I like sunny Mondays

They make heading back to work so much more enjoyable, especially when getting to work involves a glorious bike ride next to the river Dart along a beautiful cycle path! We are a skeleton crew in the office today, and all a little pink from exposure to the hot stuff this weekend! And already we've had exciting goings-on in the media for some of our Ways with Words stars!

Firstly, an adaptation of Martin Amis's Money started on BBC 2 last night. Perfect preparation for his talk on Friday 9th July. Catch it again on BBC iplayer

Secondly, Lucy Worsley spoke to Fi Glover on Saturday Live this weekend. Lucy will be at Dartington on Friday 16th July discussing the court of King George II at Kensington Palace and all the treachery, skullduggery and politics that went on there. Listen again to the BBC Radio 4 show here

Last, but by no means least, you may well have heard Dorothy Rowe on Start the Week with Andrew Marr this morning. Dorothy is speaking at two events at the festival. One will be discussing the notion of lying. The other will focus on, and be a forum to discuss ideas for taking charge of your life. Listen to her on Start the Week here

That's all for now folks!

F x

Ways with Words in Telegraph

Watch out for the Telegraph tomorrow, Saturday 22nd May...they are running a big feature on Ways with Words! We're looking forward to all the publicity and expect the phone lines to continue to ring out through the office through the weekend and on into Monday morning.

Michael Holroyd once stated that the literary festival was dead - here he fights for the opposite corner. Read all about why Ways with Words ranks among his favourite festivals here

General booking has been manic to say the least! Several events have sold out, namely Shirley Williams, Ian McEwan and Simon King and others are running dangerously low, so if you want to see Melvyn Bragg, Anthony Emery, Robert Sackville-West, Martin Bell and Jeremy Hardy, you'd better be quick! No one is calling at the moment so take advantage of the free phone line....too late!

On your marks, get set....

General booking opens online at 00.01 tonight so I hope you'll all be poised by your computers in order to take advantage of what will probably be the quietest period of booking! Events are selling fast but there is still time to nab a ticket for your favourite speaker or author - not to worry, festival Friends haven't taken all of them in the priority booking week - although let that be an incentive to subscribe next year!

We interns are being truly swamped with the amount of postal votes coming in daily, which is encouraging but needs many a cup of tea and a couple of custard creams (per hour) to keep going with the requisite energy.

Also on the agenda: getting the word out about our bursaries for students aged 17-25 to local schools and colleges, and organising the rota for the stewards who will be helping out at the festival.

And now I'm going to go and calm down after a phone conversation with a very grumpy woman who thought the best way to solve the confusing mess she'd made of her booking form was by shouting at me. A custard cream should do the trick.

Students go FREE at Ways with Words!!

Calling all students! Are you:

• Aged 17-25?
• Passionate about books? 
• Intrigued by new ideas? 
• Fancy hearing and engaging with the likes of Giles Coren, Ian McEwan, Andrew Motion, Tracy Chevalier, Lynn Barber, Martin Bell and Brian Moore? 
• Feeling a bit poor? 

If the answer to those questions is 'yes' you could be eligible to attend the festival for free on one of the bursaries that Ways with Words offers to young students each year.

To be considered, you will need to:

• Have a lively interest in literature
• Be allowed time off school/college during the period of the festival.
• Be based in Devon and in full-time education
• Be aged 17-25

For more information, contact Jo or Gemma on 01803 867373 or office@wayswithwords.co.uk, or download an application pack from our webite www.wayswithwords.co.uk

Get in touch, people!

Fi x

Back once again for 2010!

Well, hello!

Internal Thoughts is back for Ways with Words 2010. A new programme of events, new speakers and four new interns to share with you their experiences of the run-up to Dartington. Here, we will share with you all the fun, chaos and mayhem involved in organising the ten-day festival, as well as keeping you up-to-date with the latest news and giving you a taste of things to come.

News in brief:

• Friends of the Festival, alert! Priority booking is well underway with several events selling like hot cakes (Shirley Williams, Ian McEwan) and the boat trip with Kate Adie is already nearly sold out! General booking, and internet booking opens this Thursday 20th May.

• Check us out on Facebook! New Twitter page to come soon!

• As well as us interns, WWW has two new additions to the team: Kay's daughter Chloe, and her partner Videl Bar-Kar have joined us from the glamorous worlds of Channel 4 and classical music. Based in London, they bring their media and business experience to help ensure WWW stays innovative and fresh.

Well, that's all for now - I'm just going to play with a few blog settings and then head back to the sea of paper that is the box office table - and general bookings hasn't even opened yet!

Bye for now,

Fi