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Peak Festival Enters 5th Year with a Large Gathering of Authors
27th November - 5th December 2009
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Peak Literary Festival is entering into its 5th year with the launch on Friday, 27th November with one of the
largest gatherings of authors and literary minds. Not only will Friends of the Festival be able to interact
with most of the 2009 Festival authors but they will also have the chance to meet with many others with books
that will be published next Spring. With so many authors talking about a wide range of topics it promises to
be a lively and interesting evening.
Authors appearing at the Festival over the 9 days will be talking about their work, answering questions and
signing copies of their books as usual. This year the festival will include a couple of stories taken from
diaries; football stories for the lads; garden tales; a couple of novels - one a story of a bottlenose
dolphin and one set in a school; French tours; breast-feeding stories for mums to be and the real Billy Elliot
story.
At 11 am on Saturday, 28th November Philip Algar will be giving us a talk about his very interesting
book, ‘Goodbye Old Chap, a life at sea in peace and war’. If you are interested in history, in stories from
the war, in stories of the Merchant Navy or stories of great ordeals that ordinary people endure, then you
will enjoy hearing about this true account from the diaries of Philip Algar’s father, Stanley, who was a
Captain of a Merchant Navy Oil Tanker and a prisoner of war in a German POW Camp for many years and met his
son for the first time when he was five years old. It is a fascinating insight into the past century that is
already fleeing into history.
If you have an interest in France then this one is for you. Trevor Snow organised popular tours of France
for many years, and has now put them all into a book for you to explore yourself. His tours cover, The Magic
of Brittany; Treasures of the Riviera; Cathar Country; Houses, Gardens and Artists; the Heart of France;
etc...... and he is a mine of information on all of these areas, including where to stay and eat, tours to
take, what not to miss, and lots of interesting information about the area. Trevor will talk to us at 6.30 pm
on Saturday, 28th and Jean Claude of the 'French Wine People’ will also be there with a French Wine tasting.
Andrea Jane Finney has written a story based on the diary of her great, great grandmother, Elizabeth
Gore (1844 - 1923) and her story of her hard life and the loss of her son in the Pretoria Pit Disaster at
Westhoughton in 1910, when 344 men and boys lost their lives on the 21st December. Andrea has worked closely
with the Editor of the Bolton News and through her research has gathered and recorded valuable information
printed word by word as it was in 1910 and she will tell us all about it on at 6.30 pm on Sunday, 29th November.
At 6.30 pm on Monday, 30th November Cynthia Ramsden tells us about her book, ‘Garden Tales’. Cynthia and John
Ramsden’s garden at Fanshawe Gate Hall is the subject of her book. She tells the stories of the people who have
created, work in, and visit the beautiful garden on the edge of the Peak District National Park.
Chris F Coley, has written a very funny story about a group of characters at Laburnham School and especially
about Bob Pike, the devious and ambitious assistant head with designs on the position of head teacher and Chris
knows what he is taking about as a former headteacher himself. It is, however, a book that Ofsted may wish to
ban! Chris will be speaking on Tuesday, 1st December at 6.30 pm.
On Wednesday, 2nd December at 6.30 pm we have an illustrated talk from Robert Alan Haven who has written a
book about self exploration through his analogy, ‘Boji’ a story of a Bottlenose Dolphin. Robert has spent
many years swimming with dolphins and has a hoard of fascinating stories to tell about these wonderful creatures
and their apparent kinship with human beings.
‘I Hate Football’ follows the fortunes of a group of football fans since the early 1970’s. John Firth has been
an ardent Sheffield Wednesday supporter for over 4 decades and has hundreds of stories to enthrall any football
fan, for this could be a diary of any fan of any team, John just happened to support Sheffield Wednesday. His book
will be a perfect gift for that really difficult market to buy for - men! John will be reminiscing on Thursday, 3rd
December at 6.30 pm.
At 6.30 pm on Friday, 4th December Jackie Toaduff will also be reminiscing with an illustrated talk, about his
life in entertainment. Jackie’s story, ‘Coaldust to Stardust’, is the inspirational real Billy Elliot story.
Jackie was born in the 1930’s in County Durham, the son of a coal miner, and was a coal miner himself for 13 years
but always dreamed of being a dancer and dance he did.
He became the British Clog Dancing Champion and has been credited with reviving clog dancing in the late 20th
century and making it into a spectacle. His dancing influenced Frederick Ashton, of the Royal Ballet, to
introduce clog dancing into ballet for the first time in ‘La Fille Mal Garde’.
He later became part of a double act, entertaining in theatres and clubs worldwide and finally entertaining
on the QE2 for twenty years. Jackie has many stories to tell from dancing with Princess Margaret to his
friendships with Prima Ballerina Margot Fonteyn and Hollywood legends, Ginger Rogers and many more ..........
Finally at 11 am on Saturday, 5th December one for all future and present mums. Lyndsey Bradley has collected
true breastfeeding stories and poems from around the world in a book called, ’Just Call Me Daisy’. Donations
from the sale of Lyndsey’s book will go to Baby Milk Action, the organisation famous for tackling the
multi-million company, Nestle, over it’s third world baby milk policies.
For further details or for tickets please contact:Countrybookshop, Hassop Station, Bakewell DE45 1NW
Tel:01629 816701 e: events@countrybookshop.co.uk
www.peakfestival.com
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