Three days of Book Festival
Oct. 20th, 2012 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustThere seems to have been a trickle of outlying events in the Durham Book Festival, but the grand opening event was the first performance of Rapunzel, a new ballet based on a version of the fairy tale by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. This sounds like a very big deal, and a real coup for the festival, and I'm pleased for them - but it doesn't appeal to me in the least, which is why on Thursday we made our way past the glamourous crowds to the Gala Theatre's upstairs Studio, to hear Michael Gray talking about 'Bob Dylan & the Poetry of the Blues'.
I've been reading Michael Gray's work on Bob Dylan since this issue of Oz (October '67, according to Felix Dennis, and he should know): he delivers the sort of intelligent scrutiny of the text that is what I think criticism is about, and manages to be unwaveringly enthusiastic without being, well, uncritical. This may mean that he manages to find virtues i the most unexpected material, but I don't have a problem with that (even when I don't see it myself). I'd have signed up for his talk whatever the topic, so I didn't pay much attention to the title. In fact, tracing Dylan's use of blues riffs, musical structures and verbal reminiscences alike, gave a fresh (to me) approach that was interesting and illuminating. What I took away from the evening: Michael Gray's recommendation of Love and THeft, "Highway 61 revisited with a bus pass".
Yesterday we dined dangerously with Val McDermid, the Book Festival's first venture into the debatable territory of the literary lunch. Although we park outside the Radisson Hotel twice a week to go to the swimming pool, this was the first time we'd been inside. I don't know why restaurants agree to host events involving large parties if they can't cope with them: why allow groups of potential new customers to see you at your worst? The food was perfectly acceptable, and the service was sweet, but completely overwhelmed (by the challenge of serving a single option with vegetarian variant two course meal). Luckily, we didn't have to be anywhere else that afternoon.
Despite the 'Dangerous Dining' tag, we knew we were in safe hands with Val McDermid. A reading from her new book, which sets up the central character, hints at the situation and, naturally ends as something dramatic and horrible happens; a period of questions and answers with some very sensible questions and invariably entertaining answers - and the bonus of a chance to chat with Val. "How was California?" she asked us; "Never mind California, we're just back from Fife!" - and we were able to confirm that yes, we had seen the McDermid stand of Raith Rovers ground (and heard it, too), and yes, we had walked past the Wemyss caves (as in A Darker Domain).
Today's lunchtime talk was about the diaries of Nella Last, and was intesresting enough to leave me frustrated that it hadn't told me more. Nella Last was one of the diarists recruited by Mass Observation in 1939, and the speakers were a husband and wife team who have edited her almost 30 years of diaries. I think, looking now at Amazon, they have just produced a single volume covering both the wartime and post-war years, but this wasn't clear at the time. I wish, too, that they had illustrated their observations with more and longer readings from the diaries.
Now we have a couple of days off before the next event.
I've been reading Michael Gray's work on Bob Dylan since this issue of Oz (October '67, according to Felix Dennis, and he should know): he delivers the sort of intelligent scrutiny of the text that is what I think criticism is about, and manages to be unwaveringly enthusiastic without being, well, uncritical. This may mean that he manages to find virtues i the most unexpected material, but I don't have a problem with that (even when I don't see it myself). I'd have signed up for his talk whatever the topic, so I didn't pay much attention to the title. In fact, tracing Dylan's use of blues riffs, musical structures and verbal reminiscences alike, gave a fresh (to me) approach that was interesting and illuminating. What I took away from the evening: Michael Gray's recommendation of Love and THeft, "Highway 61 revisited with a bus pass".
Yesterday we dined dangerously with Val McDermid, the Book Festival's first venture into the debatable territory of the literary lunch. Although we park outside the Radisson Hotel twice a week to go to the swimming pool, this was the first time we'd been inside. I don't know why restaurants agree to host events involving large parties if they can't cope with them: why allow groups of potential new customers to see you at your worst? The food was perfectly acceptable, and the service was sweet, but completely overwhelmed (by the challenge of serving a single option with vegetarian variant two course meal). Luckily, we didn't have to be anywhere else that afternoon.
Despite the 'Dangerous Dining' tag, we knew we were in safe hands with Val McDermid. A reading from her new book, which sets up the central character, hints at the situation and, naturally ends as something dramatic and horrible happens; a period of questions and answers with some very sensible questions and invariably entertaining answers - and the bonus of a chance to chat with Val. "How was California?" she asked us; "Never mind California, we're just back from Fife!" - and we were able to confirm that yes, we had seen the McDermid stand of Raith Rovers ground (and heard it, too), and yes, we had walked past the Wemyss caves (as in A Darker Domain).
Today's lunchtime talk was about the diaries of Nella Last, and was intesresting enough to leave me frustrated that it hadn't told me more. Nella Last was one of the diarists recruited by Mass Observation in 1939, and the speakers were a husband and wife team who have edited her almost 30 years of diaries. I think, looking now at Amazon, they have just produced a single volume covering both the wartime and post-war years, but this wasn't clear at the time. I wish, too, that they had illustrated their observations with more and longer readings from the diaries.
Now we have a couple of days off before the next event.
