Kia ora kotou, that is what it was like at Booktown Featherston this weekend. The big hall crammed with stalls and books, booksellers, people, writers, all talking about books.

The sessions were full of people smiling, chatting, laughing, people on stages, reading their work, talking about writing, talking about the writing life, talking about what needs to change, what will change. Poets popping up, people listening.

Old friends, new friends, strangers, getting together, comparing, suggesting, discussing, arguing about books. And in the cafe, smiling faces, the best scones, the best everything, both the staff and the patrons comparing, arguing, recommending books.

Out in the carpark, on the street, in the cafes, in the cars, little knots of people talking about books. Even at the ATM, two people comparing, laughing, sharing ideas about books.

It was like we’d all been given permission to simply talk books. It wasn’t book groups, book clubs, email groups, library groups, this was a whole town plus a big mob from the larger  Wairarapa, Wellington and other places, all happily and excitedly talking, suggesting, arguing, comparing, showing each other – books.

We talked about change, necessary, unstoppable change, we aired our views, we got very lippy at times. We celebrated at a book launch, we learned things that had nothing to do with books, like Fur Patrol celebrating 20 years, like how to make the best cheese scones, and we exchanged addresses. We compared kēte, we sat in the car and talked about why writers make decisions, for example why did John Mulgan in Man Alone, choose to make Stennings’ wife Māori.

We talked murder, quoted, ‘Nobody owns life but anyone with a frying pan owns death’. We laughed and clapped the poet who read a poem with a couple of lines about using mascara on her pubic hair, we talking editing, we talked rewriting, we talked planning and about not planning, we met up with old friends, we listened…then we talked some more.

We talked about the wonder, the exhilarating marvel, of a group of people working flat out for many weeks, planning, organising, emailing, meeting, working, working, working, so we could all have the pleasure of talking and listening to people reading from and talking about books.

Love and huge thanks to everyone who worked so hard for months to make sure everything ran smoothly. I hope by next week or more likely, the week after, (month after?) you’ll all be able to have a little lie–down and a cuppa and maybe one of those fabulous cheese scones.

Thanks

Renée