Literary festivals

Literary festivals are growing in number and significance, says Geordie Greig in The Times.

Authors love doing the festivals as they exchange the loneliness of their word processor for fans who give them feedback and adoration. Unlike film or pop stars scurrying away from their fans, authors bask in the attention, as it is often so rare. Jonathan Coe charmingly confessed that it was the nearest that writers got to know what it was like to be a rock star.

Elsewhere in The Times, Selina Walker visits the Bouchercon crime writing festival in Chicago.

“Crime writers are the most supportive, friendly, welcoming writers in the world,” insists [Dennis] Lehane. And to judge by the crowds in the bar that evening, by the mix of fans taking photos of their favourite authors, the publishers buying wine and the authors swapping the latest forensic information, he is not wrong. There’s no hiding out in an authors’ yurt for these guys, no matter how famous they are.