Booker Prize nomination novelist Rachel Seiffert was one of the star attractions at the Throckmorton Literary Festival on Sunday 23rd September. Held at the beautiful National Trust Coughton Court and still home of Mrs Throckmorton and her family, the festival is a dignified and intimate gathering for real book enthusiasts and literary buffs.
 

CCJ Birmingham and CCJ Oxford sponsored the Sunday afternoon session with Rachel Seiffert talking about her first book The Dark Room. Rachel, interviewed by Revd David Gifford, spoke of her upbringing in Oxford as a daughter of a German mother and Australian father with the tensions and moral questions she encountered - her maternal grandparents had been members of the Nazi party. The review in The Guardian talked of how the book’s 3 complex stories of the Nazi legacy shatter our preconceptions. Seiffert spoke to this and questions from the audience soon brought her to a place of openness and courageous honesty in her writing of the book. Seiffert talked of her writing the book more for herself than for a specific audience. Reading parts of the book, Seiffert went on to examine the motifs contained in the novel, answering questions and comment from the audience.
 

Seiffert later met with CCJ members and signed copies of The Dark Room.