Author Event: Louise Welsh

Louise Welsh wrote in the query letter for her first book that, “my favourite novelists are Robert Louis Stevenson, Muriel Spark and William Burroughs.” It was enough to make her agent sit up and pay attention then, and to this day it’s this remarkable taste in authors that provides the unique mix that gives the special author that we now have in Louise Welsh.

Reading from her new novel – still a wip – she enthralled the lucky audience that had come to see her with a glimpse of the novel to come.

Her new book looks as though it’s going to be as hard to pigeon the as the others. “Most people feel happy to read genre fiction fiction,” she said. “I’m happy to be read on the top deck of a bus.”

And her new novel, she assures us, “will force us to examine where our own prejudices lie.” It’s powerful stuff from one of Scotland’s highest impact writers. “I’m a storyteller and nothing else really. I like strong characters, strong narration and a great plot.”

So how does Welsh create such memorable and well-rounded characters in her novels? “I always look backwards to see where a story has come from. A book will be in my head for up to two years so I have a clear view of them all, what they wear, talk like, etc.”

As for what genre she’s writing in, it’s the least planned element of her writing. “When I sit down to write, I don’t worry about genre. I think about plot and characters.”

Welsh took time to look back on the positive effect her previous career as a second hand book dealer may have had on her work, and it appears to have given her an amount of perspective: “Our lives are similar to those of books; we’re here and then we’re not.”

When asked about her thoughts on McIlvanney’s recent comments about being unable to find an English publisher, Welsh said: “It’s not my perception there is any Scottish prejudice from English publishers. I think Scottish literature is on the up and I hope in the near future we will hear more from Polish or Asian writers in Scotland. There’s a lot to look forward to.”

Author Event: James Robertson

A packed RBS Main Tent welcomed Scottish author James Robertson into its bosom this evening, to be interviewed by cult Scottish author, Irvine Welsh.

Robertson began with a reading from an intense passage from his new novel, And The Land Lay Still, a passage which immediately pricked up my ears when he explained it was about mining disaster.

Set in 1950, it had been inspired by the Knockshinnoch mining disaster in which 13 men died in 1950, after they attempted a new method of drilling out from the shaft. Unfortunately they drilled into a peat bog, which then flooded and the ground collapsed in on them trapping the 108 miners underneath.

Robertson’s reading was intense and clear, evoking vivid images of what Scotland was and wasn’t at that time. Next to Welsh who was chairing, who isn’t perhaps known as being the greatest orator in the world, but who hosted the event admirably, Robertson put most Scottish authors public reading skills to shame.

Robertson explained that he “always thought there was a great modern Scottish novel to be told through fiction, that couldn’t necessarily be found in the history books.” That said, however, he also admitted that “it was extremely hard to write this kind of book because of the balance that must be achieved between fact and fiction.”

Moving the discussion into the here and now, he said: “When does now become history? The poll tax is history to anyone under the age of 21. History happens really quickly.”

But the romance of any Scottish chat especially given the type of novel written by Robertson, inevitably turned back to the landscape. “The wild land of Scotland still resonates deeply with people,” he said. “Its fascinating the pull places where you can actually touch the land have on us.”

As far as identity goes it’s a massive question for any Scot looking at the separation from England right up until devolution a decade ago. “I believe we Scots,” he said in closing to a mesmerised audience, “we’re much more conscious of our Scottishness than we were 30 years ago.”

As to what “Scottishness” actually means, he wouldn’t be drawn.

A Day in the Life of a Book Festival Blogger

The life of an accredited blogger at the Edinburgh Book Festival is one of giddy hard work. We get to mix with the backstage folk, see first hand the authors as they arrive and have their photo call, and we get to enjoy the some of the perks afforded to the press. We also get to do what we came for: blog about the world’s biggest and best festival of literature.

A blogger does not have an employer, does not get paid, and has to accept that journalistically they’re bottom of the ladder. But that’s why it’s so much fun! Being an accredited blogger at the Edinburgh Book Festival is so enjoyable, it’s akin to being on a “busman’s holiday” in the best holiday park in the world.

