Budleigh celebrates another successful Literary Festival

The organisers of the Budleigh Salterton Literatary Festival are euphoric following the success of their seventh sensational festival which saw top authors including Judith Kerr, Kaffe Fassett, David Lloyd, Sarah Waters and Paula Hawkins attract hordes of festival goers to the seaside town.

The festival also saw local authors Jed Falby, Christine Lee, Andrew Graham and Peter Nasmyth as well as Honorary President and double Man Booker Prize winner Dame Hilary Mantel DBE, give literary talks to captivated audiences.

The festival, which took place from 17th-20th September, attracted avid visitors from all over the country as well as internationally, with some from as far as Switzerland, America and Australia. Many events sold out weeks before the festival with over 5,000 tickets sold in total.

Budleigh was booming during the four day festival and the streets were a hive of activity, with townsfolk and traders joining in with the thrilling festivities, and many of the shop fronts hosting befitting displays to highlight author events and festival activities.

The 2015 line up featured an impressive list of enticing authors, journalists, comedians, artists, historians and photographers who filled Budleigh’s streets with excitement and attracted huge crowds of book fans to the town. The visitors wondered between author events and the festival marquee where a series of book signing events were hosted, giving the book fans the opportunity to meet their favourite authors.

One of this year’s most popular events featured Poldark actresses Heida Reed and Ruby Bentall – who play Elizabeth and Verity – alongside Andrew Graham (Winston Graham’s son) and series scriptwriter and executive producer Debbie Horsfield, discussing the popular TV series, the rugged Cornish Coast and the success of Winston’s 18th Century stories.

Another popular event saw Dame Hilary Mantel DBE go into detail about the books that have helped to shape her life as a writer. Debut author Paula Hawkins revealed her path to writing an instant bestselling thriller, and author and illustrator Judith Kerr inspired her audience with a talk about her impressive career.

Dame Margaret Drabble discussed her latest novel The Pure Gold Baby whilst touching on the topics of care, mental health and community with her mesmerised audience and Man Booker Prize winner Ben Okri charmed his audience with enchanting tales of art, creativity and ancestry. British dramatist and director David Hare delighted his audience with an open and honest event where he discussed his long awaited memoir, The Blue Touch Paper.

Commenting on the success of the festival, Festival Chairman Malcolm Elliott said: “The festival gets bigger every year, whilst still maintaining its reputation as a high quality literary festival; this is my first year as Chairman and it has been an absolute joy to be at the heart of festival activity. I would like to congratulate our Artistic Director, Sarah-Jane Roberts, for putting on such a wonderful festival, and special thanks also go to our fantastic team of volunteers who have worked so hard to make this year so successful.

He continued: “The line-up of authors this year has been incredible and the tickets sales prove that we gave audiences what they wanted! The atmosphere gets more exciting every year and it’s all thanks to the people in the community. The residents of Budleigh embrace the festival with open arms and we are so grateful to them. Now it’s time to start planning for 2016, we can’t wait to welcome everyone to the town again next year.”