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Stratford Literary Festival is asking readers to name the one novel they would keep if they were only allowed a single book on their shelf. Anyone can vote on the festival’s website, and the winner will be revealed live at the Crowne Plaza on Sunday 1 November, the last day of this year’s autumn festival.
How to vote
- Go to the festival’s My One and Only page and enter the title of your novel (the author is optional).
- It must be a novel originally written and published in English, so translations don’t count.
- It’s one vote per person. The form asks for an email address, which the festival says it uses only to count each voter once.
The festival hasn’t published a closing date for votes, so if you want your choice counted, it’s safest to vote well before the festival starts on Thursday 29 October.
The results event
The results will be revealed at My One and Only: Which Novel Will Be Left on the Shelf?, from 12 noon to 1pm on Sunday 1 November at the Crowne Plaza. The novelist John Boyne and Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Oxford, will talk through the top five choices with Tim Hubbard, and then reveal the No. 1, which will go on the festival’s “Bookshelf for One”.
The event is free, but places had to be reserved and the festival now lists it as sold out. The Stratford Herald, which reported the vote earlier today, gave the date as Friday 1 November; 1 November is a Sunday, and the festival’s own listing says Sunday.
The rest of the festival
The autumn festival runs from 29 October to 1 November, mostly at the Crowne Plaza, and several of the biggest talks have already sold out, including John Boyne’s own event that afternoon. Our guide to this year’s Stratford Literary Festival has the main speakers, what’s still available and how to book (box office 0333 666 3366). For everything else on in town, see the Stratford events calendar.
Alex Harrington
Alex Harrington grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon and runs What's up, Stratford? as an independent guide to the town.
