00:00 [INTERPOSING VOICES]
00:03 [INTERPOSING VOICES]
00:06 [INTERPOSING VOICES]
00:33 [APPLAUSE]
00:37 Good morning, everybody.
00:44 I'm sorry about the weather.
00:45 I lived in Sussex for many years, and it was always sunny.
00:48 So I don't know what's happened today, but anyway, it's
00:52 very, very nice to be here again.
00:55 As the proud patron of Charleston,
00:58 I'm delighted to welcome you all to this year's literary
01:01 festival in a place rightly described
01:05 by a previous resident as an earthly paradise.
01:11 I was asked before I came to think of an author whose books
01:14 I loved when I was the same age as some of you children.
01:20 It's always hard to choose one favorite writer,
01:23 because there are so many out there.
01:25 But I've selected a Victorian novelist who
01:28 died exactly 100 years ago.
01:32 I hasten to add that whatever you may suspect,
01:35 I'm not actually Victorian myself.
01:40 Now, Frances Hodgson Burnett was someone, like all of us,
01:44 who understood the incredible thrill of reading.
01:49 She wrote The Secret Garden and A Little Princess,
01:53 amongst many others.
01:54 Now, I think it's time for us to experience
01:57 a bit of magic for ourselves.
02:00 So without further ado, let me declare today's festival open.
02:06 And let me leave you with a final word from Frances.
02:10 Everything's a story.
02:12 You are a story.
02:13 I am a story.
02:15 Thank you.
02:16 [APPLAUSE]
02:21 I'd only fit you in places for a book
02:23 that you'd like to travel to and write about.
02:26 One place I think I'd love to go to is Hogwarts.
02:30 I think I'd like to jump on the express,
02:33 and I'd like to go to Hogwarts and sit in that wonderful hall
02:37 and wait for the hat to come around and pick a house.
02:42 [CHATTER]
02:45 [CHATTER]
02:49 [CHATTER]
02:53 [CHATTER]
02:56 (chatter)
02:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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