Clicket at the Festivals Day 14
15/08/2012 | 13:18
The Edinburgh International Book Festival started last Saturday 11 Aug and it's been 4 days of the meeting of minds and souls with internationally reknowned authors. It's a brilliant atmosphere at the Charlotte Square Garden and our fellow bloggers can attest to that.
Even before the Book Festival started, fellow blogger Marianne Wheelaghan had been eagerly emailing press contacts to arrange five minute interview chats with authors she loved. Despite many nil replies and polite declines, Marianne's perseverance paid off with the opportunity to interview Janice Galloway. Says Marianne, "Janice Galloway is a writer I have admired for years, and whose book, The Trick is To Keep Breathing, is probably one of the reasons I started writing. I am thrilled at the chance to interview her." Read all about it in today's blog.
Clicket Kids Editor, Catriona France, headed for the talk by Chris Riddell & Paul Stewart - the award-winning creative partnership behind the Far-Flung Adventures series on Mon 13 Aug. She shares her thoughts and recommends what to do with the family at the festival.
Last but not least, Kate Adamson enjoyed the thoughtful round of audience questions and comments, including from Ismay’s great-grandson (J Bruce Ismay was the ship's owner, who jumped into a lifeboat and rowed to safety) at Frances Wilson's talk on her book How to Survive the Titanic. Kate shares her experience at the talk here on today's blog.
Don't miss out on the fantastic opportunity to dive into the world of books. To find out what's upcoming at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, click on this handy link and start booking your tickets!
Header Image (left) by Marianne Wheelaghan, her Book Festival collections in just over two days! She also attended AL Kennedy's talk on the pressures on writers to write. Click here to read all about it on her blog.
-
A head full of stuff
"The interview started in her hotel, continued in a taxi and finished in the EIBF tent shortly before her event was due to start – yes, that is longer than five minutes!
I started off by asking Janice this question:
The American writer Cynthia Ozick said, “If we had to say what writing is, we would essentially describe it as an act of courage.” How much courage did it take to write your first novel, The Trick Is To Keep Breathing*, which is about a woman coping with and recovering from a breakdown, very much a taboo subject then – and possibly still is!
Replied Janice, "The courage in writing for me is not something I think about. I started writing because my head was full of stuff. I started writing to get the stuff out of my head. I don’t think I was courageous. I acted not so much out of courage as out of desperation.
If people asked me why I was writing, I’d say because I didn’t know any better. I started writing to get stuff down just to get it out of my head. I stumbled into it really.It’s a bit like everything we do in life, you stumble into roles in life and then have to deal with the demands they bring.
"
Janice Galloway
Click here for Marianne Wheelaghan's full blog post.
Marianne will be attending these upcoming events:
Ruth Rendell on Thu 16 Aug, 8pm
Joyce Carol Oates on Mon 20 Aug, 11.30am
Karen Campbell & Stef Penny on Wed 22 Aug, 11.30am
Aneurin Wright and Denise Mina on Thu 23 Aug, 3.30pm -
Clicket Recommends... Book Festival for the Family
On Chris Riddell & Paul Stewart on Mon 13 Aug
"I knew this event would be good but I didn’t think I’d enjoy it nearly as much as I did. These two worked brilliantly on stage together. As the author Paul Stewart talked about their books, giving a really interesting insight into how they were created, Chris Riddell drew live illustrations which cleverly demonstrated how author and illustrator work together and inspire each other.
The audience was entertained throughout with funny anecdotes from Paul Stewart and by watching Chris Riddell at work.
Seeing how he drew the characters was extremely impressive and was really quite magical. I’m looking forward to my next Book Festival event tomorrow even more now!
" Catriona France
Make it a day out with your family at the Edinburgh International Book Festival's RBS Storybox Activities - the new children's activity space, open everyday from 11am to 4.30pm. Simply pop in to get involved in all sorts of hands-on activities.
-
How to survive the Titanic
"I love the book festival – such a massive programme right on our doorstep. The historical setting was really interesting – it’s amazing that people keep coming up with new angles on the Titanic story. Ismay himself never wrote about the Titanic, unlike many of the other survivors.
Wilson’s approach is to concentrate on that moment that he stepped into the lifeboat and go into all the things that may have influenced his decision. I’d definitely be interested to read the book, to get more of the nuances of the story.
It’s amazing how the Titanic still fascinates us as a culture, and this certainly adds one more perspective.
" by Kate Adamson. Click here to read the rest of her blog post.
Kate will be attending these upcoming events at the book festival:
Stephen McGinty & Daniel Pick on Thu 16 Aug, 2.30pm
Don Paterson on Sun 19 Aug, 7pm -
Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference
The Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference takes place over five days and features some of the sharpest literary minds tackling the topics that influence writing and the wider world today.
Visit the dedicated Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference website - www.edinburghworldwritersconference.org - where you can find out more about the conference and its historic origins, watch live broadcasts of the conference events as they happen and join in the conversation via social media.
Upcoming events at the Conference include:
Edinburgh Writers' Conference 1962: The Legacy, Fri 17 Aug, 10.30am
Should Literature be Political, Fri 17 Aug, 3pm
Style Vs Content, Sat 18 Aug, 3pm
A National Literature?, Sun 19 Aug, 3pm
Censorship Today, Mon 20 Aug, 3pm
The Future of the Novel, Tue 21 Aug, 3pm -
Clicket your way to...
Great summer festivals!
For Edinburgh Art Festival exhibitions listings | 2 Aug - 2 Sep
For Edinburgh Festival Fringe events @ Brunton Theatre | 3 - 27 Aug
For Edinburgh Festival Fringe events @ Dance Base | 3 - 27 Aug
For Edinburgh Festival Fringe events @ Traverse Theatre | 3 - 27 Aug
For Edinburgh International Festival events | 9 Aug - 2 Sep
For Edinburgh International Book Festival events | 11 - 27 Aug
For Edinburgh Mela Day Passes | 31 Aug - 2 Sep
