Littleport columnist Lyn Gibb-de-Swarte writes her monthly column for the Ely Standard.

Littleport may not have been (yet) the setting for a television series like the other Cambridgeshire village called Grantchester and its parish church incumbents.

Although it is the location for popular books by Littleport-born authors such as Victor Watson, Deeping Secrets and John Taylor, whose I Will Find You is being made into a film.

But, Littleport’s vicar of historic St George’s, Rev Natalie Andrews, is certainly as vibrant a character as the central fictitious vicar of Grantchester with her hobbies of wild water swimming and running.

She just raised £1,377.10 for her church ministries by running an ultramarathon.

And on Saturday, August 31 at the church, opposite the war memorial on Church Lane, there is a summer carnival with stalls, games and food on the tower lawn, from 10am (after Rev Natalie’s favourite 247th Littleport parkrun ends that starts 9am at the Littleport Leisure Centre) until 2pm.

There is a super dog show too with prizes for the dog that looks most like its owner, waggiest tail, loudest bark and friendliest.

There are other denominations in the town, and among them a Christian Spiritualist meeting held every Thursday at 7.30pm at Littleport Village Hall under the leadership of the Rev Nick Brown who was ordained into ministry by me back in July 2012.

At the spiritualist service you will also see a medium demonstrating that life is eternal by relaying messages from identifiable loved ones in spirit to people in the hall.

A rather more hair-raising event is at the village hall next Tuesday (September 3) at 7.30pm.

The Littleport Society presents, free of charge, a talk by Marion Leeper entitled ‘Ghost Tales from the Fens.’

The only real similarity between the two is that refreshments are offered after this presentation, and after services on Thursdays - at the same time and place.