Tower and Town, September 2020 (view the full edition)EditorialWe feel very sad that the Marlborough LitFest will not take place in its usual form this year due to the coronavirus. It was a difficult decision but one we had to make after consulting with our sponsors, publishers and the venues involved in the town. So much of the festival is about lively debate, authors mingling with the audience and the buzz of the Town Hall, all of which are hard to replicate while following the essential guidelines to keep everyone safe from Covid-19. We have been very excited to see the range of virtual events on offer from other larger festivals and would love to have created something similar. But as a small volunteer team we decided to focus our energy on our outreach programme, running activities for the community – mainly online – including our annual Big Town Read and free events for schools as well as competitions for all ages and support for Home Start. We are really grateful to be able to use this edition of Tower and Town to give you more information about these together with an exclusive glimpse of what we had planned. We hope this might tempt you to explore some new books and to support our wonderful White Horse Bookshop which was sorely missed during the lockdown. You might also find yourself inspired to start writing your own story following Nick Maurice who talks about his autobiography, join a book group or listen to your book rather than read it! If you haven’t done so already, do visit www.marlboroughlitfest.org to listen to our new patron Sir Simon Russell Beale reading extracts from nature writer Richard Jefferies. And please make a note of the dates for next year’s LitFest: 30 September to 3 October 2021. Genevieve Clarke and Virginia Reekie |