Freedom
Unlike a professional journalist though, the blogger has no restrictions on what he can write about. There are no editors telling us the line to take or the mood a piece should be in, and it is this freedom, this freelancing attitude, that gives us a leg up over the newspaper columnists. Editorial control is ours and ours alone, but this can also mean we have the potential to make mistakes and then pay for them personally.

However, an accredited blogger can come and go as he likes (I’m using the male view here because I am one but there are females here too). He can move around most areas behind the scenes (barring the main office and the author’s Yurt), which means that the freedom to really explore is very tempting and very available.

This freedom gives us a unique view of the book festival since we are in the position that we can watch the watchers; we are writers writing about what we see, while all around us the buzz and chaos that goes on behind the scenes is constant.

But just because a blogger is essentially an amateur, doesn’t mean it’s not hard work. The more one puts into it, the more one gets out. I’ve been attending on average five or six events on each of my full days, and each one deserves to be written about. Finding the time, however, is not always that easy.

Oasis
Which is what the Press Pod provides: peace and quiet away from the crowds to write up reports and get the scoop on who might be passing through, or be up next for a photo call. It’s a never ending whirl of activity, rumours and hearsay that are generated all around Charlotte Square and that usually end up being discussed in the Pod.

The Press Pod itself is a small haven of calm with lovely coffee and if you get there early enough in the day, plates of croissants, scones and biscuits. It’s a very welcoming and warm place to chill between events.

It’s the same idea as the Author’s Yurt but smaller and divided into three distinct “pods”: the chill out area, the press team, and an area set aside for the journalists to plug in at a table and chair and get to work.

Getting Involved
There is no requirement for a blogger to get involved though, all you really need is a pair of ears and eyes and a little bit of savvy, and even the smallest of dreams can come true. Take the other night when I found myself taking photographs of a fake photo call between ska legend, Pauline Black, and official site photographer Chris Close—all because I had the balls to ask.

The main thing about being an accredited blogger is to remember your place. While it is true that you are writing about the same events as the professionals, and it may also be true that in some cases you might be writing more than the professionals, they are the ones earning a living from what they do while we are only doing it for the love of it.

That is why a blogger must always be wary never to step on the toes of anyone in the press office, the other staff, and certainly must never get in the way of book festival’s official guests. Cross that line and you should either apologise profusely and rectify the mistake, or be prepared never to be invited back. Thankfully this has never happened to me but you get the drift.

Faces
Every day around the book festival there are a number of faces you will always see. This is true whether you’re there for a day or just an evening, the same people always seem to pop up in some respect either around the gardens or popping in and out of the Press Pod or any of the event tents.

• Nick Barley (@nickbarleyedin) – always in and around somewhere, whether greeting high profile guests, introducing events, or dealing with day to day behind the scenes issues, this man never stops.
• Francis, Esme and Harrison in the Press Team – a small team that is alive with activity and seem to be everywhere all at once, yet will always stop to try and accommodate a request. How they keep those smiles on for so long is beyond me; it takes a special person to balance the Media in one hand and the demands of the festival organisers.
• Chris Scott (@chrisdonia) – you’ll see him wandering around in his knee-length shorts and baggy shirt, always with a camera in hand seeking out his next snap. If you can’t spot him by that description he’s usually the only one with coloured hair. He can often be seen creeping around underneath the stands inside the tents then popping up on the scaffolding to try to get that perfect shot of an author on stage.
• Colin Fraser (@anonpoetry) – the official tweeter of @edbookfest, he attends a lot of events and can often be seen sitting near the back or a corner, tapping away into his iPad furiously as he live tweets discussions and debates to the world that’s watching.

Pressure
So there it is, life as an accredited blogger at the Edinburgh Book Festival. I use the term accredited because anyone can come and blog from Charlotte Square, and while being accredited gives you something of a leg up in getting to know and see that little bit more, it also means there is a little bit of pressure thrown in too.

There’s no point in going through with it if you aren’t going to write, and writing takes time. It takes a good understanding of the craft to squeeze out an event article event in half an hour before you have to go and do it again for the next one. And if it’s a poor event, you have to make it sound good (or at least not cause any offence) and then post it to the blog safely aware that there will be a lot of people reading it (sometimes the subject) and that means concentration in long spells.

