Books HITLIST THE BEST BOOKS, COMICS & EVENTS
St Andrews Literature Live! Will Kate’n’Wills drop by their old courting patch to catch a glimpse of Doug Johnstone (pictured), Jeremy Bowen and Iain Banks? Byre Theatre, St Andrews, Fri 26 & Sat 27 Oct.
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Jon Ronson With his journalism collection, Lost at Sea, we discover just why the now New York-based writer was described by Will Self as ‘one of the finest comic writers working today’. See review, page 50. Picador. Lennoxlove Book Festival JK Rowling, Michael Morpurgo and Alexander McCall Smith (pictured) are among the big names attending this picturesque lit fest. Lennoxlove House, Haddington, Fri 2–Sun 4 Nov.
Alasdair Gray As part of Luminate, the ever-popular Glasgow literary legend tackles the subject of ageing with readings from his stories related to that thorny topic. Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Glasgow, Sat 20 Oct.
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Scottish International Storytelling Festival The annual celebration of oral folk traditions features the Brothers Grimm, saints, princesses, goblins and, wait for it, Glasgow! Various venues, Glasgow & Edinburgh, Fri 19– Sun 28 Oct. David Mitchell Not the acclaimed Cloud Atlas author, but the UK comedian (mates with Webb and ‘a PC,’ apparently) who has now decided to throw his hat into the authorial ring. How terribly confusing. Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, Sat 20 Oct.
Barbara Kingsolver With Flight Behaviour, the much- admired US author, essayist and poet writes a powerful story about the possibility of escape. See review, page 50. Faber.
Edinburgh Independent Radical Book Fair Featuring Sara Maitland, Kirsty Gunn and Richard Holloway. See preview, page 52. Out of the Blue Drill Hall, Edinburgh, Wed 24–Sun 28 Oct.
Ronald Frame The genial Scottish author explores the young days of Miss Havisham in order to explain just how she became the woman we knew in the work of Charlie Dickens. Waterstone’s, Glasgow, Thu 1 Nov.
Lemony Snicket After A Series of Unfortunate Events, the author known to his pals as Daniel Handler launches All the Wrong Questions and looks set to have another massive hit on his hands. See review, page 50. Egmont.
list.co.uk/books
FirstWrites INTRODUCING DEBUT AUTHORS
BONNIE NADZAM has a go at this issue’s debut author Q&A. Her first book is an unsettling tale of manipulation and power between a middle-aged man and an 11-year-old girl Give us i ve words to describe Lamb? Lamb is about us all. Those are my i ve words, and I stand by them. What was the i rst book you read? Snow, a little hardbacked children’s book by PD Eastman and Roy McKie published in 1962. I used a bookmark. It took me a week. There are wonderful pictures in it of a little house that the ‘main character’ built out of snowballs. What was the last book you read? I just i nished Marlon James’ The Book of Night Women. It humbled me, shamed me, shined lights on things in my heart I didn’t know were in there and was not quite prepared to see. Which book makes you cry? Clarissa really made me sob. I spent so much time with her, read her in a folding lawn chair in rural Wyoming, all day every day until I was done. It really felt like she was a coni dante who died. I can understand why in the 1700s they tolled real bells for her sake. Which book makes you laugh? Don Quixote may be the book I’ve laughed out loud the most while reading, and it’s always Sancho Panza who does it for me, and always his confused proverbs. His attempts at wisdom are so hilariously jumbled and ridiculous, and he is so earnest. What plans do you have for book number two? After my conservative, traditional and brave grandmother read Lamb, I promised her a love story. So, though it doesn’t sound like it, that’s what my undertaking was when I started writing A Witch. (Interview by Brian Donaldson) ■ Lamb is published by Hutchinson on Thu 1 Nov. See list. co.uk for more of this interview.
18 Oct–15 Nov 2012 THE LIST 49