The Spiegeltent, Consignia Theatre, Field and Lawn Marquee, Studio Theatre and Children’s Theatre are all based in Charlotte Square Gardens. The box office number is 0131 624 5050 and website is www.edbookfest.co.uk
MARK LAWSON
Author of Going Out Live and the man who bravely keeps order on Newsnight Review gives us his pick of books written about the media.
Stick it up your Punter! by Peter Chippendale and Chris Home. A vivid and witty account of The Sun in the days when Kelvin MacKenzie ran it and it ran the country. Astonishing details include the revelation that a senior member of staff was a wife- murderer.
Towards the End of the Morning by Michael Frayn. Combining a lament for the end of the old Fleet Street with a preview of the new power of television, this 19603 novel is the only modern challenger to Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop.
Turn of the Century by Kurt Andersen. The downfall of an American television producer and his software-tycoon wife as the 21st century begins. A gripping and satirical story of the new media.
The Belles Lettres Papers by Charles Simmons. Unfairly forgotten - though available second-hand online — this 1987 comedy of a New York literary magazine which discovers nine new ‘gay' sonnets by Shakespeare, is a gem of comic intelligence.
The Media Trilogy by Robert Harris. Before writing best-selling thrillers. Harris examined, in non- fiction, the coverage of the Falklands War, the Hitler Diaries hoax and Mrs Thatcher's press secretary, creating a trio of sharp accounts of how British news is made.
I Mark Lawson, Field and Lawn Marquee, 10 Aug, 8.30pm, £8 (£6); hosts the Roald Dahl Foundation Debate, Consignia Theatre, 11 Aug, 2.30pm, £7 (£5); hosts Charles Saumarez Smith, Consignia Theatre, 11 Aug, 8pm, £8 (£6).
Saturday 10
Children’s programme Various venues from 10am. See Kids section for details.
Candia McWilliam & Ali Smith Spiege/tent, 70.30am, £7 (£5). The opening event of this year's beanfeast pairs eX-Vegm' writer McWiIliam whose 1988 debut was the medical psychodrama A Case of Knives. with the Booker-shortlisted Smith. See preview 0n Ali Smith. page 10.
Alan Bennett Consignia Theatre, 77.30am, £7 (£5). The droll Yorkshireman makes an unfeasibly rare public appearance across the border, here chatting about his latest story. entitled, The Laying on of Hands. Be nice to him. so he comes back again tomorrow.
Nawal el Saadawi Studio Theatre, noon, £7 (£5). This leading sociologist, feminist. medical doctor is one of the most widely translated contemporary Egyptian scribes. Famous for being stuck in jail under Sadat and continuing to write using an eyebrow pencil and bog roll.
Philip Hensher Field and Lawn Marquee, 72.30pm, £7 (85). AS Byatt told Hensher it was time he wrote a big, long, thumper of a book. So. the author and jOurno came up wrth The Mulberry Empire, a tale of Afghanistan being invaded by the west. Spookin he finished it six months before last September.
Kathleen Jamie Field and Lawn Marquee, 2.30pm, £7 (£5). Jamie once said that 'a wee bit of disorder never did any harm'. Subscribe to her chaos theory as she tells of her journey across the globe which inspired Among Muslims.
Liz Lochhead Consignia Theatre, 3pm, £7 (£5). The proud holder of the Saltire Book of the Year Award for her Medea will dazzle you with tales of playwrights, poetry and prizes.
Kathryn Harrison 8. Claire Messud Studio Theatre, 3. 30pm. £7 (£5). Two of Uncle Sam's more pleasing exports chat about their elegant, poised writing styles. Harrison's The Seal Wife and Messud's The Hunters are available from bookshelves near you.
Elaine Feinstein on Ted Hughes Field and Lawn Marquee, 4pm, £7 (£5). Humphrey Carpenter chairs this event which should have authority stamped all over it as Feinstein was an old pal of the dead poet.
