Sunny weekend in Fowey
19/05/11 20:31
This week is the Du Maurier Festival in Fowey, Cornwall, and I arrived on a warm and sunny day, with the weather forecast promising a beautiful few days.
Friday at 11:45 I joined Stella Duffy and Helen Taylor to discuss the perennial appeal of du Maurier's historical novels. We discussed, with a packed audience, how, in what are fairly hard times for books and publishing in general, there’s recently been a serious revival of the historical novel. It’s a fascinating subject and with two such distinguished fellow-speakers, I imagine I’ll spend more time listening to them than talking myself...
On Saturday, I talked about my new novel, The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton in the Fowey Hall Hote. It was a beautiful venue and voted one of the top ten seaside hotels in Europe; I was lucky enough to be staying there, and I can see why. But the most exciting thing, for me, was discovering that I was staying in the very building which was the original inspiration for Toad Hall, in Kenneth Grahame’s the Wind in the Willows. Now there’s a literary connection to boast about!
Fowey Manor Hotel -- the inspiration for Toad Hall
Friday at 11:45 I joined Stella Duffy and Helen Taylor to discuss the perennial appeal of du Maurier's historical novels. We discussed, with a packed audience, how, in what are fairly hard times for books and publishing in general, there’s recently been a serious revival of the historical novel. It’s a fascinating subject and with two such distinguished fellow-speakers, I imagine I’ll spend more time listening to them than talking myself...
On Saturday, I talked about my new novel, The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton in the Fowey Hall Hote. It was a beautiful venue and voted one of the top ten seaside hotels in Europe; I was lucky enough to be staying there, and I can see why. But the most exciting thing, for me, was discovering that I was staying in the very building which was the original inspiration for Toad Hall, in Kenneth Grahame’s the Wind in the Willows. Now there’s a literary connection to boast about!
Fowey Manor Hotel -- the inspiration for Toad Hall
