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Edinburgh Book Festival
Just back from a busy trip to Edinburgh, at the final weekend of the Edinburgh Fringe and International Book Festival. Straight off the train on Friday, Bryan and I joined Kate Charlesworth at Word Power, a radical bookshop in Nicolson Street, for an hour or so talking about the making of Sally Heathcote, Suffragette. That evening we were all entertained by Freight Books at a launch party for IDP: 2043, a graphic novel produced in collaboration with the Festival. You can listen to two of the contributors, Denise Mina and Adam Murphy, talking about the book in a radio interview on The Culture Studio.
Saturday 12.30 was our main event about Sally. We were in discussion with Teddy Jamieson in front of a full theatre audience. As the chair finished his preliminary panel introduction, a woman in the crowd called out “Votes for Women!” Then a few moments later, another stood up brandishing an umbrella and shouted again “Votes for Women!” This was the cue for a suffragette choir to march in, singing “The March of the Women” to a drum accompaniment. They were superb. The choir is Edinburgh’s own “Loud and Proud”, of which Kate herself is a member. (The event was filmed and I hope to be able to post a link to it soon.)
Then, after an hour’s lively discussion, we removed to the bookshop for a signing that lasted around an hour and a half. I have no idea how many copies that amounts to.
Kate and I had another fixture later the same day. There were two panel discussions with contributors to IDP: 2043, both chaired by Denise Mina. We were in the second of them, along with Barroux and Irvine Welsh, followed again by a signing session (but not another singing session, more’s the pity…)
Left to right: Irvine Welsh, Barroux, Kate Charlesworth, Mary Talbot, Denise Mina Photographs by Dianne Barry and Vintage Books.
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Back to the Edinburgh International Book Festival again!
Today the festival have released their programme for 2014. I’ll be there with Bryan again. This time we’ll be with Kate Charlesworth too, talking about Sally Heathcote, Suffragette on Saturday 23rd August. More details here.Kate and I are taking part in another event later in the day. It’s a launch for the graphic novel commissioned by the festival, IDP: 2043. We’ll be appearing with Denise Mina and Irvine Welsh. Details for it are here.
The box office hasn’t opened yet but tickets will be available from Tuesday 24th, later this month. There are lots of other Stripped 2014 events going on too, so we’re anticipating a long weekend that’s as good as last year’s. Hope to see some of you there! -
A graphic novel for the Edinburgh Book Festival
It’s official! Project X is announced here! Kate Charlesworth and I have been quietly working on a chapter for a collaborative graphic novel called IDP: 2043 commissioned by the Edinburgh Festival. Denise Mina provided the scenario – after the Great Flood of 2032 – and distributed the six chapters to a team of writers and artists. The list of other contributors is pretty impressive: Pat Mills, Hannah Berry, Irvine Welsh, Dan McDaid, Denise Mina, Barroux, Adam Murphy and Will Morris.The collaboration began behind the scenes in 2013, as part of the Stripped graphic novel events at the 30th Edinburgh International Book Festival. The story is set in Scotland 30 years on. It’s a dystopian future, where resources are scarce. The initials ‘IDP’ in the title stand for ‘Internally Displaced Persons’.
Denise asked me to write the concluding chapter, so what could possibly go wrong? Ha! Well, I have to say that when I agreed to contribute it was with some trepidation at joining a group project with a tight deadline. But that was before I knew about the great professional line-up. The book will be launched at the festival in August, when we may finally get to meet one another!
Saturday 12.30 was our main event about Sally. We were in discussion with Teddy Jamieson in front of a full theatre audience. As the chair finished his preliminary panel introduction, a woman in the crowd called out “Votes for Women!” Then a few moments later, another stood up brandishing an umbrella and shouted again “Votes for Women!” This was the cue for a suffragette choir to march in, singing “The March of the Women” to a drum accompaniment. They were superb. The choir is Edinburgh’s own “Loud and Proud”, of which Kate herself is a member. (The event was filmed and I hope to be able to post a link to it soon.)
