On Monday 6th April 2026, the panel listed below talked about beginnings:

• Historical fantasy novelist and short story author BB Elsin
• Crime fiction/non-fiction author and festival committee member Denise Beddows
• Children’s (as Esther Moonstomp) and short story author Esther Chilton

The discussion included:

• what should a beginning do and not do?
• how you start/ed writing your book/s once you had your idea
• what do you think of prologues?
• do beginnings differ depending on the genre/format (i.e. novels vs short stories, non-fiction, poetry if you write it)?
• your favourite openings
• anything else we could think of…

These are free events but we’re raising money for local book-related charities and we’d be really grateful if you would donate whatever you afford via the Charities & Donate page. Thank you so much.