As the UK mourned the death of its monarch Queen's Park Book Festival explored themes of grief, loss, and forgiveness.
Back for its third consecutive year, the festival went ahead on September 17-18, on the eve of Queen Elizabeth II's funeral.
More than 40 novelists, writers and poets attended, including literary heavy weights Robert Harris, Victoria Hislop and Howard Jacobson.
Author Clover Stroud and psychoanalytic psychotherapist Juliet Rosenfeld discussed the madness, rage and alienation of grief and the ways of overcoming loss.
Clover, whose sister Nell died of breast cancer in December 2019, said the grief, sadness and sorrow she feels is very "fragile".
"I feel as though grief for Nell, and for mum and for many women I've loved very much who are not here, is like a kind of glass bauble I carry inside me and it's there all the time," she said. "Sometimes it smashes, and that's when it hits you, out of the blue."
She said "you need to be careful" with it.
"It has a great capacity to hurt you but it also has a great capacity to provide a kind of beauty and understanding of life."
Juliet, who lost her husband, spoke of grief's complexity, adding: "It's about listening and sharing. It sounds so basic."
The festival heard from The Forgiveness Project founder Marina Cantacuzino and Amir Amirani, director of the critically acclaimed film We Are Many about the 2003 Iraq invasion, who spoke about the creative power of anger.
Audiences learned about the Stasi Poetry Society and the 100th anniversary of James Joyce's Ulysses, and listened to a debate about men’s football and the "shame" of staging the World Cup in Qatar.
The festival ended with comedians performing in association with Salusbury World, a charity supporting refugee and migrant youngsters and their families.
Thomas Du Plessis, festival director, said: "It's been a fantastic weekend and we are so grateful in light of these current events that we were able to go ahead with this weekend."
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