… and not a whimper. It’s all over now, the authors are flying off, many heading to the Sydney Writers Festival.
I took in 3 sessions on Sunday, An hour with Anne Enright, a session with Loretta Napoleoni and John Gray and the grand finale. Standouts of the day:
- Anne Enright reading from her new book of short stories. I pre-judged her as a bit downbeat, but she did the funniest reading about a cleaner having 3 wishes, wishing for Raquel Welch’s body and being annoyed with the silicon and arthritis.
- Chris Trotter singing Bob Dylan’s The Chimes of Freedom at the end of the session on globalisation wth Loretta and John Gray.
Books on buses – now this was genius.
- Steve Braunias read from some ridiculous NZ conspiracy book (no, not Ian Wishart), and Heather O’Neill confessed to being a rock biography fan – especially “No one gets out of here alive” (should I be ashamed to admit I loved that too? Its the Doors (man!).
- Sarah Hall confessed a predeliction for “how to” books and read from a 1971 book about undoing a maiden – it seemed to involved taking a girl to a railway station and having your wicked way with her in a variety of locations, including engineering and coal sheds …
- Luke Davies talked about “The Story of O” (it’s a bit saucy and “Eyes wide shut”ish – oh sorry I have read this too). And the razzle mag Oui.
- Our own Kate de Goldi praising the joys of “Philharmonic”, a 1970s fiesta of classical music and naughtiness.
So big thanks to my colleagues Richard, Joyce and Philip, and the team back at Christchurch for making this happen, and to all the authors and book lovers we’ve met. Ka kite ano.