Take notes; take lots of photographs; record sound clips—do everything it takes to get the article you want to write. But remember not to take it too far; the stereotype of journalists turning to the bottle isn’t that far off!

You can find photographs from the book festival at my live image feed on Flickr at www.flickr.com/photos/colinthewriter

Author Event: Don Paterson

Don Paterson’s latest work, Reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets, is a mammoth collection and tonight he read several, not in any organised pattern or flow (it seemed), but which I thought lended the evening to a more informal guide through Shakespeare’s work. It was rather like an audience with The Don as he talked about the poems he fancied reading to us at the time.

Paterson began by explaining what he thought a sonnet could be described as: “Sonnets are like Spock playing 3D chess with himself while on-board the Starship Enterprise.” No, that didn’t make it any clearer for me either.

His view of what literary criticism is though, was much more palatable: “Literary criticism is not like doing algebra; it should be fun.” And commenting on the scathing review he recently received, his only remark that hadn’t already been said in the strong letter of response he wrote, was that “the biggest surprise about ‘that’ review was when I found out the poor chap was still alive.”

“Poems are not perfect,” explained Paterson, “and it’s up often to the Gods. Take Shakespeare—the reason we’re all here—even his stinkers are still better stinkers than everyone elses.”

Rather bizarrely, Shakespeare sexuality also came into the discussion, with Paterson’s assertion that although it was widely thought he was bisexual, “personally I think he was predominantly homosexual,” which he then proceeded to prove through the reading of several male-oriented poems.

Wrapping up, Shakespeare’s misogynistic tendencies came under the spotlight, which also provided me with a fascinating titbit of information, when Paterson, on dissecting one particularly misogynistic verse, explained that the use of the word “hell” is actually Elizabethan slang for “vagina”.

Author Event: Ian Rankin

The scene was set for Rankin’s first of two main appearances at this year’s book festival, as first the Rolling Stones followed by John Martyn’s Solid Air, accompanied his arrival in a packed RBS Main Tent.

He explained that as well as the song being key to his Desert Island Discs choice some years ago, the song actually meant much more to him in that it was always the first song he played—on vinyl—when he moved into a new house.

As far as his most famous literary creation goes, his music tastes used to differ to that of Inspector Rebus. “Rebus used to be a jazz fan,” said Rankin, “until John Harvey came along. I soon realised that by making Rebus a fan of what I liked, I could research it further and build a music collection that was tax deductible,” he joked.

Rankin wrote his new novel, The Impossible Dead, in the first two months of this year but it won’t see publication until October 13th. “All I have is this dust jacket,” he said, holding one up. “The title wasn’t my first choice but the publisher’s liked it.”

Talking a bit more about his writing process, he explained that he is a firm news junkie: “I read several newspapers a day and always have the news on, and it’s from this that stories just keep leaping out at me.” With that, he briefly held up a newspaper cutting that he said had provided the inspiration for the new book, but later refused to divulge any more about what the book was about. “It’s about jugglers going mad in Belarus,” he joked.

Rankin’s latest novel was written in the public spotlight through Twitter in January and February. His followers were able to accompany him on the highs and lows as the novel developed, and he is believed to be the first top author to open the door in such a way. “As well as it being a kind of diary,” he explained, “it also highlighted to me that my life is actually quite mundane—it’s not all glamour like people are inclined to think—but in my head it’s a fairground ride.”

He continued: “I don’t see the point in being a full time writer if you have to spend your whole time writing,” referring to the amount of procrastinating that became visible through the Twittersphere.

Turning his attention to the greater body of his work, Rankin admitted to still getting a buzz from opening the jiffy bag to be able to hold the first physical copy of any novel he has written. When asked by Richard Havers what he does then he replied: “I usually go to the pub.”

And of his success as a crime writer, Rankin also admitted that he wishes his parents had lived to see past the first few published books, and to have enjoyed his success. “It would have been good to show them that it is possible to make a career from making stuff up.”

Author Event: Esther Freud

Daughter of Lucian and granddaughter of Sigmund, Esther Freud’s name is synonymous the world over with brains and intelligence; it’s not something she feels is as much of an issue in the UK as it is on mainland Europe though, but nevertheless she admitted to feeling happy to be experiencing the freedom that the people in the UK offer her.

