★★★★★

THE legacy of Charleston lived on at a literary festival that Virginia Woolf and the rest of the Bloomsbury set would surely have relished.

The picturesque grounds around the house, which was once occupied by Woolf’s sister Vanessa Bell, played host to a series of interesting and diverse talks on the short story. Big names of the contemporary literary scene such as Ali Smith and Eimear McBride were in conversation earlier in the week (the festival ran from Wednesday to Sunday).

First up on Saturday was Refugee Tales, in which writers Dragon Todovoric and Patience Agbabi read powerful and often heart-rending real life stories from migrants who have suffered from Britain’s policy of indefinite immigration detention. Todovoric’s weaving of Chaucer’s The Man of Law’s Tale - which centres on the woe of vulnerable immigrant Constance - into his own non-fiction story about an abused refugee was particularly inspired and hard-hitting. The BBC Short Story Award is announced today, and shortlisted author KJ Orr joined writers Kei Miller and Naomi Alderman for a conversation which was by turns enlightening, intense and hilarious.

The afternoon’s events were rounded off by Sophie Hannah, who has written two new Poirot detective novels with the blessing of the family of the character’s creator, Agatha Christie, and John Simenon, whose father George was responsible for the famous literary sleuth Jules Maigret. Again, the talk was animated and informative. In general, it was a joy to witness passionate writers dissecting their craft with vim and vigour. An overwhelming success.