Fishbourne Literary Festival is hoping for another sell-out this year

It’s all happening on Saturday, April 5, with all talks taking place in St Peter and St Mary Church, Fishbourne.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Always great

00:06to speak to Simon Cox. Now Simon, you have a fabulous event at Fishpawn, Fishpawn Literary

00:10Festival, which sold out last year and well, you were hoping, hoping, hoping, and it should

00:15well sell out this year again, shouldn't it? It's a great event, isn't it? What makes it

00:20the success it is, do you think? There's some important ingredients there, aren't there?

00:25There are. I think the love of reading is where it all started for us. A group of people

00:32who were talking about books all the time and we combined that with a need to fundraise

00:40for our local church in Fishpawn, where the roof is leaking and we need to do something

00:49about it. So I've been in book groups, I'm still in book groups now and a lot of people

00:54were. So the idea was that we could use the church and invite speakers along and try

01:01to raise some money. And this is coming up to be our eighth year, which is incredible.

01:07We had a year when we couldn't do it through COVID, but we bounced back and this coming

01:14year is looking really strong. I've got such a great lineup. I'm absolutely delighted with

01:21the range of speakers that are coming down to Fishpawn, little old Fishpawn.

01:26And does it get easier? You have momentum with you, don't you? You do well one year,

01:31does that carry through to the next or does that just heap up the pressure that you've

01:35got to do more of the same?

01:38I think we've got a good formula and people, they might like to come and see one particular

01:46author, but once they get there, it's a day ticket. So they get introduced to authors

01:52and see different perspectives. And I think they really like this and people can't wait

01:58for the tickets to come out on sale. I do anticipate that we will sell out and have

02:04a waiting list. Tickets are on sale now and we haven't sold out, which is good news if

02:11you haven't bought a ticket. But we will, I'm hoping, I'm pretty sure we will sell

02:16out.

02:17And I think one of the great things about the festival is, I know from my own experience,

02:21what a friendly, welcoming event it is. It really is, isn't it? You're embraced as you

02:25arrive effectively and then you have a pretty fascinating day, don't you?

02:32You do. And I think that's mostly down to where we are, you know, in the church hall

02:40and in the church. So it's welcome. Also, everybody apart from the authors and the guest

02:47speakers are volunteers. So it's not their job, they're doing it for fun. They want to

02:54do it and enjoy it. And a lot of people come along just to buy some secondhand books, which

03:00you can do. You don't have to come and listen to the authors. And we're selling, I don't

03:09know, we must have 5,000 books for sale.

03:12That's impressive.

03:13People donate. And hardbacks are a pound, you know, it's cheaper than going to a charity

03:19shop and people can rummage through and it's great fun. And also, of course, you've got

03:27that nice atmosphere. We're very close to the water meadows at Fishbourne and Fishbourne

03:31Harbour. It just feels like a welcoming place.

03:36Fantastic. Well, I wish you luck with it. I shall spell out who's coming, when and where,

03:40etc. in the accompanying article. Simon, good luck. Lovely to speak to you. Thank you.

03:45Thank you very much, Phil. Bye-bye.