We have come to the end of the inaugural Books on the Bay Literary Festival in Simon's Town, the historic naval port at the tip of Africa, and the setting for my second novel, The Girl from Simon's Bay.
And what a pleasure it has been! A packed schedule of events, a raft of fascinating talks and interviews, and a range of authors and works to tempt every palate. It's been an honour to take part, and have the chance to meet readers from far and wide to talk books, plots and research for several days...
My formal part of the Festival took place in the beautiful Dockyard Chapel, part of the Simon's Town Naval Museum. A cheerful crowd packed into the pews to listen to David Attwell, the Festival organiser, open proceedings, before broadcaster Nancy Richards introduced me and we began our discussion. It's not often that, as an author, you have the opportunity to speak about your book in the very place where it is set! Just yards away, my heroine Louise Ahrendts would walk along St George's Street. Not far from our venue are the steps and lanes she could take to reach the Royal Naval Hospital where she worked as a nurse - and where she met Lieutenant David Horrocks. Just along the way is the dockyard where David's warship would anchor and, a little further along the coast, the beach from where Piet would launch his fishing boat... This made it particularly special not just for me but for the audience as well, many of whom have close connections with the town going back to those days.
Let's hope that the Books on the Bay Festival becomes a regular event.
As David Horrocks says in the novel, when wondering about the future:
"Shall we see how the wind blows?"
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