Literary Leicester

This is my 3rd year studying English at Leicester, and I could not believe that I’d never been to Literary Leicester before. As it is my last year I decided that I have to go this time round. Unfortunately, I could only manage to go to two events, but both of them were brilliant so I’m so glad I did.

Adele Parks: My path to becoming a bestseller

This event was one of the first of the festival, and there was quite a large audience. Adele Parks talked through her journey with writing, how she came to write her first book, and how she has been churning out a book a year for the past 17 years. She gave lots of advice on how to begin writing a novel and she talked through many of her funny anecdotes. I wasn’t sure how I was going to find this lecture as I don’t particularly enjoy creative writing and I am definitely not any good at it, but, it was really enjoyable to hear her story which was very inspiring and to also to hear her insight into the world of being an author and how to get published.

The Black Cat

I chose this event as I’m actually reading Poe’s ‘The Black Cat’ for my gothic module next week, so I thought it would be particularly relevant to me. This was a particularly creative reworking of the story, completely different to anything I was expecting. It was performed by LaPelle’s Theatre Company, I have to say the duo were incredibly funny, I was not expecting to laugh so much considering I was going in thinking I was going to watch a performance of a dark, gothic story. The interesting thing about this performance was the combination between a modern adaptation of the black cat and a questioning of the process adapting a text. I really, really enjoyed this one.

I am so gutted I could only go to two of the events, as there are so many interesting ones on offer this year. One I would have really liked to go to is Shrabani Basu: Author talk and ‘Victoria and Abdul’ film screening. Literary Leicester is definitely one of Leicester’s gems, most of the events are free as well so there is really no excuse not to go. I would definitely recommend it to anyone thinking about attending any events, you won’t regret it.

Molly x