The inaugural Festival, held in 2003, was created to celebrate the history of Shakespeare & Company and its continuation. Following its success, the organisers created FestivalandCo as a bi-annual literary event with each Festival focusing on a different literary genre:
2003: “Lost, Beat & New” was based on the Lost, Beat and New Generation in Paris.
Authors included: Carolyn Cassady, Allan Sillitoe, Frances Stonor Saunders, Rene Weis, Victor Erofeyev, Jung Chang, Harry Mathews, Claire Messud.
2006: Travel in Words: celebrating travel literature with authors including William Dalrymple, Geoff Dyer, Barry Lopez, Andreï Makine, Celia Brayfield, Stephen Clarke, Maria D'Arcy, Andrew Eames, Jason Elliot, Noel Riley Fitch, Janine Di Giovanni, Charles Glass, Shusha Guppy, Tony Hawks, Lucinda Holdforth, Ian Jack, Brigid Keenan, Jonathan Lorie, Rory Maclean, Nick Middleton, Dervla Murphy, Ruth Padel, Tim Parks, Jon Ronson, Barnaby Rogerson, Anthony Sattin, Elizabeth Speller, Albert Sonnenfeld, Colin Thubron and Thirza Vallois.
A video on the 2006 Festival can be found here.
