Visitors to Monty Lit Fest are fortunate to have such a choice of places to eat.\u00a0 At one of them, the Ivy House Cafe & Post Office, you can buy your Lit Fest tickets and post your parcels as well as sit down to a menu of delicious home-cooked food.<\/p>\n
In a full-on life in the construction industry, you can understand why Denice Jaunzens dreamt of the comfort of her grandmother\u2019s kitchen. \u00a0 Researching, creating and project managing the implementation of environmental policy in a noisy world seemed a complete contrast to the idea of home baking and a sanctuary for solitude or gentle conversation.<\/p>\n
Book-lover Denice recalls her grandparents\u2019 house in Newtown, with its open door – and open biscuit tin.\u00a0 Easy family suppers, tea and cake, laughter and happy chatter.\u00a0 It\u2019s a cheery picture and one Denice decided was a good pattern for the next part of her life; to create a friendly, intimate cafe, where the food is affordable and people can spend time with friends or by themselves.\u00a0 To feel at home.<\/p>\n
Making the Ivy House Cafe a reality, and running the town\u2019s Post Office, is hectic in its own way, of course.\u00a0 This is where reading comes in.<\/p>\n
\u201cBooks are companions\u201d she says.\u00a0 \u201cI see people bring them into the cafe for\u00a0 a quiet moment.\u00a0 For me, during the day, I may only be able to snatch a few moments with them, so I\u2019ll have something I can dip into, something light.\u00a0 Barbara Pym, for example, or Alexander McColl Smith, cozy crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the evenings though, I can give books more attention.\u00a0 Sometimes I really need to because of how they come into my life:<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a member of a local Welsh-language book club.\u00a0 I still see myself as a learner and some of the choices can be quite challenging both in language and content.\u00a0 They are still voyages of discovery, entries into new worlds and isn\u2019t that a big part of the joy of reading?\u00a0 Because you have to read whatever has been chosen, I find myself reading books I probably wouldn\u2019t have picked up in English.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the same with book shops.\u00a0 I can just be drawn to quite testing books about psychology, history, religion or social issues.\u00a0 I like to hear others\u2019 viewpoints, even when I might disagree.\u00a0 On the other hand, I don\u2019t spend a huge amount of time on cookery books as customers know what they want and disagreement is meaningless!<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s impossible for me to choose a favourite,\u201d she explains.\u00a0 \u201cLike lots of people my age, I read a lot as a child as there were fewer distractions.\u00a0 Like so many, I went from Enid Blyton to Tolkein and Agatha Christie.\u00a0 Now we have a huge range of writing with teens and young adults specifically in mind.\u00a0 As a volunteer with Monty Lit Fest, I hope the Jill Kibble Mini Fest and the National Year of Reading will help children today rediscover reading for pleasure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had to choose my longest-lived and most-cherished companion though, it would be \u201cUnder Milk Wood\u201d.\u00a0 As well as the warmth and poetry of the language, it lets us spend time with a community, alive with its own characters.\u00a0 I can look out of the cafe window, down over Broad Street at the Town Hall and the foot hill of the castle, and see Montgomery in it\u201d.<\/p>\n
Monty Lit Fest tickets are available from the Ivy House Cafe during opening hours, 9am – 5pm,\u00a0 Sunday 9am \u2013 2pm.<\/p>\n
As ever the Friendly Festival offers its famous feast of cakes at the Town Hall during Festival weekend, 12th – 14th June.\u00a0 For details of street food, pubs, restaurants, shops and other cafes in Montgomery, just click below<\/p>\n