A Celebration of Words: North Cornwall Book Festival 2024
North Cornwall Book Festival is set to return to St Endellion for four days at the end of September, running from Thursday 26th to Sunday 29th with a characteristically interesting and intimate programme. This year will be the festival’s 12th outing, but the last under the stewardship of founder and Artistic Director Patrick Gale.
North Cornwall Book Festival Artistic Director Patrick Gale
Gale is an award winning author with 21 novels to his name. He moved to Camelford in 1897 following the publication of his first two novels, and has lived in and been inspired by Cornwall ever since. As a novelist Gale has spent a huge amount of time at literary festivals, as these events are now such an important part of the promotion of a new book for their writers.
“Visiting festivals now takes up so much time that I divide my life into writing years and talking years, so as to minimise the discomfort of talking about one book when my head is filling up with another.”
His experiences and insights have driven the culture and curation of North Cornwall Book Festival, with Patrick’s aim being to keep the event intimate so that both attendees and authors can take the most away from the events. With a line-up of author talks, live music, workshops, an art exhibition and a local artisan market, events are programmed consecutively rather than in overlapping streams, so that attendees can see everything should they so wish, rather than having to make choices and risk missing out. Likewise, authors, speakers and performers are encouraged to stay for the duration of the event in order to forge friendships and strengthen their community.
“I wanted the North Cornwall Book Festival to draw on the best elements I had seen for myself visiting book festivals as a novelist. My ideal was to keep it small and intimate, so that readers could come to almost every talk and not feel overwhelmed, and, crucially, to encourage authors to stay for the whole thing so that they could benefit from making new author friends and the public could enjoy bumping into them.”
Over the years the festival has hosted a rich and varied line-up of authors, including: Maggie O’Farrell, Ann Cleeves, Kit De Waal, Natalie Haynes, George Alagiah, Kate Mosse, Michael Morpurgo, Rachel Joyce, Inua Ellams and Jackie Kay. This year the line-up is no less impressive, with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, Booker prize winners Anne Enright and Alan Hollinghurst, and appearances from Cornish stand-up comedian Edward Rowe, crime writer extraordinaire Abir Mukhergee, and festival favourites Petroc Trelawney and Tiffany Murray. There will also be evening sessions and performances, including a Friday night performance in St Endellion Church by genre-splicing supergroup LYR featuring Simon Armitage, and a recording of Radio 4’s Loose Ends on the evening of Thursday 26th to kick off the festival.
There are also plenty of opportunities at the North Cornwall Book Festival to immerse oneself in an activity. Alongside a variety of writing and journaling workshops, you can try your hand at printmaking, go on a foraging walk, or learn a little of the Cornish language.
Artisan and craft market at North Cornwall Book Festival
Whether you are visiting the area specifically to attend North Cornwall Book Festival, or are planning a week’s holiday or a long weekend break in Port Isaac and are looking for things to do nearby, our range of holiday properties in Port Isaac make the perfect base. St Endellion is just 2.5 miles away, so less than ten minutes by car or, for those of you who like to exercise your legs as well as your grey matter, less than an hour’s walk along quiet country lanes.
Browse our Port Isaac holiday properties here, and book your tickets to the festival events here.