by our roving reporter Dr Bianca Leggett
Looking over this year’s festival programme I can see already that there is going to be a battle for supremacy fought between my belly and my brain, that is to say, between my two great loves: booze and books. This year the Festival has no fewer than five boozy sponsors: can I sample all five while staying fully conscious at all literary events? It’s going to take pitch perfect planning…
FRIDAY
First up: Elif Shafak. Novelist, journalist, doctor of political science, world citizen and—judging by her TED talk—a stirring speaker on the power of fiction! I’m going to get there nice and early to get a look at the street theatre and dancing at the beginning of the night, and maybe sneak in a kebab (only as a tribute to Elif’s native country, and as a tribute to our Turkish and Kurdish writing anthology, naturally), washed down with a nice pint of Budvar (booze 1)… Hopefully I can still make it into The Night I Died straight after, a meta-comedic treat in which comedians turn tales of their worst moments on stage into shiny new comedic triumphs! It’s hosted by Viv Groskop, whose name translates as ‘lively bighead’, which is enough of a reason to attend all on its own. Perhaps Cleo Rocos will still be hanging out in the bar afterwards with some ‘Positive Drinking’ tips…
SATURDAY
Next day I’m going to lure myself out of bed with the prospect of brunch at 10am in Homa. I’ve already looked at their menu online and decided what I want (sourdough, truffle mortadella, provolone, poached eggs and mushrooms since you’re asking). I’ll be walking off the breakfast in my belly and putting some fire in it instead on the Radical Stokey Walking Tour, reviving me enough for… The Breakfast Bible with the most articulate epicurean around, Seb Emina!
A pause for a caffeine hit and prowl around Whole Foods Market (where even the arrangement of potatoes has a bewitching beauty) for snaffling samples and general snackage. My brain is awake enough now for one of my double-underlined literary events of the weekend: Alex Clark’s Rising Stars. The new Granta list has filled me with delight/ panic about writers I didn’t even realise I hadn’t got round to reading, but I’m hoping the always wise and witty Alex Clark (literary critic for The Guardian ifyouplease) will help guide me.
Next, booze or books, books or beer? I could go to Why It’s Still Kicking Off Everywhere — featuring my favourite lefty Tweeter Laurie Penny—then on to two of the leading lights of the literary scene, Alison Moore and Nicholas Royle. On the other hand I could drink deeply from the well of beer, knowledge and beer knowledge at London’s Brewing where, I’m reliably informed, samples are included in the ticket price… Learn how to set the world to rights with wordy things or just make it seem rosier with drinky things? The eternal dilemma…
After a beer pit-stop (a Redemption Ale for me please–booze 2–at The Jolly Butcher) I’ll be ready to salaciously snicker with Robin Ince and John Hegley at Dirty Book Club as they read out choice excerpts from that peculiarly poignant category of literature, charity bookshop bought erotica… Pity I’m missing Literary Death Match, who were a big highlight for me last year, I hope the authors are robust enough to take it…
SUNDAY
I’ll be feeling a bit raggedy by now so I think I’ll hear someone talking about walking (Mark Mason, who’ll be discussing walking the entire length of the tube over-ground in London by Bridge, Tube and Pub) rather than doing too much of it myself. In the same vein London Fictionsprovides a sitting-down way to explore, a brilliant panel of writers and thinkers on how novels and novelists have helped to define the city.
I can’t be in two places at once so I’m sending my family off to Tariq Ali and Owen Jones (he of the brilliantly passionate and persuasive Chavs: the Demonization of the Working Class) and they can fill me in over booze sponsor number three, a nice mellow pint of Aspall’s cider (booze 3). From an ‘intellectual bomb thrower’ to an intellectual’s guide to bombs, I’m expecting to be tickled and terrified in equal measure by Rudolph Herzog in Nuclear Folly who will be talking to us about the real Dr. Strangeloves of the past… I’ve discovered that he’s Werner Herzog’s son—I bet conversation round the dinner table at their house is top notch!
I’m cursing myself for missing out on Caitlin Moran tickets, but Multiculturalism & the Rise of the Far Right should be more than a distraction! David Goodhart argues that immigration undermines national solidarity, Daniel Trilling’s book argues that we mustn’t underestimate the threat posed by the ‘Rise of the Far Right’, could it get a bit fighty? I sort of hope so. Anyway, enough time to cool off with a civilized glass of wine (from Chapel Down, sponsor number 4…) and enter into the headspace required to watch a film about my favourite enigmatic, Teutonic, postmodernist…ic author, W. G. Sebald (presented by Iain Sinclair no less). By the time I emerge we’ll be well into the evening—just time to complete my booze bingo card with a nice Curious Brew and round off the evening with some literary laughs at Things We Like. The word on the street is that at the end of the night volunteers get to have a go hoovering up the last of the booze, but I think by now I might just need to take my full belly and full head straight to bed…
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