While plenty of people took the opportunity of the beautiful weather to spend some time in the Franschhoek restaurants and surrounds, the real heat was felt inside venues where hot topics such as The In-between 80s, Freedom of Information, and On Being Bolshy were debated to overflowing houses.

8 550 tickets were sold to the 90 events on offer – an increase of more than 2 000 tickets over last year’s festival. A third of the events sold out completely, with some reaching capacity well before the festival began.

The inaugural Book Week for Young Readers took place this year, meaning that in the week prior to the Literary Festival, each of the 130 classrooms in the Franschhoek Valley received a visit from one of 50 children’s authors, who read to and interacted with over 4 000 learners. Through donations from a number of publishers, books were also placed in the school libraries. Response from teachers, learners and authors was overwhelmingly positive. Organiser Lindy Truswell remarked, “I was particularly blown away by the dedication of the authors, and how surprisingly good many of them were at presenting to young people.” Pieter-Dirk Uys was so impressed that he has indicated that he wants to replicate the programme in Darling.

As in previous years, some of the revenue from ticket sales went to the FLF Library Fund, which hopes to achieve a future community library in the Franschhoek Valley. A number of the authors have kindly donated their honoraria to the fund.

The FLF is presented in association with Porcupine Ridge Wines and the Sunday Times, and is further made possible with the help of Franschhoek guest house owners and voluntary workers who give their time and energy to make it an event to remember.

The next festival will take place on 17 to 19 May 2013, with the Book Week for Young Readers starting on 13 May. “Book early if you want to be sure of listening to particular conversations,” advises FLF director Jenny Hobbs. “A scintillating line-up of authors is already being planned.”