Triskele Literary Festival Highlights

Our first Triskele Lit Fest TLF16 took place last Saturday, 17th September at Lift in Islington. A great success! A free-entry festival, it attracted readers, writers, bookclubs and booksellers: all those who love the adventure of reading.

Triskele Books' Gillian Hamer and Jane Dixon-Smith on the till

JJ Marsh and the Triskele books

We offered a whole afternoon of exciting author panels focusing on Crime and Thrillers, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Romance, and Literary Fiction, where trade, indie and small press shared the same platform.

Historical Fiction Panel

Crime and Thrillers Panel

Romance Panel

 

Sci Fi and Fantasy Panel

 

Preserving the Unicorn Literary Fiction Panel

Alongside the panels, in the pop-up bookshop, 40 authors showcased a diverse range of books where attendees mingled and chatted with authors, and discovered new books.

Over 40 authors participated in the festival, so we asked them the best thing about TLF16. 

Here are some of their answers…

A.E. Rycart: Meeting other authors. The event was very friendly.

Jon Stenhugg: Chance to speak to other authors.

Lynda Young Spiro: Meet interesting, lovely and helpful people.

Katharine D’Souza: Lovely atmosphere, good to meet people.

Elizabeth Woodcraft: Meeting other authors. Discussing their experiences as indie authors, being able to Tweet, Blog and Facebook about the event.

Helene Halme: Interesting talks; networking.

Anoushka Beazley: The opportunity and idea of it.

Kevin Booth: Networking with other authors; seeing what they are doing; innovation…

 And of course, a Triskele Books' event wouldn’t be the same without an après-fest party…

Gin cupcakes

Fizz

 If you’d like to hear more about the Lit Fest and Triskele Books, listen to Triskele co-founder, member, JJ Marsh live on BBC radio at 22.51 minutes here.

Also at the festival,we asked the authors to recommend one book, and next Friday we’ll be posting some of their answers … watch this space!

Photos courtesy of Julie Lewis.

A Fleshy Tale

In the rural French village in which I live, late August-September is pêche de vigne (bush peach) season. Traditionally, this flavourful fruit with flesh the color of blood was grown next to the vineyards. Easy to grow, they were susceptible to many of the same diseases as the local vines, but the signs of disease were quicker to develop and more obvious on peach trees than on the vines. Hence vine growers would plant peach trees next to their vineyards to warn them of potential problems.



 



But even with its questionable history as martyr for the cause that dates back to the 17th century, the humble bush peach can certainly hold its head high as a separate identity.

Jams (one hour cooking time), stewed fruit (40 mins cooking time and don’t peel the fruit, I was warned!), chaussons (slippers or turnovers), pies, nectar, ice-cream, sorbet, wine even, the mouth-watering list goes on…




 
Vive la pêche de vigne!