Yesterday to a talk by Ian Thompson on his book “Jules Verne in Scotland”. Verne loved Scotland, claiming one of his ancestors was a Scottish archer, and several of his novels are set here. The book’s publisher is Luath, named after Robert Burns’s dog which tripped up his future wife at a wedding, enabling them to meet.
Brilliant sunshine followed by torrential rain and mud warnings at the Festival. Later with 3 other authors – Penny Simpson, Keith Gray and Michael Arditti, to an Amnesty event to read work by imprisoned writers. My writer was Alaida Foppa de Solorzano, a Guatemalan symbol of feminist resistance who was kidnapped and ‘disappeared’ in the 1980s.
Noticed my friend Ron McMillan’s brilliant travel book “Between Weathers” on sale at the excellent Festival bookshop. It’s soon to be a film about Shetland, where btw I’ll be heading in a few weeks to take part in the 10th Wordplay Book Festival.
This morning at breakfast in the hotel bumped into Canadian Giller Prizewinner Johanna Skibsrud, and was dazzled by crimewriter Val McDermid’s bright orange and blue casualwear. Edinburgh totally fascinating, but have to head back to London shortly as those dinosaurs (4th Bloomsbury comic strip book) can be pretty demanding …
Great to read your blog, Sally. You’re a star AND a dinosaur portraitist (is that a word?). By the way, Between Weathers the movie is not based on the travel book that it shares a name with, but its storyline was co-written by yours truly, and for the movie project I enjoy the somewhat nebulous title of Associate Producer, which while I am uncertain of its definition, I am fairly sure it is a role not to be abbreviated as Ass Prod.