AN inaugural literary festival was organised by organised by Bentworth PCC to raise money for St Mary’s Church.

Bentworth Literary Festivalwas opened by author, Debbie Knight who gave the background story to her debut novel, The Knowing a true story about a father/daughter relationship. Debbie spoke from the heart, shared a poem her father had recorded before he died, and read a chapter, leaving the audience with an understanding of the effort required to deliver a book.

A panel of three authors then answerws questions on how they write, opinions on digital versus paper book copies and the power of the opening sentence.

Mike Hollow, author of The Blitz Detective series, Fergus McNeill, writer of contemporary crime thriller series Detective Harland, and Susan Vereker, a women’s fiction writer, gave interesting, honest and at times humorous answers. On the way they write, two owned up to being planners, the other a ‘panster’ –

someone who makes things up as they go along. Fergus McNeill, who began by joining a creative writing class in 2011, gave insight into his own journey.

“We’d get writing for homework, read it back the following week and get comments.

One evening we were asked to start our novel. I chose crime, wrote chapter one and read it back. I was then told to write chapter two.

“Eventually I got an agent and got published.”

Peter Lovesey, a very successful crime writer, read one of his short stories and spoke about when he entered a writing competition in 1969 and won the £1,000 prize – more than his annual teacher’s salary.

He kept on writing and within a few years he had penned the character of Sergeant Cribb.

Cribb went on to become a TV series in the UK and even captured the imagination of Americans when it was sold in the USA.

He gave up teaching and got his writing ideas from newspapers and from ‘nowhere’.

His current Peter Diamond series has yielded 17 books.

His advice for any would-be crime writer? “There’s a lot of luck involved.

“Submit your work to an agent by all means, though self-publishing has now become more respectable.”

The afternoon session was opened by Sarah Lucas who talked about how a strange welcoming present of a baby snail in a tank inspired her to write children’s books and her daughter to draw.

Their first book, Snail Trail, was printed to raise money for their local church and it was that experience that sowed the seeds of a mother-and-daughter, author-illustrator

collaboration that carries on today.

Sarah now teaches creative writing, focuses on inspiring young people and is busy completing five books that she currently has ‘on the go’.

Robin McKinley, an American writer of fantasy and children’s books, held the audience spellbound as she read the first chapter of new novel Chalice.

She gave her personal insights into the genre of fantasy, admitting that her vivid dreams often find themselves translated onto the page, assuring listeners that they are not so overly vivid that they become ‘the stuff of nightmares’.

A short break provided the chance for Val Dubben from Adeliza Patchwork to talk about The Underground Railway, a term used by escaping slaves who were unable to read and reputed to use patchwork quilts to send messages to indicate safe houses. Val was followed by Jack Sheffield, author of a series of books about the headmaster of a school in a fictional Yorkshire village, who read extracts from his books.

Growing up in a tough environment in Leeds, Jack trained and worked as a teacher before becoming a senior lecturer, at which point he began to record his many amusing stories of village life.

The power of teaching as inspiration for becoming a writer was a common thread at the inaugural Bentworth Literary Festival.

According to Sam Hicks of Waterstones, who was in charge, with colleague Fiona Neele, of book sales, the Festival was “an amazing first event”, despite the blistering heat.

Organiser, Liz Preece, commented: “Everyone was very complimentary afterwards,” though she added she might need “a bit of a breather” before thinking about a possible follow-up. For the audience and all who took part, the festival was a clear winner.”