There is a fantastic writers retreat above The Book Shop which is a sort of green room where those working at the festival can go to eat, chill out and chat. It seems a perfect place to collect words and to deposit a favourite sweary and bad word box . I am looking forward to opening the box at the end of the residency! maybe a saucy stitched sampler is in order.

The term sampler comes from the Latin exemplum meaning 'an example to be followed, a pattern, a model or example'. It is believed that, although the earliest dated samplers and references to them come from the 16th century, they probably were stitched long before this time.

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