Ipswich Book Festival Chapter 1 (3-5 October 2025)

We were promised that the first Ipswich Book Festival would be a lively, inclusive community event, and the weekend did not disappoint. 42 events were spread over 14 separate venues around the town. There was something for everyone; the difficulty was having to choose. One could feel the buzz, as people criss-crossed the town, travelling between venues and sharing their thoughts. Diverse themes were on offer from novelists, poets and a broad range of non fiction writers, encompassing everything from academia to self help. Workshops were available, covering all ages. And each day a Local Authors’ Showcase at The Ancient House enabled local writers and artists to display their work.

My weekend of events started Friday. As rain poured down, I retreated to the Ipswich Institute where Roland Allen introduced The Notebook: a History of Thinking on Paper. Roland brought history to life, tracing the evolution of writing, from wax tablets, papyrus and parchment to the development of paper, which enabled a permanent record to be kept. In Florence notebooks initially recorded financial transactions but later moved to more personal use, with poets such as Petrarch and Dante. Meanwhile in the Netherlands Erasmus invented the commonplace book. Notebooks came to be used by familiar literary names, including Jane Austen, the Brontës, George Eliot and Henry James. Virginia Woolf had a new notebook for each project, while Agatha Christie had a more chaotic approach. George Orwell’s literary notebook of 1947, ‘Last Man in Europe’, later became 1984.

On Saturday Dr Andrea Smith talked about her book Shakespeare on the Radio, while a more personal writing theme was touched on by Dr Megan Hayes, talking about her book, The Joy of Writing Things Down. She stressed the health benefits of writing, encouraging her audience to develop a writing practice. This was an interactive event with the audience being encouraged to write and share.

At the same venue, Dr Annie Gray, whose event was sponsored by Suffolk Book League, talked about her book, High Streets Past Present and Future. Annie is a food historian familiar to those who listen to ‘The Kitchen Cabinet’ on Radio 4. She gave us a history of the development of high streets, which led to a lively discussion on the present use of high streets and what the future might be.

The sense of community and excitement was enhanced on Sunday, when Ashley Hickson-Lovence performed his poetry on a London bus at the Cornhill, with a backdrop of delighted roars from the football ground, as Ipswich scored three goals in their victory over Norwich. The bus was very relevant to Ashley’s writing, which includes, Why I Am Not a Bus Driver, The 392 and, more recently, Wild East. He originally turned to writing as a homage to a friend whose life was taken. His writing is very vivid and real, described as for young adults but with a much broader appeal.

From the Cornhill, Sue and I moved on to Dance East to hear our own Gill Lowe’s lively and entertaining conversation with Charlie Shephard. As we made our way through the Ipswich Streets, the warm community atmosphere continued, with happy football supporters mingling with festival attendees. Chapter 1 was certainly memorable and I look forward to Chapter 2 of Ipswich Book Festival in autumn 2026. I would heartily recommend that you put the first weekend of October 2026 in your diaries.

Dymphna Crowe