Welcome to the latest in a series of behind-the-scenes blogs from me, Martha, founder and chief stationery maker! This is my journal, a chance to tell you what I’ve been up to, and today is all about the Women’s Prize LIVE event, or as I like to think of it, every book lover’s dream day out!

Martha’s Journal: Women’s Prize LIVE

You might have seen last week, we were lucky enough to attend the Women’s Prize LIVE event and summer party, which is a total book lover’s dream! We spent two wonderful days soaking up inspiring talks, meeting fellow readers, publishers and also bumping into a few friends of Martha Brook. But before I get more into what we got up to, here’s a little bit of context about what the Women’s Prize Trust is and how we got to work with them…

What is the Women’s Prize Trust?

The Women’s Prize Trust is a charity whose mission is to change the world through books written by women. Home to the Women’s Prize for Fiction, this prestigious award was founded 30 years ago by popular author Kate Mosse, The catalyst for the prize was the 1991 Booker Prize, which had zero female authors on its shortlist, despite women making up 60% of published novelists that year – outrageous!

It’s also a sad fact that women will read books written by both male and female authors, but men overwhelmingly reject books written by women. The Women’s Prize Trust set out to try to change that by amplifying female voices.

Over the course of 30 years, the Women’s Prize Trust has evolved to include the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, Women’s Prize Discoveries and Women’s Prize LIVE, now the world’s biggest annual gathering of female creatives.

Why are we working with them?

Well, reading and writing are very much connected skills! Here at Martha Brook, we are all about helping people capture their own stories, and we find that people who get that tend to love reading, too!

Then, a few years ago, I shared my own personal love of reading on Instagram, and it’s led to some brilliant things, including brands like Penguin, Roald Dahl and now Women’s Prize Trust reaching out to us. This is a pretty dream collab for us as a female-founded brand that loves to elevate other female creatives, so it felt like a GREAT fit!

Also, the dream is to one day write a book myself, but that is a story for another day! Anyway, back to last week…

Women’s Prize LIVE

It was with great excitement that I turned up at Bedford Square Gardens, one of the prettiest private gardens in central London for Women’s Prize LIVE. The event was sprawled across the enclosed square with multiple tents, each hosting a packed programme of inspiring literary talks and thought-provoking discussions. As the day went on, I grew very thankful for these tents as the good old British weather could not make up its mind; torrential downpours one minute, and then glorious sunshine the next!

The programme was incredible, so it was super hard to pick what to watch! Two of my highlights were hearing Kathryn Stockett speak with Vick Hope so eloquently about growing up in Mississippi, what she’s been up to since writing The Help 17 years ago and her new novel, The Calamity Club. She was unexpectedly hilarious, and I immediately went and bought this book as it sounded brilliant (currently a quarter of the way through and I am gripped, I don’t want to spoil it for you, but if you like women coming together to fight injustice and equally heartbreaking and heartwarming storytelling, you will love it)!

I also loved Between the Covers! LIVE chat hosted by Amanda Ross with guest speakers Abi Daré, Sarah Waters, Alan Davies, and Jo Brand. A very engaging discussion around their favourite books written by female authors (I now have lots of books in my notes app that I need to add to my TBR!) and lots of laughs too. Jo Brand’s dry wit, combined with her decades-long friendship with Alan Davies was a joy to witness, and I am embarrassed to say I did ask Alan for a selfie. (Come on, the teenage version of me who was OBSESSSED with Jonathan Creek just had to!)

But probably my biggest highlight of the day was being surrounded by so many book lovers and just chatting all things fiction and non-fiction throughout the day over a cuppa or glass of fizz. (Shout out to the ladies who I was talking to about Yesteryear in the queue for a coffee with – one of those novels that seems to provoke discussion!)

I really believe that books matter. Reading matters. And this day was filled with SO much inspiration and creativity that I was came away uplifted and moved in equal measure. I left with more books than I could carry and a very happy literary-loving heart.

A huge thank you to the Women’s Prize Trust for having us, a truly eye-opening day, and I’ll be back next year for sure! Now I’m off to dream about writing that book…

P.S. We’ve got more planned with the Women’s Prize Trust, which I cannot WAIT to tell you about. Watch this space for news!