ORGANISERS of Evesham Festival of Words are thrilled after holding their first live event for 15 months.

Bristol-based TV producer David Parker is a festival favourite, having given two talks about his experiences, filming first of all Laurie Lee – a man who didn’t do television – and secondly the naturalist and Exmoor eccentric, Johnny Kingdom.

For this first event of 2021, he led a group on a guided walk round the beautiful Gloucestershire village of Slad, literally following in the footsteps of Laurie Lee.

David is a passionate and enthusiastic speaker and regaled the group with tales of how he managed to persuade Laurie Lee that he might like to do television, as well as sharing different aspects of his life.

Festival chair Sue Ablett said: “The Slad valley is truly magical and we enjoyed a rare day of glorious sunshine.

“The icing on the cake was having the opportunity to listen to some of David’s recordings of Laurie Lee speaking as we stopped at some of his favourite haunts.

“We paused at Laurie Lee’s grave in the churchyard before adjourning to the Woolpack – another of Laurie Lee’s favourite haunts!

“Festival events don’t get much better than this, and we were thrilled at being able to include this as part of our 2021 programme. Thirteen people came along and it was a lovely friendly and sociable event.”

David Parker will be back in Evesham on Wednesday, July 28, at 7pm, at the Rowing Club, when he will be giving an illustrated talk entitled The Life of My Story.

Tickets are £8. Full details are on the Festival website – eveshamfestivalofwords.org – where there is also a list of forthcoming festival events.

Alternatively, contact Sue Ablett 0787 1285606 or email info@eveshamfestivalofwords.org