{"id":4414,"date":"2025-04-28T09:52:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T07:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.georgiahill.co.uk\/?p=4414"},"modified":"2025-04-28T10:04:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T08:04:18","slug":"bournemouth-writing-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.georgiahill.co.uk\/?p=4414","title":{"rendered":"Bournemouth Writing Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s been nose to the grindstone recently so it was good to get out of the Fairy Glen Writing Cave and spend time with my tribe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bournemouth Writing Festival is a huge event and gaining in popularity with each year it\u2019s on. People travel from all parts of the world to attend. Luckily, my pal Suzy Bussell and I only had to hop over the county border.<\/p>\n\n\n

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It\u2019s a full-on weekend with all sorts of workshops and events and networking opportunities available. I went to three talks, one of which was dry but useful, a second very entertaining one and a third which was a little esoteric for me. Sophie Beal and Gary Dalkin\u2019s session was the highlight.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Can\u2019t say it was the friendliest event I\u2019ve ever attended. When I asked the chap who plonked himself next to me what he wrote, I received the succinct but vague reply, \u2018Fiction.\u2019 And that was that. I\u2019m a chatty sort, I love to talk and felt very rebuffed. Luckily, the woman sitting on my other side was far nicer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOP TIP: if you\u2019re attending a writing event, have a ready answer for the question, \u2018What do you write?\u2019 Along with an elevator pitch (a pithy summary of your book). You never know who you\u2019re talking to. I\u2019m not an editor or agent but I could have been! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I haven\u2019t been to Bournemouth since I was a tiny child and my initial impression was how lovely it was. Vestiges of the elegant seaside resort remain but it definitely has an edge too, as if things could kick off at any moment. I\u2019ve obviously lived in a tiny seaside town for too long, it felt very \u2018big city!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n

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The final talk of my day was in St Peter\u2019s Church. A truly magnificent building where Mary Shelley is buried. Sadly, I didn\u2019t feel comfortable exploring the graveyard to find her actual tomb due to the groups of men drinking. 
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Despite some of the negatives, I had a good time, found some things useful and found lovely people like Alice May and Nikki Moore to talk to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alice launched her new book at the festival and it\u2019s storming the charts. Looks good, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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