Wirral Libraries BookFest
Brian Jacques at Bebington Central Library
Our first ever Wirral Libraries BookFest from April 7th to 12th was an outstanding success. During the week we put on a total of 26 events at 18 sites across the Borough. These were attended by nearly 1300 people from all ages and backgrounds.
The programme was very diverse, with something for everyone, ranging from a scriptwriting for TV workshop, author visits including Mike Gayle, Jojo Moyes, Jennie Colgan, Hilary Green and Anne Baker, graphic novel workshops, a children's funday featuring Brian Jacques and Shoo Rayner, local history talks, poetry readings/workshops, a visually impaired reader's event, a Dracula event and two major celebrations of other cultures (Polish and Bangladeshi) as well as a Victorian murder mystery evening "Marvellous acting coupled with interesting historical facts"
Paul as PC at Victorian Murder Mystery evening
Feedback has been universally positive and we found that 7% of those attending didn't even live in Wirral! Furthermore, 20% didn't belong to a library and of those, a number said that they would now be joining. One audience member said: "I enjoyed it all...I could have listened to more!"
Other outcomes include a new regular Dad's Baby Bounce and Rhyme session on one Saturday per month at Bebington Central Library and 2 people with longstanding mental health problems, who were previously too frightened to step foot in a library now becoming members.
John Siddique
From "Bloody Dracula" with the Mystery Men...
"The presenters were superb"
"More like this please!"
"Very good acting which kept youinterested"
"An innovative take on literature"
