Author Event: Michael Scheuer

“With the death of Bin Laden, the West scored a tremendous tactical victory,” announced ex-CIA man, Michael Scheuer, as he began his reflective speech on Al Qaeda and the war on terror.

Already billed in the book festival programme as “controversy guaranteed,” that’s exactly what we got when he was unable to continue after a loud male voice boomed from stage left: “You’re talking absolute shite pal!”

Scheuer turned to face his accuser, the lights full in his face and a silence befalling the audience inside the tent. “I think you’re an arse,” continued the man. “You’re talking a pile of crap.”

“I think there’s a time for questions at the end,” replied Scheuer, but the man wouldn’t be appeased.

Cue an intervention from Ruth Wishart, who approached the man and explained quietly that this event was now over for him.

“I’ve paid my money and I can tell him what I like,” the man bellowed.

“You can tell him from outside,” said Wishart. “You’re leaving.”

And with that, Security arrived and hauled the man out as he left a stream of abuse directed towards Wishart, his political views about the CIA now forgotten.

Re-taking her seat, and with an air of tension still floating in the room, Wishart turned to Scheuer and said: “See what happens when you bring your boyfriend in with you?”

And so Scheuer, the man who led the CIA team tasked with locating Bin Laden between 1996 an 1999, and worked as special adviser to its chief from 2001 to 2004, restarted his speech from where he left off.

“We’re at war because of the choices made by Western governments,” he explained. “And we are faced with a problem largely of our own making. Until we realise our actions have consequences, we will lose all over.”

A grim perspective and it only got worse: “In terms of Al Qaeda, it’s impossible for them to grasp how much progress they’ve made since 9/11 because America is far from being able to develop a proper foreign policy on its own.”

On the Arab Spring, he said :“Despite what many writers have commented, the so called Arab Spring hasn’t made Al Qaeda irrelevant. It has delighted them and has been an intelligence disaster for us.”

Scheuer was asked whether he wished his unit had taken Bin Laden when they had the chance prior to 9/11. “It was always the intention to take Bin Laden alive at first but we could have killed him a dozen times over. Politically, though, it just wasn’t on the cards.”

The issue of America’s continued involvement in the Middle East came with an element of 20/20 hindsight. “We should let the Arabs rule themselves—or kill each other if they want to—but no good will come from the U.S.A. getting involved with their idea of what a democracy is. I think the idea that a U.S. Marine should have to die so that Mrs Mohammed can have a vote is a tragedy of epic proportions.”

And on the current political landscape in Washington, Scheuer commented: “We live in hope that one day we will stop electing politicians and start electing statesmen.”

Lecture: The King James Bible with Melvyn Bragg

As one of a very small group of writers who attended the very first Edinburgh Book Festival in 1983, Melvyn Bragg returned to a warm welcome from festival directory, Nick Barley, and a stowed out RBS Main Tent.

Bragg wasn’t here to promote a new book as such, rather lecture us on the background and development of the King James Bible and the impact it has had, and still has, on modern life.

If this had been a television programme, I might have turned over to something else but Bragg’s enthusiasm and instantly recallable knowledge hooked me in from the start. “It’s the single most important book in the last 400 years,” he said, and followed it up with: “It is the most pivotal book ever written; a steel of drive and will that to the development of modern democracy and has shaped our views on all sorts of issues: feminism, slavery, oppression…”

If that’s not enough to pique your interest then nothing is.

Bragg began at the beginning: “History belongs to all of us regardless what our faith is – Christian, Muslim, whatever—or even if we have no faith. It belongs to humanity; there are no boundaries.”

He worked his way through the book’s origins with such authority, it felt as though he was speaking as a witness, not a man who has simply studied the subject history.

“The idea that slavery is inevitable has been abolished and that is a triumph for humanity. An it happened because of the King James Bible,” he said. “It gave early American immigrants a bond, a common language with which they could connect.”

Some of his statements soon became quite sweeping and controversial. Then again, the delivery of his speech was fast becoming emotive regardless of your position, so perhaps the reaction he gleaned was inevitable.

“I admire Dawkins greatly but I wish he wouldn’t write about religion” he said. “It’s offensive because his ignorance is often criminal. He’s not done his research; he’s wrong about a lot of things.”

“That big bang 13 million years ago : was it the start, middle or end of something?” he asked rhetorically, before adding: “The hadron collider is like trying to find out how many angels you can balance on the end of a needle.”

