A Shropshire company has pledged its support to an inaugural literary festival in the county.
Shrewsbury Festival of Literature will take place throughout the town between November 25 and 27 and organisers have already announced a host of big names for the weekend.
One of the highlights of the weekend will be the appearance of historical novelist Lindsey Davis and Network Support Solutions, based at Shrewsbury Business Park, has stepped in to sponsor The Flavia Albia Mysteries Afternoon Tea with Lindsey Davis between 4pm and 5.30pm on Saturday, November 26 at Shrewsbury Central Baptist Church in Claremont Street.
Katy Jones, of Network Support Solutions, which offers a range of IT services, products and support services, said: “We see ourselves as very much part of the community across Shropshire and are delighted to get behind this fantastic event.
“It is quite an undertaking to get a festival off the ground and we have the utmost admiration for the way the whole thing has come together. The festival team have been professional throughout and their hard work has been rewarded with the quality of line-up for what should be a fantastic weekend.
“We will be sponsoring the Lindsey Davis part of the weekend and are pleased to be backing such a tremendous talent and well-known author.”
Lindsey worked in the civil service for 13 years and a romantic novel she had written was runner-up for the 1985 Georgette Heyer Historical Novel Prize. She wrote romantic stories for Woman’s Realm magazine but it was her interest in history and archaeology that sparked an historical novel.
Lindey then wrote her first novel featuring Roman ‘detective’ Marcus Didius Falco. The Silver Pigs was a huge success and a further 19 Falco novels have followed. Her latest novel The Graveyard of Hesperides is the fourth in the new series featuring Flavia Albia, Falco’s British-born adopted daughter and a female ‘investigator’.
Katy added: “We are really looking forward to what should be a great weekend for Shrewsbury and Network Support Solutions is proud to be part of it.”
Festival chair Susan Caroline said: “Organising the festival has been a major challenge but we are delighted with the way things have gone and the line-up we have managed to assemble.
“Clearly sponsorship and the ‘Friends of SFL’ scheme we have introduced are vital to the success of the event. We are very grateful to those sponsoring the weekend and those people who have taken advantage of the ‘Friends Scheme’.
“The scheme means people have priority access to tickets and discounts on certain events which also gives us some advanced cash to help fund the event. There is still time to join as a Friend of SFL and more information is available through our website.”
For more information about Shrewsbury Festival of Literature visit http://www.shrewsburylitfest.co.uk
For more information on the services provided by Network Support Solutions visit the website http://www.networksupportsolutions.co.uk/.
Author Lindsey Davis
