London Book Fair, by Terry Freedman
Will the scheduling of the next London Book Fair for the 9th to 11 March 2021 turn out to be a triumph of hope over experience? Well, if we can avoid a second or third wave of coronavirus, and if social distancing measures have been sufficiently relaxed by then, and if there is a vaccine, and if there is a cure, and if all the companies and punters involved haven’t gone bankrupt by then…. Well, you can see there are one or two hurdles to overcome. It’s great that there is a date in place though, and perhaps the experience of lockdown and the fact that there is nearly a year to go, at least some of the Fair could be virtual.
That’s one good thing about this pandemic (I’m ever the optimist): people and groups have found other ways to connect, using technologies like Zoom, Facetime and Skype. The London Library, for example, has set up a number of virtual groups to cater for different members’ interests, the Westminster Forum conferences have now become “virtual”, and several courses and talks have moved online.
Even if the London Book Fair does take place in a physical space next year, there is no reason that a virtual element could not be used to supplement it. I was considering going to a writers’ conference last year, and one of the things I was struck by was that they had a virtual ticket as well. If you bought that (at a price less than the in-person version of course), you could attend all the keynote talks and have access to the recordings afterwards.
The London Book Fair has set up a virtual book club, with a collection of reviews online. If movies are your thing, there are film reviews on the London Book and Screen Week website.
In other words, we have many reasons to be cheerful.