Today, in our series What Are You Reading, we drop in on Charles Courtenay, 19th Earl of Devon, and a passionate reader, to hear about some of his current and enduring favourites.
In the latest of our series What Are You Reading?, we are delighted to welcome Councillor Philip Bialyk, Leader of Exeter City Council, to tell us about some of his favourite reading material.
In the latest in our series What Are You Reading?, we are chatting to Professor Tim Kendall, from the English Department at the University of Exeter.
Today we are launching an occasional feature on our blog: What Are You Reading? We are inviting a variety of people, with links either to Exeter or to the Literary World, or both, to talk about books that mean a lot to them. And our first guest is Exeter-based author, Margaret James.
The Exeter Literary Festival is introducing a Friends Group, allowing audiences a way to support the Festival which will return with a full programme for readers and writers alike in November 2021.
Kate McCormick is a former technical writer and manufacturing consultant in the international pharmaceutical industry who ‘gave up the day job’ to write full time, when she isn’t gardening, enjoying the sunshine or spending far too much time on Facebook or Twitter. Writing under the pen name of Elizabeth Ducie, she has published four novels and three collections of short stories. She is also the author of The Business of Writing, a series of books aimed at equipping self-employed writers with the simple tools they need to run their business effectively. She also presents workshops and coaches on the same subject. She took over as Festival Director at the beginning of 2020.
Cathie Hartigan has been on the committee of the Exeter Literary Festival since planning for the inaugural event began in 2017. As a director of the Creative Writing Matters team she shares responsibility for the annual Exeter Novel Prize - an international literary award culminating in an award ceremony here in the city. Cathie is now a trustee of the Festival and our programme director.
As Senior Supervisor at Exeter Library, Karen Huxtable, has not just been involved with hosting events for the last two Exeter Literary Festivals, but was all ready for the library to be one of the main venues for 2020. With the library closed to the public at present and plans for the Festival scaling back from a full event this year, she remains very positive about what the future holds.
In a new series of blog posts, we thought it would be nice to introduce members of our steering committee, together with our patrons. First up is Su Bristow, who has been on the committee with ExeLitFest for a couple of years. Her debut novel, Sealskin, won the very first Exeter Novel Prize in 2013. Winning that award, set her on the road to publication.