Of actors and authors, with a little bit of food, wine, and walking

Two years ago, we attended a Literary Luncheon at the inaugural Scarborough Literature Festival, and really enjoyed it. Last year, we tried to book too late, and it was full, so this year we got our act together early, and decided to make a couple of days of it.

Despite having to work until after lunch, V and I were heading over to Scarborough by mid afternoon, and just had time to book into the hotel before we were joined by J. As most events were just round the corner at the Library, and the lunch was in our hotel, we were pretty centrally placed.

I rather loved the Concert Hall of the Library, mainly, I guess, because it was the site of the very first Theatre in the Round created by Stephen Joseph.

Our first event was called ‘Re:Invention’, and we’d booked it because it was about performance, and developing a character, and run by an actor. We weren’t quite sure what to expect, as the brochure had suggested that it could be a workshop. Sadly, it wasn’t, as the seats were laid out theatre-style. Still, it was very interesting.

We just had time to pop to the Blue Lounge, our new ‘bar of choice’ in Scarborough, for a drink before the second event, ‘Branwell vs the Brontes’. It sounded quite interestingin the blurb. It wasn’t. It was self indulgent, and very amateur. I was nodding by halfway through. They stopped for an interval, much to the surprise of the organisers, and so we took the opportunity and left, deciding that a curry and wine was a considerably more attractive option than staying for part 2. We found a fab little Indian restaurant that we’d been to a few years ago. Still there, still busy, still good, and they gave us free wine at the end.

The next morning, we made a bright and early start, determined to get a walk in before the literary luncheon. It was a glorious morning, and we walked right along the beach to the Spa, and then round the harbour and onto the Marine Drive, coming back over castle hill. We were back in time to get changed, and get a well earned drink in before lunch.

The author at the lunch was Victoria Glendinning. When I’d seen her advertised, I knew the name, and recognised her face, but couldn’t have said what she’d written. She turned out to be fascinating, and was clearly an experienced speaker, as, unlike others, she didn’t do a reading, just talked about her subjects, and also drew out anecdotes about Scarborough. She’s written biographies of Edith Sitwell, and Leonard Woolf amongst others and her latest book is about an affair between author Elizabeth Bowen and diplomat Charles Ritchie.

Afterwards, we had a quick dash to the shops, for where would our Friday’s be without a little shopping, and then headed back to Library for our last event, Kate Atkinson. Now I’ve never read any of her books, but had at least heard of her, and I did once see ‘Behind the Scenes at the Museum’ on stage at the Theatre Royal. It didn’t make me want to read the book though. Listening to her read from her latest novel, that didn’t make me want to read it either. I just knew as she read that it was not a ‘Val’ book.

So all in all, a lovely break away from the grind. Some good events, one excellent one, and one dire. I think we need to focus on the lunch in future - if the talks not up to much, you still get food – and look more carefully into what other sessions are offering. But then, I think the organisers will probably do that as well.

Did someone say 'children's book'?

The Harry Potter conversations continue (I’m still embargoed from talking about the ending as some people still haven’t read it – get a move on people!)

‘I finished Harry Potter at the weekend’
Me: ’Did you cry?’
‘Nearly’
Me: ‘Only nearly? I cried so much I had to put the book down’

Two to go

I've not said much about my OU course recently. It's been difficult to keep up with the study schedule with everything else that's been going on. Well, you can hardly study when driving a car, can you?

I'm currently in the middle of my Literature and Gender module. It's not my favourite. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the Romantic Literature one, particularly discovering female Romantic poets, but this module, not so much!

So I approached the first assignment on this block with some trepidation. I even had to ask for an extension, as I just didn't have the time to finish it by the due date. My usual tutorial was cancelled, and I went to one with with different tutor in Leeds, who took quite a different approach. To be honest, I was stressing out.

I had to write about The Color* Purple, and one other prose piece from the block, and chose The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Two texts I was unfamiliar with before the course. I've never even seen the film of The Color Purple (though I did think about watching it as part of my studies). I spent a lot of time trying to get my head round the whole idea of what writing 'with gender on the agenda' (the module's buzz phrase) was all about. Eventually I felt I was getting somewhere. I can sort of see where they're coming from, but it's not an approach I would ever consciously take.

I finally pulled something together a couple of weeks ago. One thing I love about literature is that you can always take the counter argument to the one that the question poses, as long as you can justify your approach. I didn't think it was great, but it was finished.

I got it back the other day. I got 82. I'm pretty pleased with that given how difficult it was to write.

The next one is on Top Girls, so we've finally moved on to drama. Hurrah. But still with 'gender on the agenda'. I sort of feel I know what they're after now, so I have to write this one at some point over the next week. And then, finally, we move on to Shakespeare, Aphra Behn and the Canon.

Five down, two to go.

*which I always want to spell 'colour'. Damn American spelling!

Potter Crazy

Spoiler Free (though eye rolling may be induced)

At the start, let me say, I didn't queue. I wasn't in town at midnight watching magicians in Borders. But I knew I'd be buying Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on its release day. And there was a certain anticipation and excitement about the fact that we were finally going to know the end of the story.

I went into town yesterday morning, and it was everywhere. The price wars were all over. £6.99 in Woolies, but you had to spend £10, same in WH Smiths, but you had to spend £15. £8.99 in Waterstones. Borders seemed to have missed a trick and be advertising it at £6 off (a publishers price of £17.99). In Smiths, I moved on hurridly as a man of at least 50 was reading the last pages. Why? If you're a fan, it would ruin it, if not, why would you want to know unless you're going to spoil it for someone? I was actually worried that someone would inadvertently leak a bit of information.

