Book Festival: Final round-up

Aug 26 2024 | By Hugh Simpson | Reply More

Performance and discussion at the Futures Institute

By Hugh Simpson

The Book Festival closed its first year at the Futures Institute with the normal eclectic mix of events. The centrepiece of the second week as far as performance was concerned had to be Justified Sinner – New Myths. Writer Kirsty Logan, folksinger Kirsty Law and harpist Esther Swift came together for an intriguing combination of story, music and visuals.

Compellingly staged by director Fiona Mackinnon, this was the tale of Gillian Todd, a young woman who grows up in a cult in the Ettrick Valley and becomes the face of the organisation online. When Gillian leaves the organisation, AI means that her image stays very much part of the cult.

Venue T in the Futures Institute. Pic Roberto Ricciuti

Although taking inspiration from Hogg and drawing on Scottish folk forms, this story of female identity and digital doppelgängers was resolutely modern, and combined lucidity with mystery.

The music – which ranged in tone from playful glockenspiel evocations of the holiday camp call sign from Hi-de-Hi, through luminous folk, and into experimental extended harp techniques – was very impressive. It also featured the community choir Castle Chorus, who rose unexpectedly from the audience to become an integral part of the performance.

The Horror!

Logan also appeared as the chair of Anna Bogutskaya: The Horror! where the critic, writer, broadcaster and film programmer examined horror movies. This was just what people come to the Book Festival for – a playful yet entirely serious discussion about the current state of horror, what the movies say about the times in which they are made, and just why they are so appealing to excluded minorities.

To anyone who has an interest in the genre but doesn’t necessarily keep up with everything, this would have been highly instructive regarding how far it has come and where it still needs to up its game.

A potentially far more serious topic was covered in Contemporary India in the Shadow of Empire, with Sathnam Sanghera and Alpa Shah. This did still, however, prove to be a surprisingly relaxed discussion, thanks greatly to the chairing of Economist international correspondent Avantika Chilkoti, who knew exactly when to intervene and when simply to let the writers talk.

Avantika Chilkoti, Alpa Shah and Sathnam Sanghera – Contemporary India in the Shadow of Empire. Pic EdBookfest

The effects of colonialism, de-colonisation projects and how right-wing governments use the techniques of empires to oppress minorities, were explored articulately in a wide-ranging discourse. Sanghera prefaced almost every answer by pointing out that things were far more complex than some people like to make out. He also said that, because Narendra Modi no longer speaks in English in interviews, people in Britain fail to understand just how frightening he really is.

One de-colonisation project that was mentioned enthusiastically was the retitling of places that had been given British names. However, even then this includes, as Sanghera pointed out, islands in the Andamans being renamed after someone whose opposition to the British led him into an alliance with Hitler.

A Journey Through Screen and Time

Far more light-hearted was Steven Moffat: A Journey Through Screen and Time, with the former Doctor Who showrunner (and much else besides). Moffat, in town for the TV festival, was a late addition to the Book Festival when David Mamet pulled out – something Moffat made humorous reference to on more than one occasion. By his own admission, Moffat tends to turn almost everything into a gag, but he was a good-natured and surprisingly honest speaker.

This was another well chaired event; Siobhan Synnot’s obvious fondness for Moffat’s television debut Press Gang meant that was covered in detail, but no-one who remembers the programme could possibly mind about that. There was plenty to satisfy Whovians, of course, but Moffat – prepared for detailed audience probing on such subjects – was visibly taken aback when the first audience question turned out to be about Knifer, a 1986 musical from before he was even a professional writer.

Steven Moffat interviewed by Siobhan Synnot in the BookFest Spiegel Tent. Pic: Chris Scott.

Moffat agreed vehemently with James Graham’s speech at the TV festival about the obstacles that socio-economic background can put in the way of a career in television. However, he was also at pains to disagree with professional pessimists, saying that he could use the TARDIS to take those people who said that things were so much better in the past to whenever it was they wanted to go, and show them what it was actually like.

This sentiment was reflected in Alice Roberts: What Lies Beneath, where it was stressed by the academic, writer and broadcaster how much of a death sentence many diseases easily treatable by modern medicine could be in the past. Crypt is the third volume in the series that previously featured Ancestors and Buried. It continues to focus on the connection between archaeology, history, anatomy and genetics in an accessible and illuminating way.

witty and erudite

Subjects illustrated by slides included medieval ethnic cleansing in Oxford, a leprosy hospital in Winchester and a syphilitic anchoress in York. Most chillingly, references to COVID were linked to discoveries that the agent that caused the Black Death also caused the Justinian Plague in 541 and may have been around since Neolithic times; those people who happily say that viruses always mutate into less dangerous forms simply ‘don’t know any history’.

At times, the discussion between Roberts and Edinburgh palaeontology professor Stephen Brusatte seemed almost like being part of a conversation with your friends – but only if your friends are this witty and erudite.

Jackie Kay tests her surtitler’s limits. Pic: Claire Hutchins.

There was an even more relaxed vibe at the start of the Festival’s final event, Jackie Kay: People’s Poet. Kay (encouraged by good-natured host Michael Pedersen) even got as far as deliberately and repeatedly swearing in order to see how the captions behind her would cope with it.

The subtitles coped very well, although the reference to Kay being grateful her adopted parents weren’t ‘Tories’ mysteriously failed to make the screen unaltered.

There were references to the deaths of those parents in the poems from her new collection May Day. In among the fun, there was great deal of sadness and loss in the poetry dealing with activism, friendship and bereavement. The palpable affection from the audience meant that Kay was the ideal person to close the festival, having appeared several times throughout.

a great success

The first festival under Jenny Niven’s leadership, and the first at the Futures Institute, must be counted a great success. The events were consistently impressive; simmering conflict over sponsors had gone, but pressing political matters were addressed throughout.

The indoor venues are well appointed, there are spaces indoors to perch when it rains, and the outdoor Courtyard tent is a throwback for those who miss Charlotte Square. There are things that could be improved, of course. It is great to have the Spiegeltent back, but there were too many rows of chairs, and too many chairs in each row, for comfort.

Early lack of signage, particularly to toilets and accessible entrances, was soon rectified, but some facilities were still lacking. Many people soon found the (very reasonable) Canopy cafe, but this was only open during the day.

The outside catering lacked variety – what happened to the ice-cream cart? It is also odd that you can’t buy a hot drink at 7.30 pm, especially as a certain coffee chain just outside the venue is still open.

Such teething problems will undoubtedly be addressed in future years, of course, and the overall feeling is that it is still the same Book Festival that those from Edinburgh and further afield cherish – intelligent, welcoming and fun.

The Book Festival will return in 2025.

Website: https://www.edbookfest.co.uk

The Jackie Kay event is one of those available to watch online until 31 December on a pay-what-you-like basis. Details here.