The World Trade Club Hosts Ladies Lunch In Advance of The Emirates Airlines Festival Of Literature 2016

by Rana Asfour

It was all about literature and books yesterday on the 33rd floor of the World Trade Centre in downtown Dubai as we - an elegant, slightly bonkers, female crowd of book lovers - gathered for a lunch hosted by the stellar team of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.

The event's stunning, exclusive location in the Sheikh Rashid Tower offered a breath-taking panoramic 360-degree view of the city of Dubai creating the perfect backdrop for what EAFOL founder Isobel Abulhoul aptly described as 'a lunch with a palpable buzz'.

Guest speakers included EAFOL's Founder Isobel Abulhoul, Yvette Judge, EAFOL's Assistant Director, and two Dubai based authors Annabel Kantaria, who won the 2013 Montegrappa First Fiction competition and Rachel Hamilton, first runner-up and winner of the 2015 Emirates Woman Artists Award. Both authors will feature at the 2016 EAFOL taking place on March 1-12.

Clockwise: Isobel Abulhoul, Annabel Kantaria, Yvette Judge, Rachel Hamilton

This year's EAFOL promises to be bigger than ever before with 150 authors, 250 sessions and tons and tons of fringe and complimentary children's activities spread out across 12 days. You can book sessions and register to become a festival friend, all by visiting the festival's website HERE. My advice is to get booking as many of the sessions have already been sold out and trust me, this is one event you don't want to miss out on.

L-R: Me, writer Georgina Chakar, Linda MacConnell (my good friend, bookclub mate and seasoned writer), Kinesiologist Shazia Hussain, and Sam Al Hashimi from EAFOL

New BookFabulous Friends (BFFs) - L to R: Rachel Hamilton, Annabel Kantaria, Linda MacConnell

Quotes of the day worth stopping at:

My advice to anyone visiting a literary festival, whether this one or any other one, is make sure you choose a session for an author you don't know or a topic you know nothing about. You might be happily surprised at the result' - Isobel Abulhoul, Founder of EAFOL

Litfest [EAFOL] makes dreams come true' - Rachel Hamilton, author of 'The Case Of The Exploding Loo' & 'The Case of The Exploding Brains'

You must let mummy go, because tonight her life is going to change' - Annabel Kantaria's very young daughter telling her even younger brother to calm down and let their mum out the door as she headed to the Montegrappa First Fiction Award announcements. Her debut novel 'Coming Home' won first prize that night and her life was never the same again.