‘Best literary festival in the world’ – Lipman

The Gibraltar Gibunco Literary Festival has been described as the best literary festival anywhere in the world. As rapturous applause filled a packed John Mackintosh Hall theatre at the end of her ‘in conversation with… ' actress Maureen Lipman told the audience: “This is the best literary festival in the whole world”.
A fully fledged member of the Gibraltar festival family this was her fourth consecutive year at the festival. A participant at many other festivals throughout the UK she again delighted audiences with her wit, story-telling and mesmerising performance on Saturday afternoon and again yesterday as part of the ever popular ‘Just A Minute’ chaired by Nicholas Parsons together with Tony Hawks, Dick Francis and Robert Daws who was new to the game show which reaches a major milestone this December. Nicholas Parson who has often said he feels very much at home on the Rock has never missed a show in its 50 year history. Needless to say they all performed to a packed John Mackintosh Hall Theatre.
Festival Organiser Nicky Guerrero said Maureen Lipman’s comments on Saturday was a confirmation of what they had always set out to achieve and guaranteed its future success.
“It assures us that the festival is getting better and better and growing in stature and that we are getting it right.”
Ms Lipman is a great supporter of the festival, he said, and her endorsement will speak volumes to the literary festival world.
Other speakers and authors have praised the organisation of the festival and are keen to return again next year.
Roy and Lesley Adkins, first time at the festival presenting their latest book “Gibraltar: The Greatest Siege in British History”, described the festival as both vibrant and extremely friendly.
“We have never had such feedback from our audiences at a festival and we have found that people here are really appreciative of what we are doing. Being part of this was beyond our expectations. It is probably the most friendly literary festival that we have ever been to both for participants and audiences. ”
This year’s festival has also seen a number of the talks sold out and the buzz created by the festival as unique as in other years as speakers, authors and audiences interacted and mingled between the talks.
Next year’s festival dates are: 15 to 18 November.