Durham Book Festival – various destinations explored!
Durham Book Festival is always good and it’s always interesting to see which authors and writers head north to have a chat about their new books, writing genres and more. When I took a look at the programme this year, there were a few panels which stood out and so a sunny Saturday was spent navigating the cobbles in the main square, walking down the river side feeding the ducks and going in and out of the various alley ways leading off the cathedral square and imagining I was in a gothic historical novel….but that’s another story.
First of all….I was off to India and South Asia
Durham Book Festival – The Whole Kahani
This group of ladies was fascinating. So friendly and instantly approachable. They spoke in the hall just off the entrance to the Town Hall and it was more than regal but cosy enough to imagine you were sitting in your front room chatting with new bookish friends.
They’re in a group with seven others called The Whole Khahani which means “The Whole Story”. Realising there wasn’t the width and breadth of stories written about Asian women living in Britain, they set up the group and did it themselves. The stories in their latest anthology are all about love but in various forms – gay love, forbidden love, cross cultural love and unexpected love to name but a few. Each read from their stories, and I tell you something, it was so moving! Their voices told of their heritage and their stories shouted their experiences shared by women all over the world. Fascinating women with a love of good storytelling and a need to write.
The group are all established writers, either poets or fiction writers and they are looking forward to writing more anthologies. These women are ones to watch and I am on the list for anything else they create.
Durham Book Festival – Sophie Hannah, Nicola Upson, Andrew Wilson
Golden Age Crime in Wales, Harrogate and London
After my journey to South Asia, it was time to go back in time. Tell you something, the regal royal hall was a mixture of Harry Potter and a grand stately home – somewhere where Agatha Christie would have discovered a body…
Luckily, the only bodies here were the warm ones huddled on chairs looking forward to meet the writers who love Agatha and whose novels are set during the Golden Age.
Sophie Hannah – writer of her own psychological novels but who the Agatha Christie foundation asked to write continuation novels. She loves Poirot and told the funny story of how her agent put her forward and it was basically accepted before she knew what was going on. Both sides were nervous and talks took some time, but the first novel was written, then the second…now another two are in the pipeline. Sophie laughed that they asked her to write until she’s 80 but she says she’s tired and isn’t even near 50 yet!
Andrew Wilson ( me with the lovely man himself)
This is the man who went back in time to meet Agatha Christie and help chronicle and fictionalize her own mystery – that of her disappearance for ten days in 1926. What an opportunity that was he said. He loved imagining going back and letting his imagintion fill in the blacks in between the facts of what we know.
His first came across Agatha Christie when he was only 12 and his first attempt at a novel involved death by a cyanide pill. Talking to him afterwards was a real honour as this was a man who really had to write this novel to meet and spend time with his heroine. I suggested he adopt a monocle and umbrella complete with raincoat and thin scarf. I think he quite liked the idea. Will be sure to take note of his next author pic….
Durham Book Festival -Nicola Upson
Nicola Upson
A lovely lady with blood cherry red boots I rather liked. Anyway, I digress. This writer has set many of her books in Portmeirion and she fictionalizes the life and times of the very real Josephine Tey. She does follow the story of her life, but she was quite pleased there are lots of gaps to invent and explore.
Nicola brings the past and present into her books. Take the latest one – Nine Lessons set in Cambridge and ‘inspired’ by the horrific attacks which took place in the city in the 1970s by Peter Cook. Events which changed a city and its people can always be added to stories to add depth and new layers to explore. The ghost stories of M R James are also a huge inspiration.
Josephine Tey is a fascinating lady and she’s not going anywhere it would seem!
Durham Book Festival -Book haul.
Verdict: It was a great day and I came away with books and a bag so that was a winner as well. The haul pictured was remarkable restrained for me for some reason. I might have to see someone about that. But for all else – Roll on next year!
