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Ilkley Literature Festival 2011 (view source)
Revision as of 13:42, 3 March 2018
, 13:42, 3 March 2018no edit summary
I managed to get to three events this year and you'll find a brief review of each below. They were all surprisingly good value for money and very enjoyable. You've got to accept that the big names are only likely to appear when they have a book to promote – and that their presentation will be geared to this end – but unlike other festivals there was no point at which I felt I was being exploited.
'''Review Workshop for Adults with tips for reviewers new and experienced from former Glasgow Evening Times journalist Andrea Hardaker'''
Blushing furiously (well, it was a very hot day…) I beat a hasty retreat, muttering something about the event being very good value for money and doing exactly what it said on the tin. In the circumstances a couple of clichés couldn't make matters any worse.
'''Chris Mullin: [[A Walk-on Part: Diaries 1994 - 1999 by Chris Mullin|A Walk-On Part]]'''
''I've become a light entertainer''.
Thursday the 13th of October saw a packed house at Ilkley's Kings Hall to hear Chris Mullin talk about the last (but, confusingly, the first, chronologically speaking) of the three volume of his diaries to be published. ''A Walk-On Part'' covers the period from May 1994 – the day after the death of Labour leader John Smith - to 1999 when Mullin became a minister in the Labour government. It's the time of the birth and growth of New Labour.
Was it going to be a dry evening of political anecdotes? Mullin soon put out minds at rest on that score. He'd wondered about what he would do when he left Parliament after twenty three years as an MP, but the matter seemed to have been settled – he's become a light entertainer. He spoke briefly too about his stint as a Booker Prize judge and the fact that it was generally thought that [[Man Booker Prize 2011|this year's short-list ]] was rather controversial. He and his fellow judges had an advantage over most people though – they'd actually read the books.
Mullin spoke for forty minutes – with no one to share the burden or feed him questions and no props but our imaginations. If you've read the diaries a lot of the occasions about which he spoke would not be new, but he has the timing of a brilliant comedian and the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, Lord Mandelson, Tony Banks and a host of the great and the good were there on stage. There was a delightful mix of his political and his personal life. The time flew by with murmurs of agreement and rounds of applause from the audience.
It was just an hour in total, but there was never a dull moment and great value for money.
'''Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall: [[River Cottage Veg Every Day!by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall|Veg Every Day!]]'''
Gone are the flowing locks and rather chubby, youthful face. In their place are a sharp haircut and a slimmed-down version of the campaigner we know and love. It was one of the final events of the Festival and Ilkley's Kings Hall was packed with a surprisingly youthful audience to hear Hugh talk about his latest book, his campaigns, past, present and future – and to give us a few recipe hints to whet our appetite.
It was an hour well-spent but unlike Chris Mullin, whom I'd happily listen to all over again I don't think that I would be in a hurry to repeat this one.
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