At the book festival she came to promote hew new novel, her seventh since she made the switch from acting to novelist, Lucky Break. It was a move she made after a career in acting that saw her rejected from acting school, “but then acting is all about rejection—it comes with the industry just as it does in writing.” Later she added: “Failed actors often re-train and can be very successful in some cases, but a lot also tend to go into the healing industry.”

The move to writing finally came for Freud after her acting and writing partner qualified with an Equity Card and was soon off to America to make a film. Their acting company, Norfolk Broads, broke up and left Freud unsure how to progress, forcing her to face up to the fact that she would have to write alone for the first time in her life.

This was a real moment of epiphany for her, however, because it was during the writing of this first novel that Freud had her eyes opened. “I realised that I still wanted to tell stories, but to tell them in a different way.”

And just as with writers or artists that are obsessed with their work, be it a novel or a painter, Freud also came to the realisation that actors too are obsessed, “but because their art, their vehicle is their own bodies—hair, weight, shape, etc.—this obsession is often confused with narcissism,” a mistake that she regrets happening quite so often as it does.

Freud read a passage from her latest novel (it was such a good reading I would recommend her for any audio recordings of books), a book she says was very difficult to write after it was “rejected by my own husband,” she joked. “He said it wasn’t true to what acting was about, and sure enough when I re-read it, I could see that I had lost sight of what acting is about. So I re-wrote large chunks of it.”

Freud closed up with a statement that would appeal to actors and writers the world over, when she remarked: “Whatever way you approach it, writing a novel is hard work!”

Debate: The Poems of Czeslaw Milosz

In this regular weekly event under the Legends of Modern Literature series at the book festival, participants are invited to analyse two poems by specified poets in a discussion that is aimed at dissecting the poets work in front of them, as well the broader issue invoked within the prose.

Hosted by Scottish Poetry Library Director Robyn Marsack, we heard two poems, first in Polish, read by Polish poet Agata Maslowska, and then in English, before a group discussion about the meanings of the poems and the issues the poet was attempting to throw open.

The best poems, it is often said, are those that are left open to interpretation and that is exactly what one gets with Milosz and the two poems we looked at: The Song on the End of the World and Dedication.

Not one for the casual poetry fan, these sessions are strictly for the dedicated poetry buff, and while one did not need to know about the poet being discussed, it definitely helped if you did.

Author Event: Linda Grant

Rush Wishart was in sparkling form again today as she interviewed Orange Prize for Fiction winner, Linda Grant about her new novel, We Had It So Good. While taking their seats on the RBS Main tent stage, Wishart quipped: “That’s the kind of handbag that doubles as a filing cabinet,” much to the amusement of the audience.

“We baby boomers were the generation that wasn’t supposed to grow up,” said Grant launching into the background to her new book. “We were supposed to stay young forever. In the period between adolescence and adulthood, we think we know who we are—know who the real us is.”

Grant’s reading consisted of a hilarious section about Ivan, an anarchist who is recommending that “LSD is an old-school drug because it takes so much time; 8 hours to do it then another two days to recover! How are you meant to fit anything else in round about that?”

But the larger issues surrounding Grant’s book were never far from being analysed. “Perhaps our parents’ lives were more interesting than we thought they were when we were growing up,” she said. “And at some level we certainly refer to their lives to see how far we’ve come in our own.”

Looking back fondly at the 60s and all it stood for, Grant commented that “the only revolution in the 60s worth its salt was feminism and we were responsible for that—the baby boomers.” When asked how she thought this political view sits with modern girls of the same age, Grant said: “Young girls often say to me that they can’t be bothered with feminism any more, and its not because we’ve done the job. So I say to them, do they really want to go back to the day when they had to get their husband’s signature so they can apply for their own credit card?”

In We Had It So Good, Grant is trying to capture what it is to be married today, to be in a marriage that is not one wanting to develop, but rather fighting to just keep it together. “What’s it like to be in a marriage that you need to hang onto for the love of the children?” she asks. “Besides, I wanted to explore other ideas—you can’t do sexual politics in every book.”

