Monday 12 April 2010


The spirit of Feste is alive and well and was with me on Saturday. I encountered this street performer on the way to the Central Library to give my talk for the Cambridge Wordfest, and was careful to put money into his hat. I'm superstitious like that. To walk by would have been to court disaster. It was the first time that I'd really spoken about The Fool's Girl at length, more than giving a sneak peek of a work in progress, and I was anxious for it to go well. I needn't have worried. He must have been with me. My writer friends - Yvonne Coppard, Julia Jarman and Anne Rooney - had come along to support me and there were other people, too: some young, some older: readers, librarians, fellow writers. I read a bit, talked a bit, showed them some pictures and then they asked questions. It's always hard to know what people want to know about a book. What fascinates you, as the writer, might not necessarily interest other people. There's so much that you could say that it is hard to decide what to include. That is why I always try to leave plenty of time for questions. It is the most interesting part for me and I suspect for other people, so when a writer asks 'Any questions?', don't be shy.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

It sounds like a great event Celia. And how spooky that the fool was playing his part. I have never seen feste when wandering through Cambridge and I go there often.

claires inner world said...

How very serendipitous...!

The Clothes Press said...

I was there, and it was great to here you talk, I have now finished the book (I think it was your best yet, by the way) and I particularly enjoyed seeing a page from your scrapbook style notebook as well!