Festival in Time by Tracey Scott-Townsend - #TuesdayTeaser

Hello and welcome to this week's Tuesday Teaser. The place where we take a sneaky peek at a book that has caught my eye.

This week we are looking at Festival in Time by Tracey Scott-Townsend.

This looks like being a fascinating book which I hope to be reading and reviewing very soon. In the meantime, here is a short introduction to whet your appetite.

The Blurb

At the Great Western Express Music Festival in Bardney, Lincolnshire, 16 year old Annette Woods abandons her sisterly responsibilities in favour of a tryst with Justin, an up-and-coming folk musician.

Meanwhile 13 year old Janie has a public meltdown, unwittingly instigating a racially-motivated attack on her new friends by the on-duty constabulary.

The injustice inspires Justin there and then to change his career path from music to politics.

Fast forward more than forty years.

Annette and Janie are called home to Lincolnshire to look after their sick mother. There they unearth childhood resentments but also prove the indelibility of their bond, when Annette makes a reckless choice that turns out to be the best thing for both sisters.

For Justin Citizen, too.

Now the Leader of the Opposition, his recurring dreams of an island of sanctuary are propelled into action when a provocative news headline prompts him to make a momentous decision of his own. That same headline is the catalyst that finally brings him back together with Annette, the girl at the festival who he has never forgotten.

Festival in Time explores how home can turn out to be something different than what we imagined, how family is not always put together traditionally, and how politics can be pursued in ways other than on the Party tour bus.

In the Beginning...

Annette, 1972

The weather forecast was for rain and more rain, after a long sunny spell. Mum had actually banned me from going to the festival, but wild horses wouldn’t keep me away. Sure, I’d have to miss the Friday night bands but I’d still get to see Genesis. They were my favourite group of all time. 

Looking back, I should’ve gone on my own. If I had, our whole lives would have turned out different. 

If you’d ever met my little sister Janie, you might have understood why me taking her along could turn out to be a really bad idea. 

But whatever. 

I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. My best friend Mary had chickened out when her mum threatened to cut off all her hair if she defied her. 

So Janie was the only option I had left. 

I was indulging in a fantasy about meeting Peter Gabriel backstage when Janie appeared at the top of the stairs, toilet flush muffled by the carefully closed door behind her (well done, Janie). I watched as she neatly sidestepped the same creaks I had on the stairs – looking suspiciously as if she’d also done this before. 

I helped her into her backpack. 

I’d put the flask and sandwiches in there the night before along with my extra jumper. She looked at me sideways and pulled in a shivering breath. 

‘All right,’ she said. ‘I’m doing this. I’m going to a music festival.’ She looked at me properly then and nodded, fringe falling back into her eyes. Normally she didn’t go out of the house at weekends unless it was to the library. 

I wondered if she’d still be playing with her dolls on Monday. The only band she’d ever heard of at the festival was a brand new one called Roxy Music. It would be their first festival performance, but her best friend was a second cousin of one of the band members and it was one of the ways I’d managed to persuade Janie to come as we’d whispered in the dark the night before. I’d said she could get a souvenir of some sort for Sally.