Oxford Literary Festival - Final Day

Today was the final day of the Oxford Literary Festival and I went along to see Booker Prize winning author Hilary Mantel interviewed by P.D. James in the Sheldonian Theatre. Both are shown in the photo opposite just before the event. Of course, the main topic of the interview and the subsequent question session was the historical novel Wolf Hall about the life of Thomas Cromwell and the Tudor court of Henry VIII. There were fascinating insights into how Hilary captured the life and interactions of the characters and how she filled in the parts missing from historical research. The book is 650 pages long and is an astonishing piece of work. For those awaiting more, she has already started writing the sequel called The Mirror and the Light.

Wantage, of course, is planning its very own Betjeman Festival in September 2011 - a fantastic opportunity to put the town on the map with its literary connections. In the run up to the festival, there are also some pre-festival events starting as early as April of this year. See the festival website here for details.