Imprisoned Writers Field and Lawn Marquee. 5.30pm, free but ticketed. Louis de Bernieres and Deborah Moggach make their contribution. Michael Morpurgo 8. Elizabeth Laird Children '3 Theatre, 6pm, £3. 50. Travel, histOry and adventure. For young readers.
Douglas Hurd Consignia Theatre. 6.30pm, £8 (£6). See 3pm.
The Writing Business Field and Lawn Marquee, 6.45pm, £5 (£3). Scribbling for schools and the education market.
Hugh Collins 8. Alex Gray Studio Theatre, 7pm, £8 (£6). The streets of Glasgow have never seemed meaner in the hands of these two writers both on the lovely Canongate stable.
Can Writers Really Make a Difterence? Spiege/tent. 7pm, £8 (£6). Yes. of course. John Simpson, Deborah Moggach, Andrew O'Hagan and Blake Morrison fight over this one. Louis de Bernieres Consignia Theatre, 8pm, £8 (£6). See 11.30am. John Lahr Studio Theatre, 8.30pm, £8 (£6). The legendary New York theatre critic brings his erudite wit to Charlotte Square. Sample quote: ‘Society drives people crazy with lust and calls it advertising.
Tim Parks & Harry Ritchie Field and Lawn Marquee, 8.30pm, £8 (£6). More recent ventures into the masculine psyche with Parks' witty and incisive reporting of what football means to Italians while Ritchie penned a novel about middle-aged male memory. Spiegelbar Spiege/tent, 9pm, free. See Thursday.
Thursday 22
Alan Bissett, Laura Hird & Louise Welsh Spiege/tent, 70.30am, £7 (£5). Three of this country’s most vibrant young talents with a debut novel apiece. Bissett's Boyracers, Hird’s Born Free and Welsh's The Cutting Room are all modern, witty and tough. And very good.
Rachel Holmes & Patricia Duncker Field and Lawn Marquee. 77am, £7 (£5). Two writers who have taken on the legend of James Miranda Barry.
Blake Morrison Consignia Theatre. 77.30am, £7 (£5). Over the last year. the renowned poet, novelist and commentator has written evocatively about the attacks on the USA and being in Japan for the World Cup. Jim Crace Studio Theatre, 72pm, £7 (£5). Nominated for the Booker in ‘98 with Quarantine, Crace is now gaining the reputation he has deserved since leaving the BBC to write fiction almost 30 years ago. Maggie O’Farrell & Emily Perkins Field and Lawn Marquee. 72.30pm, £7 (£5). O'Farrell has had a bUSy life, having lived in all of the Home Nations at some point while Perkins was a soap star in her native New Zealand before turning to fiction. Alice Thompson & Nancy Huston Field and Lawn Marquee. 2.30pm, £7 (£5). The spookily spiritual is evident in these two writers‘ prose. Thompson having taken on myths and ghosts in Pharos and Justine while
STEPHEN POLIAKOFF TV playwright on royal secrets
Stephen Poliakoff has reached some depressing conclusions about British television drama. ‘It’s almost impossible to think where the next Ken Loach is coming from,’ he admits from his London office. ‘It seems as distant as the Great Exhibition, but just six years ago the BBC had three strands for original drama. People have woken up rather late to the fact that it’s gone.’
Poliakoff, though, is a rare beast: the creator of original work whose reputation is such that he is afforded artistic freedoms that budding writers would kill for. Happily, he doesn’t abuse that licence, reeling out top drawer TV productions spaced out to guarantee that a Poliakoff piece becomes an event.
Last year, it was Perfect Strangers, the evocative story of a massive family reunion, which refused to buckle under the pressure of viewers with SAS (Short Attention Spans). Among his previous hits was the loopy story of subterranean London cults in The Tribe, and an evocative warning that history can be threatened by market
forces in Shooting the Past.
But he could so easily have been lost to the arts world had he followed in his scientific family’s footsteps (in the 19505, his grandfather and father invented the hospital pager to summon snoozing doctors). Science’s loss, though, has been culture’s gain, as he prepares to launch his next BBC project, The Lost Prince, starring Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon and Gina McKee.
It may sound like a sweet fairytale, but is actually the cruel true story of John, George V’s youngest child, an epileptic with learning difficulties before they’d been given names. ‘Halfway through his short life, he was shut away from the world but that life spanned the highs of the Edwardian era and ended on the day they started negotiating the Treaty of Versailles; it’s a look at the catastrophe which overtook Europe through the eyes of a
child.’
Piecing together that story proved more of a problem than he anticipated. ‘Very little has been written about this boy, so it required a degree of detective work and negotiating with the Royal Archive at Windsor. They were OK the first time but when I went back they said “no, you can’t come in” which seemed a bit mysterious. But they
were eventually very helpful.’ People soon learn that it’s futile sa
I Consignia Theatre, 20 Aug. 6. 30pm. £8 (£6;
Calgary-born Huston's biggest success is arguably Instruments of Darkness. See Alice Thompson Top 5. page 12.
Laurence Rees Consignia Theatre. 3pm, E 7 (£5). The BBC producer chats about the horrors of war in Japan.
Rose Collis, Rachel Holmes 8. Paul Bailey Studio Theatre, 3.30pm. £7 (£5). Sexual identity and the urge to live as a member of the opposite sex are at the heart of this debate. Bernard MacLaverty & Michael Redhill Field and Lawn Marquee. 4pm, £7 (£5). There are Irish tinges all over this event with the Belfast-born. Glasgow-living MacLaverty and the Canadian Redhill who writes about Dublin. Confused? Don't be. Richard Weight & Nick Clarke Consignia Theatre, 4.300m, £7 ($5). How did World War II helped shape the Britain we know today?
Rick Moody & Gwendoline Riley Studio Theatre. Grim. V7 Writ. The
American author of The Ice Storm and a new confessional The Black Veil has tipped Riley for big things after her debut about barroom dritters Cold Water. Which she has to be chuffed about.
Imprisoned Writers Field and Lawn Marquee. 5.30pm, free but ticketed. Jackie Kay and Jon Ronson speak out for the persecuted. Claudia Roden Consignia Theatre. 6.30pm, £8 (£6). Born and raised in Cairo. this acclaimed food writer has published books about the Middle East. coffee. Jewish cuisine. the Med and Italy.
The Writing Business Field and Lawn Marquee. (5.45pm, L‘5 lL‘S). Paul Johnston offers tips on getting your literary career started.
Patrick Dillon Studio Theatre. 7pm, [‘8 {Hi}. It may be Mother's ruin but it’s lovely with a slice of lemon and a touch of tonic. Or even on its own. The history of gin is
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ying no to Stephen Poliakoff. (Brian Donaldson)
Melvin Burgess, Celia Rees & David Almond Children's Theatre. 7.30pm, £3.50. Young readers: don't you just love 'em? This trio do with Burgess having gained some fame for Junk and Bloodtide. Rees having written Witch Child and Almond able to put Skel/ig on his CV.
John Sulston Consignia Theatre, 8pm, £8 (86). This self-professed “child of the 60s has been at the forefront of human genome research. spent 30 years of his life studying a one-millimetre long worm.
Jackie Kay & Bernard MacLaverty Studio Theatre. 8.30pm. £8 life). Glasgow plays a big part in this pair's works. even if the former lives in Manchester and the latter was born in Belfast.
Jon Ronson field and Lawn Marquee. 8.30pm. 5‘8 476/. lhe man who spent time With Ian Paisley. Dawtl lcke. Jonathan King and the (Brand Wizard of the KKK gives us a witty
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