News from library authorities:
Wigan
February Fiction Festival : Banishing the post-Christmas blues in Aspull & Standish.
February is always a bit depressing : Christmas long gone and the dreary dog-end of winter showing no sign, yet, of turning into spring.This year, thanks to a Vision Impact Bid grant, things were different at Aspull & Standish Libraries.
We were able to put together a week of library events for adults, children and families: a mini festival of fiction, facts, food and fun.
The Festival, which we hope will be a model for future events, was organised by Aspull & Standish CLO, Lynda Finney, Reader in Residence Stephen Lythgoe, and Heather Cunliffe from Standish (a national treasure!) with excellent support from Richard Allen, Libraries Project Development Officer, & Sarah Challender from Libraries Marketing.
The running of the festival would have been impossible without the enthusiasm and support of Standish & Aspull Staff, Kim Collins, and Alison Hilton & Rita Musa from Wigan. Thanks to them all.
The varied programme began with a morning of local history, stories and reminiscence at Aspull, featuring slides of the Aspull & Standish areas and the gruesome tale of "The Button Pit Murder". Afterwards, coffee & pastries were served to the audience.
On Tuesday, bestselling crime novelist Margaret Murphy, from the Wirral, gave a fascinating and disturbing talk on "Criminal Profiling from Jack the Ripper to Hannibal Lecter", illustrated with DVD extracts. Afternoon tea with strawberry scones was served.
On Wednesday, at a sell-out evening in Standish, The Mystery Men; David Stuart Davies, Matthew Booth & Matthew J Elliot, all published crime writers, presented their dramatic entertainment "Murders most foul : the life and crimes of Agatha Christie": wonderfully entertaining even if you aren't a big Christie Fan. The evening was rounded off with lots of excellent cheese (including Blacksticks Blue!) and wine.
On Thursday, at Standish, we had a fascinating talk from local bestselling author Kate Long : author of "The Bad Mother's Handbook", "Swallowing Grandma", and "The Queen Mum" . By a wonderful coincidence, Kate's visit happened the week before the ITV dramatisation of BMH, starring Catherine Tate, was shown on TV. Afternoon tea with strawberry scones was served.
On Friday, both libraries had visits from primary school classes for "Terrible Tales of the Tudors" : a gallop through history with jokes, puppets, and executions, presented by Jon Oxendale.>/p>
On Friday evening, Standish was treated to "A book at bedtime" storytelling session by the excellent Fran O'Boyle; an event organised by the Investing in Children Team. The week was rounded off with a prize Playstation 2 competition in both libraries.
All the adult events were ticketed at a reasonable price: almost all were sell outs. Almost 300 people attended the Festival Events. We asked audience to rate the events on a scale of 1-5: the vast majority rated them 4 or 5.
Press coverage of the Festival : focussing on the Margaret Murphy and Kate Long events, was very good, with at least 3 large illustrated articles in local papers.
Let the last word be this note of appreciation sent to Standish Library after The Mystery Men:
"I am writing to thank the organisers of last night's Agatha Christie event for a lovely evening. My friend and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening; the performance was entertaining and well performed.The hospitality from the staff was excellent and the cheese and wine were delicious (and lots of it!). So thank you - I hope that if you get lots of positive feedback then you will be able to put more events and maybe us Hay Festivalites will not have to travel so far in the future!"
For more information contact: Stephen Lythgoe on 01942 404 566
Time To Read currently has a full time paid co-ordinator, supported by Arts Coucil of England and Museums, Libraries and Archives, North West.