Literary Ladies

‘She had me at ‘Shakespeare’

At one of our Friday ‘meet-ups’ a few weeks ago, we planned a visit to the Scarborough Literary Festival and booked tickets for a literary luncheon. So it was, that on the first cold day for three weeks (that ‘sea breeze’ can be bitter), we found ourselves at the inaugural event of the first festival.

I’d never been to anything like this before, and did wonder if I’d enjoy it when the speaker was someone I’d never heard of. It turned out to be fantastic. We had a huge (and delicious) lunch, and between courses, the writer, Patricia Duncker, read extracts from her novel, Miss Webster and Cherif, and talked about literature. I guess it also helped that we’d ordered a bottle of champagne.

She didn’t just talk about her work, but also the literary inheritance. She’s a university professor, and spoke of the dark elements in Shakespeare’s comedies, how there is always someone who doesn’t get the happy ending, and the impact of the wilderness in literature.

Over lunch, we spoke to a couple of the organisers, from the Library Service. Apparently, in planning the event they'd visited lots of other festivals to see how it was done, and make contacts - what a fab job is that?!

It was fascinating, so, of course, I bought the book. I have to say it isn’t one I’d have picked up in Borders. I haven’t started it yet. I’ll let you know what I think