Saturday 3 October 2015

THE TENBY BOOK FAIR Sharon Tregenza


        


 I packed my bag on the Friday and headed to Bath Spa station to get the train to Tenby in Pembrokeshire. I was off to stay with friend, author and Tenby Book Fair organiser Judith Barrow.

I lived there for seven years and my last Middle Grade mystery "The Shiver Stone" is set on this coastline.






Tenby is a delightful, picturesque harbour town and seaside resort surrounded by beautiful beaches. It’s also rich in history with its walled town and cobbled streets.


Tenby Harbour


Early on the gloriously sunny Saturday morning we met up with sixteen other authors and began setting up in the church hall. It was a colourful affair - tables stacked with books from many different genres ensured a variety of covers, posters and banners. Sci-Fi nudged shoulders with Romance, Poetry cosied up to family sagas and thrillers nestled next to local history.







From the minute the doors opened people flooded in. The warm weather ensured that the town was bustling with tourists and locals and many of them came to browse, buy books and engage with the authors.





Midway there were poetry readings and then Janet Thomas of Firefly Press and I handed out prizes to the winners of the “my favourite book” essay - a competition held in conjunction with local schools.




The event was professionally filmed by showboat tv – and there’s a short video here if you fancy a peep: https://www.facebook.com/showboattv/videos/503015573209148


The Tenby Book Fair was a great success - it was buzzing and busy and there was plenty of good-humoured camaraderie. I thoroughly enjoyed my day and I’ve already signed up for next year.




7 comments:

judith barrow said...

Lovely post from children's writer, Sharon Tregenza, about the Tenby Book Fair (First event of the Tenby Arts Festival)It was the best yet! Onwards and upwards.

Unknown said...

What a lovely day for both writers and readers! Congratulations on a successful book fair and am sure next year will be even bigger and better. Knowing that Shiver Stone is a great read and set locally, am sure it was snapped up!

Sue Purkiss said...

Lovely post and lovely pictures!

Hothothot said...

hosting

Ann Turnbull said...

I love Tenby! We had several holidays there and the sun always shone. And the book fair sounds great. I'm sure it will continue to thrive.

Anonymous said...

What a lovely event and in such a special place. Will definitely add Tenby to my wish list of places to visit and Shiver Stone to my reading pile.

Unknown said...

Sorry Sharon. Don't mean to post that as anonymous. I'm still waking up!