Malmesbury Carnival is set to welcome author Ian Clayton later in the year, and Councillor Steve Cox and the carnival committee are campaigning to get everyone in the town reading his book, Bringing It All Back Home.
Hilary Cox, a member of the committee, said: “It was simply a book Steve read and really enjoyed.
“Coincidentally, after he’d read the book we found out that the author is a friend of a friend and asked him to come along to the carnival. He was thrilled.”
Bringing It All Back Home tells of Mr Clayton’s quest to find what music does to us through worldly travels – it has received no less than five star ratings on the website Amazon.
His visit will take place on August 16 at 7.30pm at St Mary’s Hall, with a question and answer session with the author, as part of the carnival festivities.
“The library ordered a dozen extra copies of the book and we contacted most book groups in town about the visit, as well as trying to do lots of publicity so as many people as possible read it.
“It’s like a giant town book club,” said Mrs Cox.
Malmesbury Carnival will be running from July 30 until September 2 with an array of more than 50 activities for all the family running almost every day.
It aims to raise as much money as possible for local good causes, last year giving away almost £15,000 to community projects.
The carnival is a longstanding tradition of the town, with pictures of parades dating back to the 1930s.
The first event of Malmesbury carnival will be another book event with a talk from the 1999-2009 Poet Laureate Andrew Motion introducing Silver, his sequel to Treasure Island, featuring a cast of noble seamen, murderous pirates and tales of love, valour and cruelty.
This will be taking place on July 30 at Malmesbury School from 7.30pm, with tickets costing £10.
Other activities include a carnival cycle ride, a fun family walk and picnic, weekday carnival workshops and the long-awaited carnival procession and dance.
For more details on the carnival and its events, visit www.malmesburycarnival.co.uk
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