May I say thank you to all connected with last week’s festival in Wantage.

It was a great success.

As the instigator of the festival, Jim Mitchell was, of course, its face and figurehead, and he organised the Betjeman events.

But it was our deputy mayor, Fiona Roper, who was in charge of the literary programme.

As well as the well known names of Sir Max Hastings, Pam Ayres, and Bill Heine, she, with the help of Blackwell’s, brought over 20 poets, authors, miiltary historians, and comedy writers to Wantage. That is not counting the 12 poets who turned up for the Poetry Slam, hosted by Shush, and gave us a hilarious evening.

Our Wantage mayor Charlotte Dickson was instrumental in getting permission for the showing of the film, Tortoise in love, which was filmed in Kingston Bagpuize.

Everyone who saw it loved it, and the friendly owners and staff of Shush had changed the Night Club back into a cinema for the occasion.

The venues –The Bear Hotel, King Alfred’s Head, The Blue Boar, Richmond Village, which gave us a lovely Gala Supper while hosting “Jude at Letcombe” were all great, as was our Civic Hall.

I am sure I have missed out a few other events, but, although we tried, we couldn’t attend everything. For the finale our Lady Mayor, gifted the use of the Civic Hall for the last concert.

The local, Pizzazz Handbell Trio were delightful, and our own Wantage Silver Band were as excellent as always, closing the festival with a great performance.

The organisers worked so hard to give us a week to remember.

Jean Hepburn, Portway Mews, Wantage