Foyles partners with festival for year-round events and Best Book of Ideas Prize

Date posted: 5 October 11

	Foyles, the UK’s leading independent bookshop chain, has partnered with the Bristol Festival of Ideas, the city’s leading literary, art and science festival, in order to expand the already impressive festival programme with a number of events held in-store at Foyles Cabot Circus, Bristol.

The partnership also extends to sponsorship of the Best Book of Ideas Prize, for which Foyles will contribute judging advice, host the shortlist event and have creative input throughout the process. The prize will be announced at a ceremony in May at St George’s in Bristol. Previous winners of the prize include Nick Davies for Flat Earth News, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett for The Spirit Level and Dan Hind for The Return of the Public.

Now in its seventh year, the Bristol Festival of Ideas is attended by tens of thousands of festival-goers and features many of the world’s best-known writers, scientists, thinkers and artists, with over 150 events organised annually. There is a concentrated period of at least 70 events in May and other events throughout the year. The festival has financial backing from Arts Council England, Bristol City Council and Bristol’s business community.

Susan Sinclair, Foyles Divisional Manager responsible for Foyles Bristol, comments:

‘As relative newcomers to the Bristol community, we feel very fortunate to be able to work with the Bristol Festival of Ideas – a true gem of a festival that aims to highlight the best in contemporary thinking year-round. As an independent bookshop we traffic in ideas – whether they come in the form of novels, polemics, or historical journeys – so this is a natural fit.’

Andrew Kelly, Director of Bristol Festival of Ideas, comments:

‘We’re delighted that Foyles has joined us as partner in this prize. Bookshops are festivals of ideas every day of the week, and there is no better partner for us than Foyles. It means that we can continue our work in celebrating the writer of the best book of ideas each year, and provide a focus for debate and discussion around all our excellent writers.’

The Festival of Ideas will continue to work with a varied number of booksellers and venues in the Bristol community for its events outside Foyles, such as the Arnolfini and Watershed.