Clare and Chevalier sell out in Bridport

Six weeks to go to the start of the Bridport Literary Festival and there’s no tickets left for events featuring authors Tracy Chevalier and Horatio Clare.

I suppose Chevalier was always going to be popular; her new novel Remarkable Creatures is about the great Lyme Regis fossil hunter Mary Anning.

But Clare’s a surprise, with his book A Single Swallow. He’s supposed to be appearing in front of 30 people at Wild and Homeless Books in South Street, Bridport. Could he now be moved over the road to face a bigger crowd at Bridport Arts Centre?

There’s something heartening about people’s apparent hunger to hear more about swallows. There’s two very appealing lines – written by a child – quoted in Tom Paulin’s Faber Book of Vernacular Verse:

“The swallow is a migratory bird. He have a roundy head”.

I’m quoting from memory. I love that word “roundy”.