Summer Event- more thoughts

Ok so I have been putting thought to the Summer event idea and I am looking at the dates of 17th/ or 18th (Wed/Thurs) August, probably starting early afternoon.
I would like to try and find out if people would be free on either of these dates and if they would be willing to travel to Rye in East Sussex. I have friends who run a pub which has a lovely function room (complete with amps/microphone), and there would be drinks and food. There is also the idea of a literary tour of Rye (both Henry James and E.F Benson lived at Lamb House, Rye) taking place after the first half of readings- it is a lovely historic town. I am also trying to get my friend Sam North http://www.samnorth.co.uk/index.html to come along, but first need to know if this idea seems possible to anyone here. I would obviously very much like Tony Cook to be able to make it (so if you are unable to Tony, I would have to re think).

If this location/idea does not appeal to people, then there is the possibility of holding something in London (again hopefully with the support of Sam North) however, this could prove trickier in some ways. I am basically throwing the ideas out in the hope people will let me know their thoughts, as have to start somewhere! The idea of holding it in Rye does appeal to me- it has good train service and really is very pretty and has lots of history to the place which could prove very interesting. If you like an adventure, it would be fun- but it's NOT the middle of nowhere! So it could be a nice day out, mixing in the literary tour and of course the readings, maybe even having a wander around the little shops and the church- if you haven't been to Rye, it's well worth a visit!

Just thought it could be a different thing to suggest- I originally wanted to make the event outdoors but that is proving somewhat unrealistic, however this idea is a compromise and offers the opportunity for a mix of things.

Please let me know what you think :)