2017... back to Market Square again, the hub (or 'space igloo' as someone - Huw Lewis Jones, I think - described it) is back - and bigger.  Everyone's keeping an eye on the weather, keeping fingers crossed that all the speakers make it to the island.  People are reading books and buying books and talking about books.

In the library is an exhibition of work featured in Zone 1, a new anthology of Guernsey comic talent.  There's some great stuff on display, from Viking sagas to recollections of WWII - and it is well worth popping in to have a look over the weekend, the perfect way to spend a few minutes in-between events.

After getting some sneak previews of speakers Harry Baker, Andrew Steggall and Huw Lewis Jones (all of whom will be well worth seeing over the weekend) at the opening party on Thursday night, the first event proper I had chance to attend was Richard Beard's talk about his new book The Day That Went Missing.

This is Richard's first foray in to non-fiction and he spoke about how he felt his years of experience in writing and publishing a number of novels of experimental fiction gave him the tools to be able to write this important story.  The important story in question concerns the death of his younger brother by drowning, an event which Richard's family reacted to by not discussing the tragedy for a number of years.  He spoke about the process of re-awakening the event in the family's consciousness and discussing it with his mother and brothers, finding they all had different memories of the fateful day.  I haven't read the book, but I certainly left wanting to find out more.

I had some time to kill before my next event, so spent it perusing the books on display at the Open Road Bookshop, which, along with its owner David Charleston has become a part of the furniture at the Litfest.  Set up just across from the ticket tent, it offers a great selection of quality second hand books - if you don't believe me, check out some of the titles below, which may or may not still be there if you hotfoot it to the stall over the weekend.

More to follow.

RC