Bold Strokes Books Festival round up

What a cracking weekend! Not least of which was an excellent curry on Friday night, trying to work out who the Nottingham trams were named after (Stuart Broad was easy, some of the rest less so), seeing Robin Hood himself (or at least a man with bows and arrows) and discovering the delights of a breadstick thing called a fougasse. (I had only come across a fougasse as a nasty item of warfare.) And, of course, there was the Bold Strokes Festival itself.

First time I'd been, and hopefully not the last. I met lots of cool people, caught up with some old pals and made some new, heard some interesting panels and had a lot of laughs. If you're in the Nottingham area, first weekend of June, then you might want to try it. Totally free admission.



The best line of the weekend was from Matt Bright, talking about short stories, in response to my question about the tendency towards them having weak endings. "I have to know why the author wrote the story, even if there isn't an ending with closure." I like that. Sometimes I've read things and thought, "What on earth was all that about?" so authors keeping in mind that readers need to know why they wrote the story is good advice.

Spookiest bit of the weekend. Finding that author I Beecham and I (with family!) had once met. In a restaurant in Provincetown in 2006. We both have great memories for faces.