Festival Books
at 25. Watson is desperate to bring Lunan’s work to the public’s attention, but finds himself drawn into the murky world of suicidology and the occult. Unfolding like a sophisticated whodunit, Welsh peels back the rarefied veneers of academic life to expose something rotten beneath. ‘The university is like any other workplace; you get all sorts of different people. Included in that will inevitably be some dalliances. But I don’t think university lecturers are particularly depraved,’ she deadpans, with a twinkle behind her glasses. (Claire Sawers) ■ 30 Aug, 10.15am, £10 (£8).
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through tartan-tinted glasses. Naming the Bones meanders between Edinburgh boozers and Highland burial grounds, via dogging episodes and drunken punch-ups. ‘Scottish readers would be irritated if they saw Scotland evoked as this heather- covered glen,’ Welsh reckons. ‘Sure, we all want escapism sometimes, but I think it’s much more interesting to see the texture of a place; to acknowledge that there are difficult aspects. That’s also part of the attraction.’ Welsh’s 2002 debut, The Cutting
Room, was set in Glasgow. A literary thriller, it was hailed as a modern gothic classic, and set the tone for her later storytelling: dark, funny, but generally laced with danger. After The Bullet Trick, set in Berlin’s underground burlesque scene, her focus returned to Scotland. Welsh’s black magic tale is set in Glasgow University’s English Literature department. There, Murray Watson is researching dead poet, Archie Lunan, who died mysteriously
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answering questions from her young readers. Having worked for many years as a journalist and written non- fiction books on topics as diverse as music, golf and Africa, she now seems to have found a new niche: ‘I find writing for children more rewarding. Kids are very honest, passionate and enthusiastic about books they love, whereas adults tend to say things like, “do you realise there is a spelling mistake on page 213?”’ (Laura Ennor) ■ 28 Aug, 3pm, £4.
MARK BEAUMONT Enduring the elements on two wheels and two feet
It’s been an incredible year for Mark Beaumont. Nine months cycling and mountaineering, solo, down the backbone of America were followed by three months of back-to-back public appearances. But before writing his second book – the first covers his record-breaking round-the-world solo cycle – he’s appearing at the Book Festival, on his own and in conversation with fellow endurance cyclist Paul Howard. Not that the Scot is just a cyclist, even if that is what he is best known for. ‘I don’t think my next journey will be by bike,’ he reveals. ‘But it will be in a similar vein; being out there, filming and doing original first journeys.’
What interests him now is how to relate the solo experience to an audience: the spirit of what it is like, both physically and mentally, to spend long periods of time battling against
your own limitations. ‘You always go through those dark, dark spells in expeditions and they are always the most memorable afterwards,’ he says, pointing out that amateur cyclist Howard had a very tough time in his off-road cycle. ‘It is interesting to see what time does to experiences. I have been there, so I am quite fascinated to talk to Paul and see how he talks about it. He writes far more technically than I do, so it could be very interesting. Two very different ways to remember what were quite different solo experiences.’ (Thom Dibdin) ■ 27 Aug, 3pm, 8.30pm (with Paul Howard), £10 (£8).
LOUISE WELSH Peering behind the veneer of academia Louise Welsh’s latest novel was inspired during a trip to Germany, but set in her beloved Scotland, though it’s not the reverie of an expat looking
The festival’s last lap features some iconic characters, authors and places
Julia Donaldson Along with Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler, JD’s first event contains an impressive amount of songs, stories and drawings, while event number two is a solo affair in which she will regale the nippers and their guardians with a tale of a hairy mammoth and a cheeky baby going on a thrilling ride. 28 & 29 Aug, 10am, £4. Exploring Neverland/Peter Pan A pair of events connected by JM Barrie’s most famous creation. Exploring Neverland is an interactive workshop run by Rachel Hazell that takes us deep into a world of wildness and lagoons while Peter Pan has Julie Dawson helping kids create their own illustrations of this 150-year-old story. 27 Aug, 5.30pm/30 Aug, 12.30pm, £4.
Young Sherlock So, what was the world’s greatest-ever sleuth like as a teenager? You have to imagine he was pretty precocious. Author Andrew Lane hosts this elementary discussion into Holmes’ past. 28 Aug, 10am, £4.
David Almond The author of Skellig and The Fire Eaters launches My Name is Mina and chats about his inspirations before making his contribution to the Book Festival’s Elsewhere concept alongside Elizabeth Laird. 29 Aug, 3pm, 6pm, £4. Francesca Simon What is it about Horrid Henry that makes him so, well, horrid? Why can’t he be more like Perfect Peter? Then again, that might make for pretty dull storytelling, something which is utterly alien to Francesca Simon. 29 Aug, 1.30pm, £4. (Brian Donaldson)
26 Aug–9 Sep 2010 THE LIST 17
Rupert Thomson With This Party’s Got to Stop, the author of Death of a Murderer and Divided Kingdom has penned a darkly humorous account of how he and his brothers returned to their Eastbourne family home for seven months after their father passed away in 1984. This occurred two decades after their mother collapsed and died on a nearby tennis court. While Rupert and his middle brother Robin tried to get high on their father’s medication, youngest brother Ralph and his wife Vivian fixed a lock to their bedroom door, with relations breaking down to the extent that Rupert and Ralph didn’t speak to each other for 23 years. Thomson is joined in this event by Maggie Gee, whose own memoir is a portrait of post-war English family life featuring sex, death and duty. ■ 28 Aug, 2.30pm, £10 (£8).