Bookman Beattie has posted his best of the fest, here’s mine:
- Festival crush – Arnold Zable - collector of Yiddish curses
- Best hair – Vanessa Collingridge
- Best baby – Vanessa Collingridge – so well behaved he could come to a poetry session
- Most terrifying CV – Vanessa Collingridge
- Best chair – Philip Norman - not just an easy chair but a self-confessed la-z-boy
- Best shoes – Kate Mosse - platform sneakers
- Best handling of a disgruntled book lover – Lloyd Jones when he invited a woman who had “paid money to hear him” but couldn’t to sit beside him on the couch
- Best description of bad writing about art – Hamish Keith “prose so opaque it could well have been made from clay” (of a piece about pottery)
- Best unknown (and unlikely) fact about a personal hero – A.S. Byatt is a Terry Pratchett fan
- Best controversy – Fiona Kidman giving the Montana fiction fight another airing, much to Marion Halligan’s delight
- Never miss the opportunity to see this woman read award – Tusiata Avia
- Discoveries: Arnold Zable, Karlo Mila, Anya Ulinich
9 September 2008 at 9:13 am
Most enthusiastic chair : Carole Beu (woman’s bookshop owner, and supporter of the Orange prize)
Best outfit: Joanne Drayton (velvet red coat, black studded gloves)
Best unknown piece of information: Robert Fisk having a cat called Walter. There is something about a superhuman journalist like Mr Fisk sitting by the fire of an evening patting Walter…
9 September 2008 at 9:23 am
I thought your own Donna Robertson’s red boots would be a contender for the best shoes! I was coveting them.
9 September 2008 at 9:29 am
Best unknown piece of information: Ngaio Marsh was six foot two.
Best session and newly discovered literary star: Xinran
Best raconteur: Toby Eady (is there anyone in the literary world he doesn’t know)
Plus totally agree about Philip Norman as chair,Joanne Drayton for outfit (and ability to hold her own with the effervescent Elric Hooper) Lloyd Jones was great reading Mr Pip (and handling his chair and audience – takes no crap), Kate Mosse was great on the Orange Prize. All in all a busy buzzy little festival.
9 September 2008 at 11:00 am
You are dead right about Tusiata Avia, if you ever get the chance to see her perform, take it.
9 September 2008 at 2:24 pm
Yes Tusiata Avia was luscious and vibrant. Is she an actor on the side? Actually she could win a prize for best outfit too, pink and orange – great combination. Now if she had had Donna’s boots…!