August part 1...think bagpipes, curry, whisky & ice-cream
So it has been a unique, exhilarating, perplexing month for me as I’ve been hither and thither doing book type things and because I like things in neat little chunks, here is part 1 when I went with my ex-wife (we were never actually married and I should stop introducing her as that…people get very awkward) to Edinburgh International Book Festival:
Day 1: The train is full of excitable theatrical types circling the Fringe programme furiously // the buffet car chef gives me a giant slice of his 40th birthday cake (it’s carrot and I’m so chuffed it might as well have been his first born child) // I check into the festival and get a LANYARD it says I’m an AUTHOR (proof!) // The Yurt is just as exciting as expected - they have mini-millionaires shortbread and ciabatta and Authors’ Toilets which are correctly hyphenated // I am blown away by classy, fiery, blisteringly intelligent Janice Galloway // We walk the city. Avoiding bagpipes is hard // Then to Unbound to see a rap about Norfolk Brides // a man comes up to me to congratulate me on my book and it’s only bloody Alan Bissett // Playing pool (we win one game each).
Day 2: We leave out ‘chartacterful’ hostel and check into swish hotel on Charlotte Sqaure // Crack open the shortbread and mini-kettle straight off of course // A. L. Kennedy next. She is a genuine inspiration, full of heart and humour and the kind of writer I’d one day like to become // Amnesty Reading: I’m reading the poems of Liu Xiaobo which is such a privledge and an honour // I stand next to Neil Gaiman and watch Ian Rankin lugging his own boxes of books - I hope they will rub off on me (not in a rude way) // Peggy Hughes our rocking Chair for the following day introduces herself // I meet Lisa O’Donnell who I’m doing my event with. She is funny and brilliant and you should all BUY her excellent book // we drink too much // we have a bad curry // we drink too much again // I finish the night with McDonald’s chips (I’m not proud of this).
Day 3: Reading day!!!! // I prepare for my reading by dancing to Rihanna in my underwear and curlers (I assume this is what Alexander McCall Smith does too) // someone tweets that mine and Lisa’s event is sold out. Bloody SOLD OUT…amazing, I was expecting no one // Legendary Edinburgh Festival photographer, Chris Close, takes my piccie for the Charlotte Sqaure exhibition I’m holding an ice-cream in it and ask him not to ‘use the licking shots // my editor travels up for my event and we snatch a few moments of chatter before we’re off to our reading but seeing her smiling face in the audience is brilliant // the event goes well people ask questions and, miraculously, I often know the answer…no one laughs me off the stage for my poor Scots Accent // we go to sign books, at one point there is a QUEUE, I drink whisky and water, I don’t know why but it felt pretty cool // I am blown away by the day
Day 4: I catch a bus to Portobello beach all by myself. I go swim in the Victorian baths and sit on the beach and have fish & chips and I am quiet and hugely, hugely grateful for the whole thing. Thank you.
This epic trip was followed in quick succession by this and this - as I say I am in August fall out. More to follow…
