I was flying solo at this year’s Melbourne Writers Festival, as my usual co-pilot was MIA somewhere north of the border.
It wasn’t nearly as much fun on my own, although I did encourage some of my bookclub ladies to attend one of the sessions with me.
And I still have reservations about the logistics and organisation of the Festival now it is at Federation Square. Sydney, I do declare (pinning my colours firmly to the mast), puts on a much more enjoyable Festival.
As M wasn’t joining me for a solid weekend of sessions, this year I spread myself out over the ten days and there were a couple of highlights among those sessions.
I saw William Shawcross (Queen Elizabeth, Murdoch), Brenda Niall (The Boyds) and Francis Wheen (Karl Marx) speak about their experiences of writing biographies. All three were such engaging and entertaining speakers that I was sorry when the session ended. In writing the authorised biography of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, Shawcross was given complete access to the Royal archives at Windsor Castle (imagine!). His descriptions of the Queen Mother’s letters, written and received since she was a girl of 10 were fascinating. I wasn’t going to buy any books at the Festival this year…but I couldn’t resist.
And even without M there, I remembered all she has taught me over the years about her (patent-pending) author signing queuing system, and I was first in line to get my copy signed.
I don’t know when I’ll ever get the time to actually read the book though…it’s 1,000 pages.
The other highlight was a session entitled, “Who tells the past and how?” It was structured as a 90 minute debate with two teams of speakers – historians and writers who draw heavily on history in their work – debating that ‘history is best left to the historians’. This session was chaired by Radio National’s Michelle Rayner with Robyn Annear, Susan Aykut, Rachel Buchanan, Graeme Davison, Prof. Alistair Thomson and Hannie Rayson, and again was entertaining and enlightening, although the former schoolgirl debater in me thought the affirmative team missed the obvious opportunity to define history and historians in such a way they left the negative with no argument: i.e painters paint, writers write, historians recount history… Anyway, they still did a much better job of it than I would have.
Robyn Annear (Bearbrass and A City Lost & Found: Whelan the Wrecker’s Melbourne) was particularly amusing when she decided to ‘footnote’ her speech with the aid of two bells, to highlight how the main purpose of footnoting in historians’ work is to “bore the buggery out of the reader”.
On the Saturday, Federation Square’s regular weekly book market was on in the Atrium. It is an excellent sale of second-hand books – very recent titles for less than half what you’d pay new. So my resolve not to buy any more books was weakened when I saw an as-new copy of Geoffrey Blainey’s Black Kettle and Full Moon …for $12. I’ve borrowed it twice from the local library but always had to return it before I’ve had a chance to read it. This way I can not read it permanently!
So, this year’s MWF was still interesting and fun…but not nearly as much so as when M and I tackle it together!
(Visited 60 times, 1 visits today)
