Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday – a weekly feature from The Broke and the Bookish, now hosted by ThatArtsyReaderGirl. Expect a new top ten list every week!
| Top Ten… Book Festivals in the UK |
Despite a lifelong love of literature I have been to painfully few book or arts festivals. My only and thus most memorable festival was GollanczFest – a must for fans of modern science fiction and fantasy.
It was at GollanczFest 2015 that I discovered Aliette de Bodard, Richard K. Morgan and Sarah Pinborough; and it was at GollanczFest 2015 that I first met Ben Aaronovitch, Brandon Sanderson, Joe Hill and Joanne Harris. With incredible panels, talks, book sales and signings amongst so many brilliant and like-minded individuals, it really was a memorable experience.
Luckily, under normal circumstances, the UK boasts multiple world renowned literature festivals throughout the year which I have collated, in no particular order, into my Top Ten book festival wishlist.
Scroll down for this week’s Top Ten… Book Festivals in the UK.
| Speculative Fiction Festivals |
| 1. |
London / Manchester, England
| 2. |
Edinburgh, Scotland
| 3. |
Birmingham, England
| The Big Three |
| 4. |
The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts
Hay-on-Wye, Wales
| 5. |
Cheltenham Literature Festival
Cheltenham, England
| 6. |
Edinburgh International Book Festival
Edinburgh, Scotland
| Crime Fiction Festivals |
| 7. |
Noirwich Crime Writing Festival
Norwich, England
| 8. |
Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival
Harrogate, England
| Something Different |
| 9. |
Kent, England
| 10. |
Cornwall, England
Which books festivals have you been to? Which would you love to go to?
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Books by Proxy 
Frankfurter Buchmesse and Leipziger Buchmesse.
First one is only 100km away but I’ve never attended. I always thought that my genre is undervalued in that snobby book business.
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Yes, there aren’t nearly enough of them!
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Hay Festival is on so many lists this week! It looks so cool and unique! Great list!
My TTT
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It does look like a lot of fun!! 😀
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Great list! I love the Hay Festival, I was so sad not to be able to go this year, and I went to Cheltenham Festival last year and really enjoyed it. GollanczFest sounds like so much fun! I’d love to go to Port Eliot Festival too, purely because I adore Cornwall.
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Oooh very nice!! Apparently the Port Eliot festival is no more due to costs! I was in awe of the pictures though – it looks so summery and fun!
I do wish there were a few more up north though! 😂
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Cool post
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Thank you! 😀
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At one stage I was on an organising committee for a Discworld convention here in Australia, even though I still haven’t been to one. I would also love to go to Hay.
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Oh you must definitely attend one then! Hehe 😀
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We have a number of cross overs this week! I LOVED the punning of Noirwich! and GollanczFest looks so so good!
My TTT
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We do indeed! GollanczFest was amazing… I really hope they bring it back to Manchester! 😀
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Can’t believe I forgot about Gollancz Fest! Duh! There are so many great festivals out there!
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There are! I really am craving a good book festival… or even a signing! It’s been too long on both fronts!
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These all look amazing! I wanna go 😀 I’m going to look into Discworld.
Here’s my Top Ten Tuesday post.
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Me too! I imagine dressing up is compulsory too 🤩
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All of those speculative fiction festivals sound fun!
My TTT .
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They really do! I am so eager to go to one again! 😄
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Even Americans have heard of the Hay Festival, it’s pretty famous everywhere, I think😁
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I’m sure it is – which is why it’s even more shocking that I haven’t been! Tis but a three hour drive away!
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I’ve not been to any of these! I’d love to go to Hay and the Edinburgh Book festival, and the Cymera one sounds like fun too, for someone who loves SFF I haven’t been to any genre specific events.
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/07/21/top-ten-tuesday-273/
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I really would love to go to Cymera 😄 it’s just my cup of tea!
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Definitely seems like a lot of fun!
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I love your photos! They all look amazing. I’ve always wanted to go to the Hay Festival and/or Edinburgh — both sound amazing.
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I can’t claim them as my own – thank you official websites. I only wish I could have been to them!… Incidentally the only one I’ve been to I dont have any photos of!
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I’m so curious about the Port Eliot Festival.
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.
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It looks absolutely wonderful, doesn’t it!? Sadly I believe last year was the last festival for the foreseeable future 😦
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Hay and the Edinburgh Book festival has been on a lot of lists this week. Both sounds fun to go to.
Here is my TTT.
https://dmhoisington.wordpress.com/2020/07/21/top-ten-tuesday-7/
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They do indeed! I will have to make sure I go one day! 😀
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If you do, I hope you have fun.
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I’m adding the Discworld Convention to my bucket list. There are so many bookish things I’d love to do when I eventually make it to the UK one day.
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There are so many bookish things I’d love to do too if I actually remembered / realised they were happening 😂
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That’s the second time I’ve seen Hay and that one sounds awesome.
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It does!! 😀
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The Hay Festival has been mentioned on lots of lists today. No wonder, it looks amazing!
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
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It really does – I can’t believe I haven’t been!
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I don’t go to book festivals 😦 really should. The events company I work for used to provide all of the power/lighting etc … for Hayfest.
Considering I live in the (east) midlands, I’m really not massively far away from any of these … well, except Haye 😂 should put the effort in
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Haha no excuse!! Most of them are a couple of hours away from me which is why I’ve only been to one… in Manchester… which was pretty much opposite where I used to work 😂
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Lucky. I’d love for one to be so close to me 😂 my friend and I are looking to set up an indie publishing house in the next few years. Maybe I’ll go to one then 🙂
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Excellent idea! 😀
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I’ve sadly never been to a literary festival, but I would love to and many of these sound great, so I will have to keep quite a few of these in mind once we are back to more normal life. Just got to think of someone to drag along with me 😅
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Definitely! And me too! My other half doesnt really read and as much as he’d come with me I’m not really sure it’s his thing 😂
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Ooh, all of these sound amazing!
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I would love to go to any of them! 😀
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Great list – I love Hay on Wye.
Lynn 😀
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I haven’t been, though I would love to!
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