LondonLit

At last, a book festival that probably won't feature mainly celebrities who have written books for the sole purpose of the book deal, rather than what they might have to say.

London Lit Plus looks positively edgy and egalitarian - celebrating people who are actually interested in writing, and how they respond to reading other writing (whether they are famous or not).

Which is what writing festivals should be about, surely? The writing, rather than the selling. Somehow, by taking risks, this one seems to be bursting with energy.

And is it just me, or is energy missing from many other festivals I get the programme for? It has got so I can't actually summon up the enthusiasm to go to events, not least because these are authors I can see in several other festivals already. Seeing their names repeatedly makes me feel I've heard them before too, and you can be pretty sure before you even turn up, that you know what you'll get.

It's a bit like the High Street of every British town. Useful, but nothing to get worried or excited about, and oh how I don't want my reading (and writing) to become like that.

Great looking website too - and the Chroma event is just one of the many I want to go to.