Grant tied up her fascinating hour with confirmation that there will be a sequel to this latest novel and that she is due to start work on it imminently. “The characters are going to be forced to face up to their difficulties,” she said with determination, “and want to follow that through.”

Author Event: Pauline Black

Pauline Black
Born to an Anglo-Jewish mother and Nigerian father, she was adopted by a white middle-aged couple and thus began a journey that is in some way answered in the writing of her first book, Black by Design , which follows Black’s rise to fame and recollections of the 2-tone phenomenon allied to the search for her real parents.

She always felt she needed to define her identity, which wasn’t something she had properly considered until one music fan accosted her on a train and clumsily said: “You’re Pauline Black!” It made her stop and think. She’d already changed her name twice, once from Belinda Magnus and then from Pauline Vickers, so who was she now? “The question that underpinned my life journey was: who made me?”

While recalling these early days with her adopted family, Black remarked that, “adoption is legalised identity theft.” When challenged later as to what precisely she meant by this, she further explained that she wasn’t saying adoption is a bad thing, but that, “the identity of the children should not be forgotten and it should be addressed, not forgotten. If a person doesn’t know where they come from then it’s impossible for them to know who they are.”

The conversation inevitably led to her days leading the popular 2-Tone bad The Selecter, and the political landscape that formed the British ska movement. “Things have moved on now since our day, though; recession is global now not national. I don’t have a great deal of truck with any of the political parties these days.”

Referring to the band’s position in the British psyche these days, she joked: “Apparently The Selecter are now classed as a ‘Heritage Band’ as though we’re one step away from a museum.”

The conversation was wide and varied crossing Black’s desire to uncover who she was, black culture, and the forms of racism she encountered while growing up. Her career has also been varied, and when asked about her experience in the acting industry remarked: “The one thing that acting taught me is that there are no ladders for ethnic minorities in this country to climb.”

The subject of the England riots has never been far away from any of the discussions here at the book festival this week, and Black was also keen to impart her views also: “Riots happen, and they happen with people feel dis-empowered. We need to analyse what happened not bang them up. If 13 year olds are going around setting fire to things it is ALL our problem, not just the parents.”

Before leaving the tent for an animated signing session for her music and book fans, she left us with this thought: “I can only try and change people’s opinions and I do it through music and now this book.”

Debate: The Future of Independent Publishing with André Schiffrin

Renowned New York publisher André Schiffrin left Random House many years ago in order to work for Pantheon. But today came to Edinburgh to describe what he believes to be a developing crisis in Western publishing. In The Business of Books, he demonstrates how the American corporate model has extended its reach across the globe.

Schiffrin had a lot of interesting things to say and took up most of the hour working through pre-pared notes, that transferred to the audience as a gentle guide through the world of publishing and the state we found ourselves in. “The Adam Smith concept that good things will sell,” he began, “isn’t necessarily the case in publishing; a lot of good books have lost money.”

And from here the story he painted only looked bleaker, as he cited a couple of interesting titbits. For example, “during the first Iraqi war, no books were published from American publishing houses that were critical of Bush of the White House at that time. This proves the big publishing houses were influenced by the political landscape of the nation and how it applied to their profit expectations.”

Another thing that worked against the system was the Mars Bar Index: “Mars was comparing their price increases with everyone else, and the same thing is happening now. Penguin did this so they could increase their growth and profitability by 15%-20% instead if the 6% it was before.”

Schiffrin seemed to argument more for the benefits of having not-for-profit publishing houses as opposed to the conglomerates model of maximising profits (or increasing their return to shareholders). They way of doing this is would be “to drop massive author advances and then pay authors and staff a consistent rate.”

When asked about the impact of Kindle on book stores, he commented: “publishing only means you make something public, you still have to put in the same level of marketing whether you are on Kindle or not. However, when I worked in New York as a lad there were over 300 good independent book stores, but now there are only 30.” He continued: “Small books won’t make it through the barrier any more thanks to Google and Amazon.”

Hinting that it might be beneficial to introduce a law to prevent the current model of heavy discounting, which only served to create fake cover prices of books and devalue the cost of a novel, Schiffrin’s allotted time came to a close far too soon—it was just getting interesting when time ran out.