'.

The oldest writer in the Longlist is 81-year-old M. John Harrison for 'The End of Everything', and he is also a former Booker judge, involved in the prize in 2022. The youngest writer this year is Djamel White, with 'All Them Dogs', who is 28.

There are three independent publishers featured – Fitzcarraldo Editions, Serpent’s Tail and Granta. Five books published by Penguin Random House imprints are nominated. Picador, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, is represented twice, as is John Murray, part of Hachette. 4^th Estate, part of HarperCollins, has a book on the list, too. 

For our own scintillating statistics in Woodbridge, I can report that this year we've had our biggest response to the Booker Challenge yet which means that each title on the Longlist of 13 books could have had two readers. There are five men, and 22 women involved in the group.

We started the Booker Book Group in 2020 and have met each year ever since (though I think we might have skipped 2021 due to Covid).

For those members of our group who declared a preference in the books they might like to read this year, the most popular by far was Elizabeth Strout's 'The Things We Never Say', followed by 'John of John' by Douglas Stuart and 'The Palm House' by Gwendoline Riley. Also high on the list were 'All Them Dogs', 'Helen of Nowhere' and 'May We Feed the King'.

Currently it looks like two of the novels will be published too late for us to include reviews at our meeting, but I'm working on getting early copies of 'Switzy' by Emma Cline and Marlon James's 'The Disappearers'. It would be such a shame if we couldn't report back on all 13 Longlisted titles. 

Thank you for reading.