We're All Going on a Summer Holiday
Wild & True words & music by the beach + Travelling with Bond coming soon!
Dear Reader,
Grab your passport. Pack your X-Ray sunglasses. Put on your jet pack. And let’s go. This weekend, David Lowbridge-Ellis (Licence to Queer) and I will be teaming up to get you ready for the summer holidays, with a special Travelling with James Bond online event!
Wondering where to go this August? Or seeking a vicarious break through books? Join us on Saturday 22nd July at 8pm UK time. We’re ready to provide 007's travel tips, plus a discussion of Fleming's travel writing and the most desirable Bond destinations!
If you want a flavour of what to expect, check out this recording of our previous event where we got to the heart of why we are still thrilling to the adventures of 007 more than 70 years after the publication of Casino Royale.
Tickets are FREE to paying subscribers of girl with the golden pen – sign up now for £7 a month to support my writing, gain access to bonus content, online events and more!
Or you can purchase a ticket for £9 here:
Paying subscribers to girl with the golden pen will find the promo code below my signature line.
I’m writing to you from a train – again. At this point, I should just get my own decommissioned Soviet train with one inch armour plating and have done with it. We’re on our way back to Edinburgh for Moving Day Attempt Number 2. Wish us luck!
The curtain has fallen on the South West Wild & True Tour, and I already miss the hedgerows, rolling hills and turquoise sea of Devon and Cornwall.
Following Penzance Lit Fest, the next stop on the tour was St Ives Society of Artists, a church turned gallery near the harbour. It was easily one of the most beautiful venues I’ve ever played. Each event brings out a different dimension to the novel, and it was great to discover that my chair Cathy Rentzenbrink shares my love of Georgette Heyer, leading to a conversation about historical romance and women writers who deserve more critical attention and celebration.
As my mum – who supports the mental health and wellbeing of staff and students at schools nationwide – now lives in St Ives, the audience was in large part the Cornish Education Mafia. Teachers make the best audience. We realised afterwards it was, in effect, one elaborate edition of Show and Tell. So thanks very much to everyone who came to be showed and told. And huge thanks to my mum and sister for catering and baking such an EXCELLENT after party, including nautical biscuits by Rosie!
Our next stop was Devon, our old home. I took two days off work for this one and fully embraced the holibobs – an American friend recently pointed out to me that British people specialise in childish neologisms, from Platty Joobs (Platinum Jubilee) to Cozzy Lives (Cost of Living Crisis) so now I’m embracing it. Holibobs a-go-go!
We stayed in East Prawle, home to Pigs Nose Inn, the best pub in the world and a famous music venue. We’ve just missed Blur by a couple of weeks! Thankfully, smugglers are welcome.
It even stopped raining (for a day) and the sun came out long enough for a picnic and a verrrrry cold swim at Hallsands, a beautiful beach with a haunting history, its entire village lost to the sea in 1917. That’s twice in one week I’ve happily turned blue in the British sea!
It was a joy to be with my family in our old stomping ground, and this time with a new addition, Rosie’s puppy Finn! If you look at the photo and think, but he’s a wolf – yes, he is basically a wolf, and the sweetest wolf around. To read more about Rosie’s wolfish adventures, check out her substack A Nomadic Rose, an inspiring and generous look into the life of an artist today.
After our day at the beach holibobbing, it was time to put on our glad rags for the main event. We lived in Kingsbridge for a decade and it was wonderful to bring the novel home for an event at Harbour House by the estuary. I was joined by award-winning composer and violinist John Matthias, who has collaborated with the likes of Radiohead, Coldcut and, well, me. John has put my characters to music, creating themes for the novel that translate what I’ve imagined all these years into hair-raising and heart-thumping vibrations in the air. Magic.
A WILD & TRUE RELATION is an A-Z of Devon, from Aveton Gifford to South Zeal, and I loved seeing the audience light up as I read from the chapter set during Kingsbridge Fair Week, which is on now! My characters are from the red Devon earth, right down to the names. In East Prawle, we waved hello to Mollie Tucker’s field, which gave me Molly’s name. Discovering Tucker family graves in Widdecombe-on-the-Moor gave me Grace’s origins. Read more about the influence of Devon locations here.
For a signed copy of A WILD & TRUE RELATION, choose Edge of the World Bookshop or St Ives Bookseller here:
While John and I were on stage in Kingsbridge, it was five years ago to the day that I launched my first novel… and in the same dress! I’m so grateful for all the people on the adventure with me.
If you’d like to join me at a future event, here are some upcoming dates for your diary:
22nd July, Travelling with James Bond (online)
27th July, Women Studies Group Summer Book Event (online)
30th July, Primadonna Festival, Suffolk
9th August, Metro Library, Oklahoma (online)
14th August, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Edinburgh
From Kim, With Love x
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