As I walked from George Square—not as overcrowded as in the first days of the Fringe Festival—along to the Edinburgh Book Festival’s home at the Futures Institute, just further along Lauriston Place, I was faced with a long, snaking queue around the McEwan Hall. I wondered who might be appearing there, knowing it’s being used as the venue for the Book Festival’s big names. I looked at the constituent members of the queue, and that gave no clue: we’re generally a pretty homogeneous bunch all in all, suggesting the ‘silver pound’ isn’t likely to run out any time soon.
Although a lady at the bus stop later commented, ‘The Book Festival is’nae cheap’, tickets have generally been about £15 (£21 for the McEwan Hall events), which I suppose makes it expensive if you want to go to lots of events, but is very reasonable for some of the biggest names in the writing world. And £21 to listen to David Olusoga—for this is the man they were all queuing to hear and see—seems like a bargain to me.
From Olusoga’s Queues to Marina Warner’s ‘Sanctuary’
However, my diary sent me onwards to the Book Festival’s ‘Spiegeltent’ (confusingly entitled ‘Perdu’ above its entrance) to listen to Marina Warner in conversation with Guardian writer Charlotte Higgins. Warner’s book Sanctuary was under discussion and Higgins seemed like a good choice of chair, given her recent book about Ukraine.
Warner is a tiny, bird-like figure and we were told that she wouldn’t be doing any readings from her book, as the lighting in the tent wasn’t conducive. She’s 79 and bright as a button, so it was a shame the lighting issue hadn’t been considered beforehand. Margaret Drabble is almost 90 and her venue allowed her to read very engagingly, but of course there are many reasons why different venues are used for different events, so it would be harsh to criticise.
“And £21 to listen to David Olusoga—for this is the man they were all queuing to hear and see—seems like a bargain to me.”
Higgins lost her place a couple of times and wasn’t the most fluent of chairs. She didn’t seem well-prepared or particularly confident. When there’s only 45 minutes for the discussion, good chairing is essential and I felt that Warner really shone when she took hold of the reins herself and said what she wanted to say, even when Higgins tried to move her on.
I could have listened to Warner all day and found her quiet insistence wonderfully uplifting. It’s incumbent on us all to do something, no matter how insignificant our contribution may seem to us. ‘Xenia’—the ancient Greek concept of hospitality—is not evident in our modern world, but Warner looks to see if that could change.
Island Fiction and Courtyard Conversations: Benjamin Wood’s ‘Seascraper’
An hour later I was in the Courtyard Theatre—also a tent, but with a very different feel—to hear Benjamin Wood talk to fellow author Sinéad Gleeson about his latest novel Seascraper. Gleeson chaired quietly, giving Wood all the airspace. He’s garrulous, so she might have been hard-pressed to interrupt him, even if she’d wanted to, but he took up a lot of time giving expansive answers to each question or prompt, so we heard a lot about fewer aspects of his work than might otherwise have been possible.
“Gleeson chaired quietly, giving Wood all the airspace. He’s garrulous, so she might have been hard-pressed to interrupt him…”
As an audience member pointed out in the Q&A session after, there had been no spoilers throughout the discussion—which is always a good rule of thumb when talking about a book that not everyone in the audience will have been able to read beforehand. As I hadn’t read it—but intended to—I was grateful for that, but was there enough to entice people who’d neither bought nor read the book to pop over to the tent across the way to buy a copy and queue up to get Wood to sign it? I’m not sure, but his publisher—if they were in the room—might have had a quiet word with him later.
He read from the book, and I think he read quite a lot. I either went off into a daydream or actually nodded off, I’m not sure which, but it doesn’t bode well for my intention to read Seascraper now. It’s a shame, as the book has had a lot of publicity and, as one of many current novels based on islands or by the sea, this one seemed to have a good reason to be quite high up on my (long and growing) list of books to read next. It might just have to wait a while longer now.
Featured Image: Marina Warner – Photo credit: Dan Welldon
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