All the fun of the festival

It’s a rare treat with a guest blog from HHB herself.

Another brilliant four-day Isle of Wight Literary Festival at Cowes.  It was its thirteenth, my fourth, and it just gets better and better.  The warmest of welcomes from Julia Dams, the Festival’s Programme Director, Maggie Ankers at the stunning Villa Rothsay, past playground of Edward VII, marketing supremo Janet Allan, and the friendly and oh so helpful volunteers who worked tirelessly over the four days.

 HHB Agency’s authors -  the BBC’s Helen McGinn (what a wine-tasting, plus Sam Caporn, MW), Louise Minchin, thrillingly interviewed by islander Harriet Hadfield, Jane Lovett getting us in the Christmas cookery mood and Dr Saliha Mahmood Ahmed ensuring that we can all eat deliciously while looking after our health (thank you to star interviewer of Jane and Saliha, Gioia Minghella) -  were all delighted to be invited, loved the atmosphere and their friendly and engaged audiences.

 The 2024 Festival was star-studded, to say the least.  I was able to listen to fascinating mudlarker Lara Maiklam, the erudite Lucinda Hawksley on her ancestor Charles Dickens’ travels in America and Europe, Carol Adlam, who opened a whole new world of the graphic novel to me, Richard Hilliard who shared his commonplace book with us and Barnaby Rogerson and Simon Mayall who discussed with erudition the history of the division between the Sunni and Shia peoples and its relevance to the future of the Middle East. 

 A huge shoutout must go to the Medina Bookshop, with Paul and his colleagues ‘on it’ at all times and always friendly and professional, quite a feat given the number of guest authors the Isle of Wight welcomed to its shores over the past four days.   

Thank you all and here’s to 2025!

Heather Holden-Brown