I bought it in Tescos. It was £5 if you spent over £50, which I never do, unless it's Christmas, so for me, £10. It would have been cheaper in town, but I wasn't about to go back.

I got home, did some housework, had lunch, like I was putting off the moment, prolonging the anticipation, but settled down to read about 2pm. Shortly after starting I got a text from Dean, which seemed to be giving me a couple of spoilers. Nooooo. I hardly dare read any more texts. And there I sat, for hours. I broke off about two thirds of the way through to watch a film, partly, I think, to prolong the experience.

I finally finished it about 12.30am. I have a bit of a headache this morning. I loved it.

Literary conversations

Like many workplaces, we have a 'book club' that comes round. I was very excited last week to see one of the offers was a box set of 10 Penguin* Shakespeares, for the bargainous price of £6. I found myself hugging them and knowing I had to have them.

I got my copies yesterday, and was singing their praises to my boss.

Boss: ‘You mean you’ll read those, for pleasure?’
‘Well, I’ve read them all already, but yes’
J chips in: ‘I saw a Shakespeare once – it had Puck in it, I was bored stiff’

The CEO comes out ‘Ahh, Alas Poor Yorick’
Boss: ‘I knew him well’
‘I knew him, Horatio’
We turn to Romeo and Juliet
Boss: ‘is that where O Romeo Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo comes from?’
‘yes, but really, if we’re being pedantic, it should be ‘Montague, Montague…’

(Really, don’t get me started on this, I could go on for days)

Boss: ‘I’ve only been to the theatre once in my life, to see ‘We Will Rock You’

I start to giggle uncontrollably

Boss: ’What’s up?’
‘M…, ‘We Will Rock You is theatre for people who don’t go to the theatre!’


*Yes, we all know the Arden editions are the best, but the Penguins are the set texts for my OU course, and that was my justification for buying them, even though there’s only one set text out of three in the set.

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

Lost in a good book

Talking of bandwagons, which of course, I wasn't, I'd just like to say that I was always going to blog about LibraryThing even though Corinne and Nik have also talked about it. I don't think Cat realised what she had started when she put us onto it. But then, given the way we all are about books, maybe she did.

Anyway, I spent quite a bit of time at the weekend going through some of my bookshelves, digging out books I'd forgotten. Do others have 'double' bookshelves, with one row of books in front of another, or is it just me? I have books tucked behind books that I probably haven't looked at for years, yet I want to keep them. It was only when I hit 200 in my catalogue that I found out that that was the limit to a free account (as yet, I'm too tight to pay to add more) - and I haven't gone through the half of them yet. I remember when I bought my first house, the one thing that my mum rejoiced about was that she would finally get rid of all my books.

So far I've been pretty selective with my 'star rating'. Very few books get 5 stars, and when I look at those that do, I realise that, in a couple of cases, it's because I've seen a brilliant stage production, rather than because of the book itself. But then, it's my list, and I can grade it as I like.

The other thing that it highlights is that I've always read. Books on the list go all the way back to my childhood, and for as long as I can remember I will happily settle down with a book and the world can pass me by. Or at least, that's my argument for not doing housework!

The other thing, and Corinne has mentioned this too, is what it says about me. All my interests are there. Shakespeare (is 3 copies of the Complete Works too many?), theatre, play texts, novels that I call 19th Century 'classics', history, fantasy, sci fi, and slushy romances.

Sounds about right to me!

Bookshops

I got sucked into the farthest reaches of Borders today. I love bookshops, you can get pulled so far in, going from one book to another, and that's what I did, finding myself spending nearly an hour in there.

To really wallow, you need to be upstairs, away from the crowds (our Borders gets a lot of tourists buying books on York, and calendars). As you wander, the world kind of fades into the background. If that sounds odd, I suppose what I mean is that when I'm absorbed in a book, I simply don't hear what's going on around me. You can speak to me, and I won't hear it.

I wasn't even looking for anything in particular, but I found myself in the Arts section, which led me to Shakespeare, which led me to looking at so many books that I wanted, picking them up, glancing at them, but unable to think of a good reason to buy them. I was very tempted by Dominic Dromgoole's book 'Will and Me', which I didn't buy, but only because of the £17.99 price tag. I just know that one day I'll give in though.

It actually felt a little strange leaving and walking out into the Saturday morning crowds again. Suddenly everything seemed particularly loud, as though the volume had been turned up.

Not just for children

Yes, it's time for the Harry Potter blog*, in honour of us finally discovering Platform 9 and three quarters at Kings Cross**, and my finally getting my copy of 'Order of the Phoenix' back from my friend who borrowed it over two years ago. It's therefore the only one of the books that I've only read once, and there's lots of it I don't remember, so I'm hoping that by reading it now, it will have faded a bit by the time the next film comes out.

I have to admit I came a little late to the party with Harry, as I didn't read any of the books until I was at Uni, and discovered that the youth theatre that I was doing a placement with were going to be spending a week improvising pieces around an HP theme. So, I read the first three books in a weekend, waited until book 4 was out in paperback, but have been unable to resist the new hardback editions of the last two - mainly I think because I don't want anyone to tell me what happens before I've read it. 'Askaban' is still my favourite though, because of the twist at the end.

I have to admit to being a Sirius fan, so this isn't a good book for me. I'm afraid my love for Snape didn't exist until he was played by Alan Rickman - I think you're either Siruis or Snape, not both. I do love the way the 'back story' has gradually developed from book to book, so that some things aren't quite what you think they are. And, of course, it's all building up now for the big finish. I hope JK doesn't let us down.

*If it wasn't HP, it would be work, as that's really all I've done for the last week, and that's not what this is about.
**Cat actually spotted it (and took the pic). The trolley is embedded in the wall, as though halfway to the platform.