Festival Books
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KEI MILLER
Jamaican voice aching to be heard
In a famous sketch by Bill Hicks. the great comedian is stumped by the question, ‘What are you reading for?‘ The enquiry — and its correlative. ‘What are you writing for?‘ — are deceptively simple.
For Kei Miller. the Jamaican-born poet. novelist and teacher of creative writing at the University of Glasgow. the question is disconcerting. ‘What made me decide to write The Same Earth?“ he asks incredulously from his home in Glasgow. ‘That gives it such an overwhelming sense of import.’
He thinks for a moment before continuing. ‘I'm always interested in telling stories.’ he says. ‘The hardest thing for me is to find the shape of the story.‘
The story in question is a collage of homely tales spun around the fictional Jamaican village of Watersgate with interspersed forays into England. The plots follow the inhabitants and village itself through events both petty and momentous over 40 years. A non- chronological structure and hints of ‘something more serious happening underneath all that charm' avoid the tweeness trap.
If not why, then who does Miller write for? ‘l‘m certainly not writing for myself,‘ he says. ‘If you're interested in telling stories you’re interested in telling it to someone.’
When that ‘someone' becomes a live book festival audience the nerves can kick in. Not so for Miller, who claims his writing is ‘almost uncomfortable on the page in that it‘s trying to pronounce itself . . . What is on the page and waiting to come off is kind of exciting to me. I actually really like readings.‘
Surely that's the only reason you need. (Suzanne Black)
I Kei Miller and Roma Tearne, Sat 23 Aug, 17am, £9 (£7).
GORDON BURN Upsetting the traditionalists with novelised news
‘I hate plots. Soon as I know that a film or a book or TV show has a plot. my brain can't cope with it. If I‘m watching a film and I don‘t know or have forgotten what the storyline is and I‘m supposed to work out who this or that person is. I just fall asleep.‘ This statement probably won't come
the Newcastle-born London-based journalist. author and chronicler of everyone from George Best to Fred West. Atmosphere. location and the steady compilation of little things that finally amount to something far bigger is Burn's modus operandi.
In Born Yesterday: The News as a Novel. he shines a bright beam onto the British summer of 2007, a time of political upheaval with Blair finally handing power over to Brown. the creeping trauma of the McCanns and the blazing headlines made by an assault on Glasgow Airport. All the while, Burn makes a mountain out of the many fragments of connections and observations he makes about the incidents and characters involved in this novelised snapshot of history. ‘I like to think it's pushing things forward a little bit. though some might say it's going backwards. Those who wanted to defend the ramparts of traditional fiction weren't keen but younger reviewers got it.‘ Still. if stuffy traditionalists are getting uptight over something as memorable as Born Yesterday. it must mean Gordon Burn is doing something right.
(Brian Donaldson) I 27 Aug (with Glyn Maxwell), 4.30pm, £6 (£4).
ANDREW SEAN GREER No one can stop his California dreaming
With his recent impressive run in the literary world, it's hard to imagine Andrew Sean Greer ever feeling edgy about his work. Since the release of critically acclaimed debut The Path Of Minor Planets in 2001, the San Francisco-based scribe has come up
with a best—seller in the form of The Confessions Of Max Tivo/i and now.
with remarkable third offering The
Story Of Marriage. looks set to equal
if not outdo his past successes.
But it wasn't always this way. Born
in Washington DC. Greer initially
entertained ideas of becoming an artist before he fell head over heels
with Wuthering Heights and wrote his
first ‘very florid and terrible‘ book aged 16. The amiable author then made another few unsuccessful stabs at publishing while working as a chauffeur and then TV extra in New York. but it wasn't until he moved to San Francisco that Greer really found his feet fiction-wise. ‘People are very supportive there and there's a real book movement where writers encourage each other to try new things. In New York people read each others' book reviews but we actually read each others' books.‘ Greer laughs from his hotel room on a press trip to London.
The Story Of Marriage — a beautifully penned tale of love and secrets in 19508 America — is an important landmark for the author as this extraordinary literary achievement has allowed Greer finally to feel at ease with his ranking as one of the world's most talented young writers. ‘It's like I'm allowed to keep doing this now and no one's going to try and stop me.’ he says. ‘I have survived the pressure of following a big seller and that has given me real confidence to keep going.’
(Camilla Pia) I Andre Dubus //l and Andrew Sean Greer, 27 Aug, 8.30pm £9 (£7).
KIDS EVENTS Getting arty and yucky, all in the same week
Anne Fine
If you suffer from Crayola on the carpet and finger-painted furniture, The Big Picture Event (24 Aug) should be the destination of choice for your little ‘uns. Chairman and Children's Laureate Michael Rosen leads an exquisite event of drawing and stories with Polly Dunbar (Dog Blue). David Lucas (Whale) and Catherine Rayner (Augustus and his Smile). Your soft-furnishings can rest in peace — for an hour.
Another delectable treat this year is Angelina Ballerinas birthday party (21 Aug) and. my. she looks
Tomas
The Book Festival always attracts political types of all shades and here’s a bunch who will be turning the air blue down Charlotte Square way
Rick Wakeman He might be a cast member of the Grumpy Old Men but simply mention the word ‘conservative' and the Yes man lights up. He even performed a gig in 2004 to raise funds for the party. Rock'n‘roll eh? 22 Aug, 6.30pm, £9 (£7).
Fflon Hague The wife of that balding guy who once tried to oust Blair from his throne talks about Lloyd George. Not Iain Duncan thingy; you know, the other one? 24 Aug, 3.30pm, £9 (£7).
Robert Kagan One of the men trying to swing world opinion away from Barack Obama and on to Republican candidate John McCain drops by to discuss the problems facing the liberal west. 22 Aug, 3.30pm, £9 (£7).
AA Gill Now we can’t be entirely 100% sure where the eminent food and telly critic sticks his X come polling day but the fact that he talks the way he does. gets thrown out of restaurants with Iron Lady buff Joan Collins and was once married to former Conservative parliamentary candidate Amber Rudd is perhaps evidence enough? 21 Aug. 71.30am, £9 (£7).
Carol Thatcher While legend has it that her mum was never especially keen on Carol and tended to favour Mark. we don't think this means the queen of the celebrity jungle will ever have become a turncoat and voted New Labour. 25 Aug, 3pm, £9 (E 7). (Brian Donaldson)
I See edbookfest.co.uk
then head to Yuck’s Big Show with Matt & Dave, for jokes aplenty and the chance to win a Yuckiness Certificate of Distinction. Two of the daddies. or rather mummies, of literature make a kids-
friendly appearance at the Book
Festival this year: Poet Carol Ann Duffy reads aloud from The Tear
Blankets and The Princess' Blankets (23 Aug) and Anne Fine talks
inspiration and ideas (24 Aug). (Natalie Woolman)
I See edbookfestcouk for full details of events.
as much of a surprise to anyone familiar with the work of Gordon Burn,
good for her 25 years. If this all sounds too nice for your little horror,
70 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 2.1 Aug—4 Sep 2008