Summer of Lit Festival
Families of New Cross Gate are to make a gigantic 50 feet poem as part of it’s Summer of Lit Festival on Saturday 12th August. The festival has been organised by Family Fortunes, Family Learning and is funded by New Cross Gate New Deal for Communities. The event will be held at Besson Street Community Gardens, New Cross Gate, from the 12th to 19th August and aims to promote literacy and literature in South London in fun and entertaining ways.

The 50 feet poem with a working title of “A Load of Old Nonsense” aims to encourage families to jot down a line or two to make the As well as the 50 feet poem, a huge mural will be created with all families in the area asked to take part in this “Hands on Art” project. A Books, Poetry and Story Tent will stage some of South London’s best story tellers and will also hold a book stall selling brand new top title books for £1 each. The book stall is open all week from 12th – 19th August.

Bug hunting and pond dipping will also take place in this rare subtropical garden on Besson Street, New Cross Gate. Music and Song session for Under 5’s will also take place in this fun packed festival on Saturday 12th between 2pm and 3pm. And if all that noise gets to the mums and dads attending the event, an Indian head and hand massage will be available on Sunday only, for free.
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For further information please call Jill on 020 8314 7472.

Literature Facts:

Longest poem ever published
The lengthiest poem ever published is the Kirghiz folk epic Manas, which appeared in printed form in 1958 but which has never been translated into English. This three-part epic runs to about
500,000 lines. If printed it would be approx 10,600 feet long!!!

Longest word
PNEUMONO­ULTRA­MICRO­SCOPIC­SILICO­VOLCANO­CONIOSIS
= a lung disease caused by breathing in particles of siliceous volcanic dust.This is the longest word in any English dictionary. However, it was coined by Everett Smith, the President of The National Puzzlers' League, in 1935 purely for the purpose of inventing a new "longest word”.

Best Selling Books of all time
1. The Holy Bible: More than 6Billion copies
2. Quotations from Chairman Ma,o by Mao Tse-Tung (1966) 900million copies
3. The American Spelling Book, by Noah Webster (1783) 100million copies