Bond girl Fiona Fullerton launches Cotswolds literary festival

A star-studded Literature Festival in the Cotswolds could give its famous Cheltenham counterpart a run for its money, reports ThisIsGloucestershire.

The inaugural Kempsford Literary Festival will take place in March, with organisers hoping to bring book-lovers flocking in.

HRH The Countess of Wessex will open the festival, which has already attracted top-flight authors such as Joanna Trollope, Gyles Brandreth and Lord Douglas Hurd.

Susan Hill, former GCHQ chief Dame Stella Rimington, Nicholas Coleridge and Michael Dobbs are also in line to speak at the showpiece occasion, as well as agreeing to sign copies of their books.

The event, which will run from Match 12 to 14, is the brainchild of Reverend Tim Hastie-Smith – the former headmaster of Dean Close School in Cheltenham – who became vicar of Kempsford last year.

The festival will take place at the local primary school and is being organised by former actress and ex-Bond girl Fiona Fullerton, who also lives in the village.

“Everyone is terribly excited that we have such literary luminaries descending on our village,” she said. “We can hardly believe it.

“Tim first suggested the idea before Christmas, but we could not have imagined how brilliantly it would come together.

“He is highly respected in social circles and most of the speakers are his own personal contacts.”

Fiona stressed the event was not designed to rival Cheltenham Literature Festival, which typically attracts more than 100,000 people, but would be a smaller-scale annual celebration.

“We don’t have the kind of infrastructure to rival the Cheltenham festival in terms of capacity,” she added.

“Ours will be a comparatively small event. The main school hall only seats 150 people at a time so tickets will be limited.

“Perhaps over the years we will be able to expand it gently. But for now we want to keep it as a village literature festival that rivals anywhere in terms of quality.”

Profits from the event will go towards the upkeep of the village church and school.

Cheltenham Festivals chief executive Donna Renney moved to allay fears that the new festival would detract from its own prestigious event.

Last year’s Cheltenham Literature Festival, which is one of the oldest in the world, attracted more than 100,000 people last year to its 440 events.

Mrs Renney said: “A new literature festival in the region can only serve to strengthen the Cotswold's status as a cultural hub.

“We wish Kempsford all the best in their first year. Gloucestershire is very fortunate to benefit from so many diverse cultural events.”

The festival will not be the first time Mr Hastie-Smith has made headline news.

He resigned from Dean Close in 2008 after the Echo revealed he had given teacher Michael Clarkson a job despite the teacher admitting he secretly filmed a 17-year-old boy having sex in a previous job.

Tickets for Kempsford Literary Festival are £5 and will go on sale shortly.

Discuss this news here...