I have been going to events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival since it began in 1983. My first baby was born in 1988 so my Book Festival going has encompassed events for wide-eyed tots and tweens that have entered into our family history. What can demonstrate mother-love – and patience! – more than queuing with an excited small girl for an hour and a half to meet Jacqueline Wilson, surrounded by a million other excited small girls? And we will always remember the year our ecstatic eleven-year-old son was picked to ask JK Rowling a question about The Prisoner of Azkhaban.
I’ve been at events for adults too that can never ever be repeated – Muriel Spark’s visit to the Festival when her autobiography came out, for example. When she read from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and five hundred people waited for her to say ‘la crème de la crème’ – I doubt I will ever again hear so palpable a silence.
Thirty-five years on (gulp) still finds me pounding down the road to Charlotte Square; I am lucky enough to live a brisk fifteen-minutes’ walk away. Every year I try to do the maths – the number of calories expended in getting there versus the number ingested in the café …
Highlights of 2018 so far:
I heard Jenny Landreth talking about her book Swell: A Waterbiography, part-memoir, part history of women swimming (and Sunday Times Sport Book of the Year 2017); it sounds fascinating. Jenny is one of those hardy souls who swims outdoors all year round, in a lido in Tooting.
She was wearing a fab cardigan and during questions at the end someone asked her where she got it. It was from this site – everyone must have dashed home and ordered it because it is sold out.
Olga Wojtas did a great double act with ES Thomson in an event, chaired by Sally Magnusson, which was recorded for the Sally’s Sunday morning BBC Radio Scotland programme (to go out on 19 August). Both authors have written historical crime novels; Olga’s time-travelling heroine moves between Edinburgh and Tsarist Russia, while Elaine’s apothecary protagonist is in London in the 1850s – although Olga confessed that she thought she had written ‘a romp’ and was surprised to hear it categorised as crime. There is no doubt, though, that both books are fab – highly recommended.
Two books I’ve loved in the last few years have been The Trouble with Goats and Sheep and Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon so I was very interested to see her. She was on with Jess Kidd.
Both have a background in caring professions – Joanna as a doctor and psychiatrist, and Jess as a support worker – which has informed their writing and given them the black humour necessary to cope with tragic situations.
Rip it up fast-tracked a very enthusiastic audience through fifty years of Scottish pop. If you weren’t there (are you square??) you can see the exhibition of the same name at the National Museum of Scotland.
As a regular listener of Mariella Frostrup’s Open Book programme on Radio 4 (4pm) I got a ticket to go to the recording of Sunday August 19th’s edition. A panel of five guests (three of them called Sarah) discussed the role of literary critics today. I hope I am able to listen to the programme – it will be interesting to see what they kept from the hour-long event and what was edited to fit half that time.
Closer to home was a talk about the 15,000-strong book collection held by the Museum of Childhood in Edinburgh’s Royal Mile; it is currently being catalogued (volunteers wanted!). Their exhibition, Growing up with Books, showcasing some of their titles, is on until 9 December and the staff, along with Scotland’s Early Literature for Children initiative at Edinburgh University, have produced a book to go with it. A visit is something booky to look forward to when the Book Festival is over for another year …
Capital Writers 