MARLBOROUGH Town Hall welcomed hundreds of visitors to the sixth annual LitFest at the weekend.

There were more than 25 author talks and events taking place in venues around the town. 

Here are some visitors' thoughts on the author talks:

JASPER FFORDE by Kate Fry

Jasper Fforde was at Marlborough LitFest on Saturday and proved to be charming, intelligent and very funny as he spoke about how he turned himself into a writer after starting out the movie business.

Before he became a published author he received many rejections, but always got enjoyment from his writing and he still likes creating tricky scenarios for himself that he has to fit into the plot in some inventive style.

He talked about the 'path less travelled' as his general rule for story writing – when there is a choice of two outcomes, he will always go for the one which is not generally used and see where it leads.

Although he has now had 13 books published, he said he was most proud of Shades of Grey as he feels it is his most original work, and this prompted a question from the audience “Will there be a sequel?”

The answer was “yes”, but there will be a bit of a wait as first he's writing a prequel which can only start once he's finished the three other books he has in the pipeline.

Some of the audience were obviously Jasper Fforde fans - two had come all the way from Norway - but some were new to his work.

However all seemed to be enjoying the comedy and his laid back style of delivery with hands in pockets. He received a great round of applause at the end of his talk and signed autographs afterwards before going off to teach a teenage writers' workshop as another part of the LitFest programme.

 

ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH by Davina Jones

There was not a seat left for Alexander McCall Smith’s conversation with Tony Mulligan of Midas PR.

For fans of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency the bestselling author’s sense of humour was never in question, and his talk was punctuated by roars of laughter as he discussed his prolific writing career.

McCall Smith put Botswana on the literary map with his hugely entertaining portrait of Mma Ramotswe, and he talked lovingly about the kind and proud people of Gaborone. 

His caricatures in No 44 Scotland Street drew the greatest laughs – the pushy mother sending her toddler to Italian lessons only to find him leaving Italian graffiti on the ‘advanced’ nursery school’s wall, and the Scottish Nudist Society’s outing to a midge infested Glen Coe.

With McCall Smith even naming a dog Cyril seemed funny. One festival goer was heard to remark on leaving, ‘I have not laughed so much in years, wonderful.’

His latest book is for children, School Ship Tobermory is a boarding school tale with a difference – the school is a sailing ship.

 

HELEN DUNMORE by Davina Jones

Helen Dunmore, award-winning novelist, poet and children’s author, spoke to a packed Town Hall about her latest novel, The Lie, a story about the friendship between two boys.

Her fascination with male friendship, she explained, stems from its difference to female friendship, and its idolisation by the Victorians, most memorably in Lord Tennyson’s poem In Memoriam, a tribute to his late friend Arthur Hallam.

The audience quizzed her about writing from the male perspective, and she explained nothing was impossible in fiction, laughing that she had never been a ghost or a mermaid either but she had written from the viewpoint of both.

When pushed to choose a favourite from her books she admitted she had found her novel The Siege the most affecting to write. She ended her talk by presenting a prize to a teenager from Salisbury, Deya Shergill, whose ghost story had won the festival’s creative writing competition.

 

RACHEL JOYCE by Kay Kiggell

It was clear from the outset that Rachel Joyce was going to be an incredibly engaging author to hear.

Her warmth, elegance and insight into the human condition meant that she connected immediately with her audience. That her success had been a shock, that she felt uncomfortable with it and shied away from talking about herself too much, just made us like her even more. 

We heard how the novel had started as a radio play in response to the terrible news from her father that he was dying. 

The need to ‘spill’, to explore through writing, the emotions that she felt then, are what lead her to write the book. She knew that her father would never read it and he didn’t. She described the cathartic process of writing, of how the 49 years preceding the book, in which she (and her father) had not said the things she wished they had, meant that she was very much ‘emotionally in the middle of it’. She and Harold seemed to be going on a very similar journey.

On the journey, as Harold’s life touches those he meets, Rachel wanted to show how the people one passes by on the street all have a story and a journey of their own. 

Harold, she believes, as a passer-by himself, carries a little bit of everybody he meets with him. His fleeting-ness means that people are willing to share things with him, things that are sometimes quite private. The fact that Harold would not be around the next day ensured he was a safe person to talk to.

When she spoke about Maureen’s role, the issues of talking and sharing came to the fore. Notably, Maureen, whose journey was possibly greater than Harold’s, did not make the choice to travel, but Harold’s emotional journey was, of course inextricably linked to her.

The need to make sense of Maureen, to understand what had happened to them as a couple, involved getting to the truth about their son, David; a truth buried so deep that it couldn’t be dealt with.

Rachel read from the book and interesting, amusing and searching questions followed. A thoroughly entertaining ‘Big Town Read’.

 

IAN WHYBROW by Hannah Keighley (aged 10)

Before going to hear Ian Whybrow speak I was a bit worried it would be too childish; I read his books years ago!

I really enjoyed listening to him though because he made us laugh and was very funny. He involved everyone and even got the grown-ups doing dinosaur actions and noises.

Ian Whybrow has a great imagination and I loved it when he described a visit to the dentist. I even learned a lot of facts about dinosaurs! I am so glad I went. Thank you Bizza (my granny) for taking me.