Recognising love and kindness

WARGRAVE :A Summer of Love is promised from Wednesday, June 8 when the village’s annual Wargrave Festival gets underway.

After a two-year hiatus the 18-strong committee are putting on an extra special event this year with a celebratory feel ‘in recognition of the love, kindness and warmth we have shown each other throughout the COVID-19 pandemic’.

Music, food, dance, sport, art, comedy and more will bring the whole community together.

New for 2022 is a full literary evening on Thursday, June 16, designed for those who love reading books, learning about authors and maybe writing a blockbuster on their own.

Suspense writer Amanda Jennings, children’s author and illustrator Nick Butterworth and psychological thriller series writer Will Carver will take to the stage to talk about their respective writing successes.

A special addition to this year’s event is the chance for budding writers to chat with a visiting representative from Red Door Publishing and to learn from successful self-published author John Nixon.

Vanessa Holburn, author and festival volunteer, explained more: “Previously, we've had just one talk, with several authors on stage at once. This year we have three authors who will each give a talk as well as experts from the publishing industry to discuss how to get your words into print.

“Each of the authors has a connection to the area, either because they were born here, live nearby or have family locally. It keeps that lovely community feel, we can be proud of the talent we have.

“We have a great new and bigger venue too, a marquee on the Green. We even have a festival bookshop, which is Four Bears from Caversham, and a lot of other shopping opportunities.

“We hope to make this an evening to rival the other great local literary events and for the festival overall to bring back the hope and optimism for summer that we enjoyed before COVID, all in an idyllic setting.”

Entrance to the evening is £10.

Visit wargravefestival.org.uk