The Shock of the Fall Wells Literature Festival

I had lunch with a friend in Street and then we went to the Literature Festival in Wells to hear Nathan Filer speak about his Costa award winning novel. actually it was like the Book Club on Radio 4 without James Naughtie. He was a mental health nurse in Bristol and now lectures in Creative writing at Bath Spa University.

He was very engaging despite being poorly as well as a lovely human being and I would have liked to have heard him speak for longer. His explanation of how he crafted the novel and how he evolved his characters was interesting, Unfortunately the nature of the subject of the novel meant the issues surrounding mental health were the main focus of questions which were valuable but didn't allow the audience to find out more about his thoughts on his novel.

I can't reccommend the novel enough as the writing is so evocative of a 19 year old's struggle with mental illness as he blames himself for the death of his elder Downs Syndrome brother, Simon. The descriptions are beautiful and poignant . I would like to read his next novel although I'm not sure that is in the pipeline yet.

Once again I forgot my camera card so had to snap the programme when I came home!