Meet the Team
Lucy Cotter, Festival Chair
So who are you, then?
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My name is Lucy Cotter. I'm quite new to Jersey, having moved here with my youngish family from London 3 years ago. I’m currently freelancing in communications, having been a journalist for the last 15 years, most recently for Sky News as their media, arts and entertainment correspondent.
Where do you slot into this festival thing?
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As of this year I became Chair of the Festival of Words, which is hugely exciting!!
Favourite festival memory?
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I have only done 2 so far and I have loved every minute of it. If I had to pick a memory it would be interviewing Lucy Easthope, a disaster expert and one of the most interesting people I have ever met.
And one not-so-favourite festival memory?
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Missing Michael Morpurgo last year because I was swotting for an event I was hosting!!
Desert island, one book, what’s it going to be?
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Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks for lots of different reasons.
Pippa Le Quesne, Festival Director
So who are you, then?
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I used to work in publishing in London as an editor. My claim to fame (or biggest regret) is throwing the original manuscript of the first ever Harry Potter book into the bin once it had been typeset (and before it became a worldwide phenomenon). I moved to Jersey twenty years ago and worked as a freelance editor. Life really took off for me here when I started working with the wonderful festival team back in 2015 and met lots of like-minded creative people. Books were my first love.
Where do you slot into this festival thing?
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I'm the Festival Director.
Favourite festival memory?
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It has to be Carol Ann Duffy stepping on to the Opera House stage for our first ever event. She was the Poet Laureate at the time and we were so lucky to get her to come to the inaugural festival. It was a magical evening and I remember sitting in the wings, pinching myself that we'd actually pulled it off!
And one not-so-favourite festival memory?
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A stomach-clenching twenty minutes spent persuading a certain celeb author that she could manage the steps that led up to the stage and that we didn't need to cancel her (sellout) headline event.
Desert island, one book, what’s it going to be?
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Watership Down
Lucy Layton
So who are you, then?
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I’ve always loved reading and studied English and French literature at university before embarking on a career in museums. I am lucky that my work as an exhibitions curator for Jersey Heritage involves lots of opportunities to write - from object labels to exhibitions text
Where do you slot into this festival thing?
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My life with the festival began as an audience member and then a volunteer. Around four years ago I was invited to join the committee and I leapt at the chance to work with a fantastic group of like-minded book lovers to help deliver an entertaining, engaging and inclusive festival for everyone.
Favourite festival memory?
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There have been so many memorable events over the years but I especially enjoy the excited chatter of children's voices as they arrive for one of the festival’s free school events. Oh, and driving a very sweary Jenny Eclair to the airport was quite fun!
And one not-so-favourite festival memory?
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The year we held the festival in a giant tent in Howard Davis Park was an exciting development but full of challenges, not least shifting hundreds of chairs and endless boxes of heavy books around the site. Putting on the festival with such a small team is demanding enough without having to build our own venue first
Desert island, one book, what’s it going to be?
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To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. It’s a book I discovered at school and have returned to many times over the years.
Paul Bisson, Vice chair
So who are you, then?
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English teacher at Highlands College, musician and occasional writer.
Where do you slot into this festival thing?
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I was lured into a steering group meeting back in 2015 and somehow ended up agreeing to be vice chair. Festival-wise I get up to all sorts but my main bags are marketing, graphic design and digital.
Favourite festival memory?
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Too, too many. Discussing risotto with Richad Dawkins, taking a leap to interview Ella Mills for her event (and ditching meat), any of our school programme events. Laughing with the team. Sorry, I've done a plural.
And one not-so-favourite festival memory?
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Spotting that I'd got the name of John Boyne's book 'The Heart's Invisible Furies' wrong on his background stage slide three hours after his event had ended. I'd put 'incredible'. Oof. Loved that book as well.
Desert island, one book, what’s it going to be?
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I normally instinctively reach for Gulliver's Travels for questions like this but out of sheer literarinessability am going to go with Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham instead. I read it at a low point in life and it landed like a fist bump to the soul. I'd like to read it again; a desert island seems just the place.
Ellen Baker, Festival Assistant
So who are you, then?
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I studied English Literature and Creative Writing at Warwick University. Since I graduated in 2021, I have been searching for a job which allows me to work in a creative environment with people who are just as in love with books as I am … if not more. I think it’s safe to say I have been lucky enough to find that within the Festival of Words team. I write sonnets regularly, I sea swim whatever the weather, and living in a school classroom on a volunteer trip to Costa Rica is one of my favourite memories, snakes and all.
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Where do you slot into this festival thing?
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I am the Festival Assistant, an exciting role which is new for the team as well as myself.
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Favourite festival memory?
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Simon Armitage at the festival last year was a highlight for me. I have a particular love for poetry, and I was completely awestruck listening to his opening reading of ‘Thank You for Waiting’ whilst wondering if it was purposefully timed given that he did actually start a little late.
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And one not-so-favourite festival memory?
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This will be my first year working for the festival, so I don’t have a not-so-favourite anecdote to share. I will just be working hard and crossing my fingers to ensure that everything runs as smoothly as possible this year! That being said, I will share Pippa’s rendition of how one year the audience started putting up umbrellas as the rain began seeping through the marquee during an event!
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Desert island, one book, what’s it going to be?
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Everything I Know About Love, Dolly Alderton
Chris Bright
So who are you, then?
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Journalist who was editor of the Jersey Evening Post from 1994 to 2014.
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Where do you slot into this festival thing?
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Just before I retired from the newspaper, the newly appointed chief librarian Ed Jewell and States culture director Rod McLoughlin sweet-talked me into having a go at getting the much-mooted idea of a Jersey book festival off the ground. A great team soon developed and in 2015 we took a leap of faith and staged the first Jersey Festival of Words, of which I am very proud to be a co-founder.
Favourite festival memory?
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Stopping for an impromptu lunch at El Tico on the way from the airport with the effervescent, charismatic and perpetually hungry poet and campaigner Lemn Sissay. It was an opportunity to show off St Ouen’s Bay and the beauty of Jersey, which has been an important ingredient in the festival’s special appeal from the start.
And one not-so-favourite festival memory?
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I may not be alone in choosing the night the heavens opened and water poured through the roof of the circus tent in Howard Davis Park where actress and writer Celia Imrie was talking, appropriately enough, about her Titanic novel, Orphans of the Storm. Audience safety dictated that the show could not go on but Celia was gracious about it all and stayed up for hours signing books and meeting admirers back at the Pomme d’Or Hotel (a place which has been another big factor in the JFOW success story).
Desert island, one book, what’s it going to be?
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A Dance to the Music of Time, Anthony Powell’s panoramically entertaining evocation of British upper-crust and bohemian life before, during and after the Second World War. It is narrated by a sympathetic hero from his childhood to old age and is full of memorable characters whose lives his own crosses and recrosses over the decades. Also, it comes in 12 volumes, so will last until the rescue boat arrives. This may be cheating.