An interesting image perhaps, but just as soon as it felt he had begun time had run out. So he left is with this vignette to finalise his case of the importance of the King James Bible: “When Obama spoke to our leaders in the Great Hall at Westminster, he made a good speech. But I would much rather have shown him the spot where King Charles I was executed just down the road, and the place where the slave trade was finally abolished. I think that would have said much more.”

Author Event: Alan Bissett and Doug Johnstone

As is now fast becoming the norm for any event involving Alan Bissett at the book festival, the audience at this latest shindig along with Doug Johnstone left with sore bellies and cheeks from an hour of laughter.

Bissett is a force of nature, managing to capture the essence of youthful humour and couple it with adult, mature themes that he addresses through his fiction. And with Johnstone, a worthy partner in their double act, we have two authors who fit together like two proverbial peas in the same pod.

Both authors began the proceedings by reading from their latest works: Bissett from Pack Men and Johnstone from Smokeheads. Johnstone’s reading was rich and vibrant, allowing the audience to follow the story and be pulled immediately into a fascinating world in the highlands that is brimming with adventure and disaster for the protagonists. Bissett didn’t so much read his but perform it, as he read from the moment in Manchester in 2008 just prior to Rangers fans going on the rampage at the UEFA Cup Final.

On Bissett’s attempt to record the events of that fateful night through fiction, he said: “Although a novel may be based on reality, there are layers of fiction that go on top that change it to something else,” and that unless there’s risk in a book what’s the point in writing it?” referring to the fact that the sensitivity of one half of the Old Firm may be pricked by his novel.

Johnstone’s book comes from a different source altogether, in that he writes for himself first and foremost. “I write because I don’t see the world I live in reflected in any of the fiction I read.”

Throughout the event both authors parried and pattered, providing much entertainment as they pushed open the barriers that both men faced in bringing both of these novels into the public domain.

The best question of the festival came from a lady in the audience who asked both authors what their worst criminal act was. Johnstone admitted to having taking drugs, pee’d in a public pace and to have been cautioned by a police officer while a student. Bissett then shocked everyone by coming clean to having a habit of eating four Weetabixes from a bowl at any one time. “It’s not a crime!” he pleaded.

A hilarious night from two very talented writers, I’ll be picking up copies of both of their books before the end of the week.

Author Event: Alexander Shannon and David Leslie

Alexander Shannon has led a remarkable life. To quote the man sitting next to him on the Peppers Theatre stage this evening, journalist David Leslie: “For Shannon to have emerged from a life of poverty and crime like this, is a remarkable achievement.”

So what is Shannon’s story?

Hailing from the east end of Glasgow, he spent years in care homes struggling to survive. He married his childhood sweetheart on his 19th birthday and soon after signed up for the British Army, finding himself on tour in several locations notably the Falklands, Northern Ireland and Bosnia, where he became an expert at covert operations. “I felt safer in South Armagh in 1988 than I do in Glasgow today,” he said with some seriousness. “At least we knew who the enemy was back then not like the young teens you get walking around with blades that’ll do anything for their next bag of heroin.”

On his return to Glasgow as a civilian, he wound up becoming heavily involved in the criminal underworld, using the skills he’d amassed in the British Forces to work for drugs barons and assassins. It wasn’t until his wife gave him an ultimatum that either things change by him rejoining the army or he would lose her.

Shannon chose the army, where despite being questioned over brutal killings and accused of a triple murder attempt, his dedication to succeed and break out from his mould as a criminal brought him high accolades and a series of promotions.

In his book, The Underworld Captain, Shannon pieces together his story, claimed by David Leslie the journalist who helped him publish it as: “The best piece of pro-army PR you will ever read.”

Shannon’s book was censored in its entirety by the Ministry of Defence when they first saw it and it’s little wonder with the content it contained, but over time Leslie managed to convince them that Shannon had a story worth telling, seeing it as an inspirational piece of work that “if it could persuade just one youngster from a similar background that there is hope, that if you want to succeed and break away, you can—because I’ve proved it—then it will be worth it.”

Leslie, who has spent a career writing about Glasgow’s gangster culture, said: “The Glasgow underworld is a very active place—very dangerous too.” And he explained that criminal minds tended to flow through families: “In Glasgow in the 80s, if your father was a criminal then you became a criminal. It’s like a family career path.”

Now training to be a psychologist, Shannon hopes to be able to apply his new skills in aiding soldiers and footballers. “They’re one in the same,” he said. “None of them have ever grown up mentally.”

But if there’s one thing that Alexander Shannon is certain about it’s this: “The army saved my life.”

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!”