Actually, it's more than just about books. It's one of the high points in the town's calendar, and the place is buzzing with life. People flock in from miles around. I first went in 2012, and have since been there most years, for the entire week, usually booking a dozen or more Festival events. Jeremy Vine is the patron, and they manage to net a lot of pretty big fish (i.e. authors) to talk about their latest book, and their life, and their points of view, and whatever else that converts them from being merely persons you've heard of - in the news, or on TV - into real people you can get close to. This is the way I've been able to meet, and personally talk to, quite a list of A-list and B-list celebrities. And sometimes to sneak a picture of them. Once or twice, if they are happy to pose, a picture of both of us together.
'Friends' pay £20 up front, and get to go to a couple of special events just for them, in the company of one or several of the 'big fish', such as a celebrity dinner in some local posh restaurant. That's how I last met the lady who had emailed me. She was on my table, and here is a picture of us:
That was in September 2018. I didn't attend the Festival last year, because my month in Scotland in April put my entire normal holiday programme back, and North Devon got squeezed out. So I expect Joy has forgotten me. But no doubt this and many other connections will be renewed later this year.
I think the Festival Committee, in conjunction with many other local interests, have weighted up the chances, and decided that it will be all right to go ahead - and indeed good for the local economy if they do. This is what they say on their home page on the Internet:
You can read what they say about the coronavirus pandemic, and their view on what is possible, in the small print - just click on the picture. Or view the website at https://www.appledorebookfestival.co.uk/.
Well, I went to the Friends page and got my Membership for 2020 nailed down. This generated an image of a membership card, to print out or display on my phone:
Waterstones the booksellers always organise the book-signings, when you queue up to chat with Boris Johnson, Tom Cruise, the Sussexes, or whoever else has just written a book and told us about it in their event. Oh, look at that: I'm 2020 member number 56. One of the very first, then, out of hundreds of Friends (and thousands of non-Friend attendees). I hope that gets me an extra glass of bubbly at a Friends' do.
All this lies in the future. It's months away. Some events have been scrubbed until next year. But not this one. I'm so glad that the Festival committee - that Appledore - made up its mind to go ahead, showing confidence and commitment. And I'm very happy to step up and support them, by becoming a Friend again.
I don't think it will all come unstuck. Not the event. But what may happen is that, with the virus lingering on here and there, people who haven't had the illness - or have not been vaccinated - may find themselves having to practice social distancing for a long time to come. So I while I'll be able to take my caravan to North Devon, and have much of what I normally enjoy while away, I won't be able to mix with people. Which rules out going to any Festival event. We'll have to see. Maybe there'll be enough of that 'herd immunity' by then?
