literature day two

it is with a certain shock that I find myself at the start of day two of this year's lichfield literature without having posted about it for nearly three weeks. Better late than never I suppose. It feels a little like its crept up on us all, and our slightly unexpected full house for our first event with Ian Stewart last night (freshly 'retired' and on the day his book was officially released) excitedly reminded us of what it is we actually do. It is often too easy to get caught up with planning and budgets, that we forget that it is about allowing, in this case, authors (artists) to engage directly with their readers (audiences), and vice versa.
This morning then, with a triple espresso drunk from my favourite Very Hungry Caterpiller mug in recognition of today's four sold out puppet shows marking the book's 40th birthday, and with a long day stretching ahead of the team culminating in (another) sold out event with Kate Adie, I wanted to briefly draw attention to the gentle Lichfield thread. Our second event last night was David Charles Manners speaking about and reading from his latest book. David went to school in Lichfield, and spoke with eloquence and a wonderfully poetic turn of phrase about his years here and about the extraordinary work that he has been doing in the Bengal Himalaya for the last sixteen years. Tomorrow at noon we welcome ten local poets and authors who will be reading their unpublished work at our Open Mic event (this is free - come along). Then Frances Wilson, also from Lichfield, will be finally speaking about her Dorothy Wordsworth book after having to pull out last year due to illness. Tomorrow evening ends with David Nokes discussing Lichfield's Samuel Johnson. Finally, on Sunday, we welcome back Matthew Yeo, another born and bred Lichfeldian, who will be talking about the the history of the bookshop (!). Of course there are other wee connections throughout the weekend, but it is great to have so many authors from here returning to speak here.