Dundee Literary Festival has been successfully steered into its new winter berth as its impressive expansion continues, writes Norman Watson.
A highlight of the city’s summer scene for the past four years, with its combinations of workshops, readings and informal talks by renowned authors, the festival negotiated uncharted territory on Thursday with its debut a few pages on in the 2010 calendar.
The move has been described as a “second helping” for book lovers and the taster events certainly whetted the appetite for the full programme expected in late autumn 2011, which will also provide a new slot for announcing the Dundee International Book Prize.
Scottish novelist Alan Warner, recently long-listed for the Mann Booker Prize, had the honour of handselling the new-look festival on Wednesday evening when he read from his new book Stars in the Bright Sky, resurrecting the six principal characters of his acclaimed 1998 novel The Sopranos.
Thursday’s programme opened with a workshop which offered insight and inspiration for less experienced writers on short stories, poetry and novels. The session was led by Dundee University’s creative writing tutors.
Lunch was shared with Brian Johnstone, synonymous with the StAnza poetry festival, who read from his latest collection, The Book of Belongings.Popular cultureHe began with two autumn poems. There were poems on popular culture, including Back at Bash Street, where the harassed teacher, as aye, is ready to flip.
The first version of this tribute to Dundee’s dysfunctional comic class was rattled off in 2005, but only emerged in rounded form this year.
Next up was David Rintoul, star of the television series Dr Finlay’s Casebook, who read from a new omnibus edition of the Dr Finlay stories, written by A. J. Cronin. Alongside him was Alan Davis, author of a forthcoming biography on Cronin.
James Robertson, the first writer-in-residence at the Scottish Parliament, is perhaps best known for resurrecting the story of a Dundee negro slave in Joseph Knight, which won the Saltire Society Book of the Year in 2003 and the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year award.AmbitiousThe multi-faceted author, poet, editor and publisher read from And The Land Lay Still, an ambitious novel which intertwines numerous characters while charting the changes in Scottish life as the 20th century unfolds. His characters one of them a Courier reporter in Dundee are a blend of real people and those concocted in his head.
He also spoke of the changing world of writing, how writers need to be more flexible and to think on their feet as publishing opportunities decline and bookshops close.
Events such as the Dundee Literary Festival will become ever-more important for access to authors and creative writing, he said.
And talking of Courier journalists, the festival programme ended with readings from my own new biography of the world’s worst poet, William McGonagall.
The audience, most beautiful to be seen, then dispersed from Bonar Hall, near by Dundee and the Magdalen Green…