First up on Friday 10th May was Tracy Chevalier (of Girl with a Pearl Earring fame). She was speaking at the Theatre Royal, which is a lovely old Victorian theatre thy I had never been inside before. Booking my ticket early, I plumped for a Royal Circle seat and on arrival I actually thought or a moment hat I would b the only person up there, but it soon filled up. My friends, who had booked later, were seated in the stalls below.
Chevalier is a warm and captivating speaker, who held the audience in the palm of her hand. She talked of her love for the UK and her experience coming here as a foreigner, leading nicely into the two lengthy passages that she was about to read from her new book The Last Runaway about a 19th century English Quaker girl moving to America with her sister and stumbling across the route of runaway slaves heading from the south to freedom in Canada.
She then took a lengthy Q&A from the audience, when she explained her writing style and he fact that whilst historically grounded, she never bases her books on real people, though they may feature as supporting characters, such as Vermeer in Girl with a Pearl Earring.
On to Saturday 11th May and Lionel Shriver giving the headline lecture 'Who needs another book?'. Shriver's approach was very different to Chevalier's - she was more acerbically witty university professor than friendly author. The talk however was excellent, she wove a linear narrative on the thought process for selecting a subject to write about that will be commercially viable, interesting, relevant etc, taking sideswipes at Dan Brown along the way. The lectured is available online here.
Her latest novel is Big Brother about her brother's battle with obesity. She did not directly talk about the book but her themes of relevance and political timeliness were useful examples to her argument.
On Sunday 12th May another lecture, this time entitled Building on What We Have and focusing on urban design and the appropriateness of modern buildings in some historic settings as the world and the UK in particular become more urban in nature.
The debate was in the form of two polemic speeches, from Owen Hatherley and Eric Parry, both of which overran, so the actual debate was minimal It was an interesting topic explored further in the chair, Leo Hollis' book Cities Are Good For You.
A couple of weeks' gap followed until the Charleston Festival and the Small Wonders event on Saturday 25th May featuring Colm Tóibín and George Saunders in conversation with Alison MacLeod.
The first thing to say about Charleston is to acknowledge just how beautiful it is. A farmhouse set in the Sussex countryside and the centre of life for the Bloomsbury Set, it was the home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. The gardens are spectacular and the festival is set in a number of elegant marquees set amongst the trees. The stage is set like an Edwardian sitting room.
MacLeod is a lecturer at Chichester University and short story writer, her current book entitled Fifteen Modern tales of Attraction, though as host she does not talk about it.
Tóibín's book is The Testament of Mary in which he gives a voice to The Virgin Mary, as she looks back on her life and that of her famous son. He read from the section about the raising of Lazarus, a powerful and poignant passage. Talking afterwards he was wickedly funny and engaging and had the audience laughing out loud.
Saunders' book Tenth of December is a collection of short stories that had previously been published in the New Yorker magazine over a period of fourteen years. I had not heard of him before, but was impressed enough to buy the book. He read aloud a tale of a sudden death and funeral, written in the first person by a colleague of the deceased. It was written as if in a diary, with unfinished sentences and asides to the reader. Like Tóibín he had the audience in stitches.
On to Saturday 11th May and Lionel Shriver giving the headline lecture 'Who needs another book?'. Shriver's approach was very different to Chevalier's - she was more acerbically witty university professor than friendly author. The talk however was excellent, she wove a linear narrative on the thought process for selecting a subject to write about that will be commercially viable, interesting, relevant etc, taking sideswipes at Dan Brown along the way. The lectured is available online here.
Her latest novel is Big Brother about her brother's battle with obesity. She did not directly talk about the book but her themes of relevance and political timeliness were useful examples to her argument.
On Sunday 12th May another lecture, this time entitled Building on What We Have and focusing on urban design and the appropriateness of modern buildings in some historic settings as the world and the UK in particular become more urban in nature.
The debate was in the form of two polemic speeches, from Owen Hatherley and Eric Parry, both of which overran, so the actual debate was minimal It was an interesting topic explored further in the chair, Leo Hollis' book Cities Are Good For You.
A couple of weeks' gap followed until the Charleston Festival and the Small Wonders event on Saturday 25th May featuring Colm Tóibín and George Saunders in conversation with Alison MacLeod.
The first thing to say about Charleston is to acknowledge just how beautiful it is. A farmhouse set in the Sussex countryside and the centre of life for the Bloomsbury Set, it was the home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. The gardens are spectacular and the festival is set in a number of elegant marquees set amongst the trees. The stage is set like an Edwardian sitting room.
MacLeod is a lecturer at Chichester University and short story writer, her current book entitled Fifteen Modern tales of Attraction, though as host she does not talk about it.
Tóibín's book is The Testament of Mary in which he gives a voice to The Virgin Mary, as she looks back on her life and that of her famous son. He read from the section about the raising of Lazarus, a powerful and poignant passage. Talking afterwards he was wickedly funny and engaging and had the audience laughing out loud.
Saunders' book Tenth of December is a collection of short stories that had previously been published in the New Yorker magazine over a period of fourteen years. I had not heard of him before, but was impressed enough to buy the book. He read aloud a tale of a sudden death and funeral, written in the first person by a colleague of the deceased. It was written as if in a diary, with unfinished sentences and asides to the reader. Like Tóibín he had the audience in stitches.
The day was beautiful and marked a lovely end to a wonderful and inspiring season of literary events.
Great post!
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