Philip Pullman & Richard Holloway Consignia Theatre, 4.30pm, £7 (£5). Pullman made some kind of history by becoming the first children's author to win the Whitbread Book of the Year, with The Amber Spyg/ass, the final part of the trilogy entitled His Dark Materials. He is joined by the ex-Bishop of Edinburgh as they chat about writing for young ‘uns.
Paul Muldoon Studio Theatre, 5pm, £7 (£5). When you have Seamus Heaney as your university tutor, you either take that as a challenge or give up totally. Portadown-born Muldoon has gone on to take the poetry world by storm. Imprisoned Writers Field and Lawn Marquee, 5.30pm, free tickets. Writers being stuck in jail for their art isn't a new development, but one which still requires
14 THE LIST FESTIVAL GUIDE 8—15 Aug 2002
JOYCE CAROL OATES
Chronicler of the American psyche
‘Blonde almost did me in’
Joyce Carol Oates has always escaped pigeonholing. How do you neatly categorise a sixtysomething female novelist fascinated by socio-political issues, whose subjects range from serial killers to boxing and who often takes her inspiration from historical figures as disparate as Mike Tyson,
Jeffrey Dahmer and Marilyn Monroe?
At first sight, Oates’ latest novel, Middle Age: A Romance, seems a departure from controversial themes, depicting, as it does, the suburban Everycommunity often cruelly satirised in American culture. Yet, Oates’ novel, which imagines various characters as their naive ideals evolve into practical expectation, is a warm, optimistic portrait, bearing out the author’s claim that to write successfully she has to fall in love with her
subject.
‘lt’s an affectionate yet, I hope, unsentimental portrait of a way of life,’ agrees Oates. ‘I don’t much admire the satirical imagination, which assumes superiority to its subject. Usually, I identify with my subjects and don’t feel myself very distant from them.’
As prolific as she is versatile, Oates took less than a year to create Blonde, her epic fictionalised account of the life of Norma Jean Baker. Oates has described writing as a series of ‘obsessions’ (producing works like Zombie, inspired by notorious real-life serial killers) and this method has yielded many an intense experience. ‘lmmersed in a project, I’m enveloped in it continuously which is simultaneously an exhilarating and exhausting experience. But I would never again attempt an experience like
Blonde, which almost did me in.’
Finger firmly upon the pulse of world events, Oates’ second appearance at the book festival sees her discussing her creative response to 11 September, including the short story The Mutants and forthcoming novel The Beneficiary, which deals with anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. ‘11 September has affected my life as it has affected the lives of numerous Americans,’ she says. ‘As a writer who concerns herself with social, political and moral issues, | feel confirmed in this commitment.’
(Allan Radcliffe)
IJoyce Carol Oates, Consignia Theatre, I() Aug. 8pm. 1‘8 il‘o‘i; The l 73/; o," 3w 77th: A Reflection on America, Consrgnia Theatre, I I Aug, 4.30pm. l‘r' it‘s».
: attention. The first of the festival's regular
tributes to those composing words
behind bars includes Nawal el Saatlawi 3 and Sherif Hetata. Walter Mosley Consignia Theatre,
6.30pm, L‘ 7 (£5). See preview, page 12.
j The Writing Business Field and Lawn Marqum, 6.45pm, {‘5 (£3). The
first in a series of events helping readers to become writers. Screenwriting is first up hosted by The 5 lst State writer Stel Pavlou.
Arthur Herman Studio l/‘eaf'e. .: H 5701’». lhere are ritah‘, Scott; t: about thinking they invented tl‘e ' With [he Scott/sh ihi’igl‘ttWipe": J8 historian Herman went a long '.;‘ (:ontiriiiihg that View.
Joyce Carol Oates (:(‘l‘x’timu’ 'llir).'itr'e, 8pm, 5‘8 l.‘\()\l. See ::rt‘-\..-::~.'. above.
Mark Lawson l-ie/ti am." i " Marquee, 8.30pm. .l‘fs’ .v‘tiv. Sm:- law it above.