What a great iniative of the St Andrews Christian Bookshop in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. There are so many great Literature Festivals up and down the land but very few Christian ones, exploring the value of good Christian literature. Although just two days in total – 13, 14 June, it featured in excess of more than 20 well known authors. Sadly, I was unable to attend as the dates clashed with the visit of our New Zealand relatives, but I was thrilled to then discover that some of the key authors had been televised talking about their books for TBN television and I was able to at least partake in the flavour of the festival by watching in the autumn. A nice change from the usual selection of documentaries and detectives and something to look forward to each Wednesday evening over five consecutive weeks.

Week 1 belonged to Claud Jackson talking about his own testimony, an interesting and enlightening story from his tough beginnings to being in the ministry now.

In week 2 we had Ruth Rice talking about health and well being for the Christian.

Week 3 was the turn of Andy Bannister talking about witnessing – How to talk about Jesus without looking like an idiot. Andy was a natural speaker as he shared with us his own disastrous experiences with humour and fun.

Week 4 was the turn of Lauren Windle, airing the somewhat controversial subject of feminism with her book, Notes on Feminism.

The final week belonged to John McGinley with his book, The Church of Tomorrow. We studied this book in my church with our vicar and found it really helpful in looking at topics such as prayer, mission, the Holy Spirit and leadership among other topics. Subtitled ‘Being a Christ-centred people in a changing world’, it looks to the future of the church making a difference in a largely secular society. I personally recommend it.

As well as hearing from all these great authors, in between their talks a group of ordinary festival goers were asked a number of different questions such as the books that had influenced them the most growing up and how they personally came to faith.

If you haven’t managed to catch this series yet, I am sure it is still available on TBN television. Even if you enjoy detectives and documentaries, we all need a varied diet of screen watching and if you enjoy reading, as most of us do, you may even find yourself stocking up on some really great reads to encourage your faith. Thank you St Andrews. I hope you repeat the festival in 2025. It’s on my calendar already!