History festival: Wimpole

Last week we headed to the Wimpole History festival. Its something we have meant to attend for years but not quite got around to it. Now we know how fabulous it is we will definitely make it a regular thing.

The talks were a real highlight (as was the ice cream actually!) . Firstly we went to see Lucy Worsley talk about Lady Mary. She was as engaging as I had hoped and the commitment shown by the children in the audience to acting out Lady Marys story was a joy to behold.

Although Lucy also writes adult books I am really tempted to get the children’s ones  after hearing a snippet. I’m sure my daughter and I can share them.

In the afternoon we went at my daughter request to see Miriam Halahmy talk about the book The Emergency Zoo. We had not heard of the author or the book but my daughter loves animals and it caught her eye. I’m sure we will be getting her a copy of it as she loved the premise of the story – animals being kept in secret to avoid them being put down before the beginning of World War II. I had not heard of this before so it was really interesting and Miriam was very charming to watch.

Last but not least we listened to Michael Morpurgo and Alison Reid acting out his book The Mozart Question accompanied by Daniel Pioro on violin and string quartet The Storyteller’s Ensemble. To say that it was incredible does not give it credit. Michael and Alison were amazing acting out all the parts and the music was just so beautiful. I was moved to tears at one point. If anyone gets the chance to see this you definitely should and I expect Daniel Pioro is one to watch out for.