A rare photograph of the Bloomsbury Health & Beauty Nude
Gymnastics Display Team seen relaxing together at the Hampstead
Literary Games of 1927.  The Bloomsbury Belles were gold medallists,
famously coached by Leonard and Virginia Woolf.  Plans for a nude
 pageant as part of the closing ceremony at this year's Isle of Wight
Literary Festival have been abandoned due to
the unseasonably bad weather. 

It was a Surf 'n Turf match

One of the highlights of the Isle of Wight Literary Festival Games
was the grudge match between two veteran writing teams in the

Beach Volley Ball Death Match Final.  The Queens of Crime (left)

Agatha Thistle and Damaris Sennacherib secured a narrow victory

over the Grand Dames of Gothic Romance, Delilah Fortune-Green

and Samantha Chisel in the closing moments of the game when

Ms Chisel took a tumble and broke her hip flask.

Toby 'Tubby' Trubshaw, the popular Readers Digest 'Young Journalist 

of the Year' (see post for Wed 14th Dec 2011) is seen here relaxing

before his next big challenge in the semi-finals of the Junior Acrobatic 

Trampoline marathon at the Isle of Wight Literary Festival Games.

The Penguin Senior Editors Synchronised Swimming Team prepare

for the finals at the Isle of Wight Literary Festival Games following a 

gruelling qualifier against the Random House Bantam Book champions

"It's all about looking glamorous," their team captain told the Author.

"But you also need strength - and we're built like pocket battleships!"

The organisers of this year's Isle of Wight Literary Festival Games drew

their inspiration from the notorious Hampstead Literary Games
of 1927. There was a thrilling finish to the super-heavyweight boxing

 tournament that year when the veteran novelist Sabrina Honeywell
 collected the gold by delivering a punishing uppercut to her long-time
adversary Brenda Dugong, the literary critic of the Daily Mail.

So next year he'll try Puppy Juggling

The distinguished Russian performance poet Aleksey Barkov attends

 the Isle of Wight Literary Festival Games where he makes a spirited

attempt to break his own world record but is ultimately disqualified

when it's discovered that Child Tossing is not an Olympic sport.

Famous American children's author Archie Murdoch, lost for ten days,

is found by neighbours wandering on waste ground behind his home,

dressed as Charlie Cottontail, one of his most famous creations.