STOP PRESS: video added below!
The historical fiction panel, left to right Jane Davis (chair) Orna Ross, Radhika Swarup, J D Smith and me (see video of session below!)
Scarcely recovered from the Historical Novel Society Conference, I was back on the plane ten days later en route to a rainy London and going to a very different event. Not in the glamour of the hi tech Maths Institute of the University of Oxford, but in a vibrant, but modest community centre in north London. Not with the ‘big beasts’ of the historical fiction world like Tracy Chevalier and Melvyn Bragg, but amongst some of the best genre-busting, dynamic authors on the independent scene and their trade colleagues.
Eliza Green and Yen Ooi, sci-fi panel
A free-entry festival, it attracted readers, writers, bookclubs and booksellers : all those who love the adventure of reading.
There were panels on romance, sci-fi, historical fiction crime & thrillers and literary fiction where trade, indie and small press shared the same platform. As well as sponsors’ tables and their affable representatives, there was a huge pop-up bookshop with a dedicated area for speakers’ books plus tables for other indie books and and the Alliance of Independent Authors. That room filled with talk about writing and selling !
Ben Cameron, Kate Hamer, Adam Croft and Chris Longmuir talking crime and thrillers
I took part on the historical fiction panel (top photo, thank you, Henry Hyde!) with Radhika Swarup, JD Smith and Orna Ross very ably chaired by Jane Davis who asked some penetrating questions about identity, historical relevance, boundaries, language and what historical fiction means. Our answers led to some lively and revealing discussions!
You can now watch on video (https://youtu.be/5HqVkEHFvFE) or below. The bit at 21.45 minutes is quite amusing…
Of course, the Roma Nova novels were with me – I pack them very carefully for the plane. And I sold some 500 Word Writing Buddy copies, too!
With Henry Hyde (Photo courtesy of Julie Lewis)
With photographer Julie Lewis
This was one of the best organised and friendliest events I’ve been to. Speakers were looked after, panels ran (mostly) to time, audiences asked excellent questions.
Above all, this litfest was FUN. And after the panels were finished, we all stayed for a glass of fizz!
Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO and AURELIA. The fifth in the series, INSURRECTIO, was published in April 2016.
Find out more about Roma Nova, its origins, stories and heroines…
