Festival Books
The man in the white suit is in town for an event at the Festival of Politics but he’s also kindly dropping by to Martin Bell charm the punters in Charlotte Square. Here, he will be discussing the lack of faith we now have in our elected representatives, mainly due to their expenses shenanigans. But could that scandal be a watershed moment which leads to a healthier state of public affairs? ■ 18 Aug, 6.30pm, £10 (£8).
somewhere.’ She describes that novel, Twenty-One Locks, as ‘a dreary northern love story’. The main character, Jeannie, lives in a small town in north-western England, having stumbled into her job, and is about to drift into wedlock when an encounter at the railway station sends her life off- course.
‘Not a great deal happens in a lot of ways, but that was the kind of book I wanted to write,’ Barton says. ‘I wanted to write about the lives of people I knew, rather than something splendid and high-energy and fantastic.’ The result is a novel only a northerner could have written; ten years as an honorary southerner have done little to dull Barton’s sense of the place. ‘My family still lives in the north, so I do visit,’ she says. ‘But I also feel as if I’ve been storing up a lot of these things – observations about the railway station toilets, or the department store perfume counter, or
Telephone Booking Fringe 0131 226 0000 International Festival 0131 473 2000 Book Festival 0845 373 5888 Art Festival 07500 461 332
26 THE LIST 12–19 Aug 2010
bus journeys through the town, or whatever – for a long, long time.’ (Matt Boothman) ■ 15 Aug (with Raphael Selbourne), 4.30pm, £7 (£5). DEBI GLIORI Capturing hearts, imaginations and library space
‘You can expect to see a slightly wrinkly writer-illustrator,’ offers children’s favourite Debi Gliori of her Book Festival appearance, ‘who will attempt to regale all present with stories, drawings, anecdotes and chat about books in general, books in particular and books she has made.’
Katherine’s difficult relationship with her charismatic father, an indefatigable fundraiser for a Northumberland poetry foundation, is further strained when she falls for his protégé. The Newcastle-born Woof’s own father, the late Wordsworth Trust Director Dr Robert Woof, died in 2005. ‘I began writing prose quite soon after my father’s death,’ she recalls. ‘Looking back, I think it was a direct response, as I started by writing this character, exploring his thoughts. It was probably a way of keeping him alive in a strange way and continuing a conversation. I didn’t think of it as a novel, but slowly more characters came in and it became a bigger story.’ (Jay Richardson) ■ 16 Aug (with Sue Peebles), 6pm, £7 (£5).
JOHN HARRIS A rock miscellany of purses, riffs and turkeys
‘I will talk about rock moustaches, Elvis’ jumpsuits and James Blunt’s lyrics,’ proclaims John Harris, author of Hail Hail Rock’N’Roll, his vintage rock, pop and counter-cultural almanac. ‘The aim is to navigate through 50-odd years of rock history without succumbing to the usual dewy-eyed reverence or myths, while pointing out the ludicrousness that draws us all in.’ Will our pop and political commentator lavish the Book Fest with visual props? His musical encyclopaedia’s graphic depictions are cardinal, after all. ‘There’ll be full audio-visual support, including illustrations and diagrams,’ he nods. ‘To understand, say, the oscillating quality of Morrissey’s solo career, you can’t beat a simple graph.’
Harris’ rock miscellany is crammed with fanatical observations and trivia such as an oral history of Status Quo and the contents of Michael Stipe’s make-up purse. And while ‘The Thom Yorke Lyric Index’ is enlightening, the ‘Teach Yourself Guitar in an Hour’ section is revelatory. Despite promises of Black Sabbath riffage, however, what comes forth from these quarters upon following its instructions is something more akin to The Waterboys. Is this some subversive master-plan
to instigate a new wave of Celtic rock? ‘Only if it results in a revival of interest in Big Country,’ Harris offers. He also identifies Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds as one of the ‘20 Albums That Should Never, Ever Have Been Made’. Your correspondent has suffered a life- long phobia of said long-player, and is hence in accordance. ‘We should
And she has made a few. From the woodland wonder of her Mr Bear series to the sibling comedy of her Witch Baby stories – not to mention her zoological ode to unconditional love, No Matter What – Glasgow-born Gliori’s words and drawings have increasingly occupied children’s hearts, imaginations and libraries since she started writing in 1976. Aimed at four to seven-year-olds
(and their carers), her event will feature ‘rabbits, dragons, seals, foxes, polar bears, owls and possibly Woodtrolls’, focusing on Gliori’s cheering bed-time tale, Stormy Weather, with a cameo from her cute environmental parable, The Trouble with Dragons. Whether assuaging nocturnal angst or heightening kids’ awareness of climate change, her significant messages are conveyed with humour, love and honesty. ‘My job is not to frighten children,’
she advises, ‘but sometimes addressing [their] fears and concerns within the safe boundaries of a picture book can fill me with an awesome responsibility to be as truthful and transparent as possible.’ And which authors most informed Gliori’s own childhood? ‘I loved all of Tove Jansson’s books, but Comet in Moominland in particular was such an epic tale; it got under my skin in a way that I can only appreciate now, many years later,’ she marvels. ‘Powerful things, stories and pictures . . .’ (Nicola Meighan) ■ 18 Aug, 1pm, £4.
EMILY WOOF Ex-actress conducts a deep involvement with language
Emily Woof first graced Edinburgh nude and on a trapeze for a trilogy of one-woman Fringe plays, under the Sex umbrella. And throughout The Whole Wide Beauty (the debut novel by The Full Monty and Wondrous Oblivion star), the loss of physical expression is lamented, as former dancer Katherine, enthralled to improvisation but adrift from her vocation, embarks upon an affair with a poet. Retired from acting since 2007, Woof believes she never developed a ‘tough enough skin’ for the film industry and describes the book as ‘drawing on personal experience of losing your creative centre, realising I wasn’t in touch with it anymore and how that made me sad. I always knew I was going to continue writing, but I never thought of myself writing prose. I was truly excited that I had the patience for this deep involvement with language.’