Sunday afternoon I had tickets for an all encompassing talk on India from someone called Patrick French. He was coming to give us India from every point of view, social revolution, today's 'high tech' on to Sonia Gandhi - one of the most powerful women in the world. My daughter made a dash by bike to join me - sweet child, as it was Mother's Day. She arrived red faced (the bike broke down) and panting but in time, but only for us to hear that poor Mr French had a foot infection - that he'd contacted in India - and so couldn't make it.
Would we like tickets for another speaker then? of our money back? Devastation etc and then we plumped for Fay Weldon and Paul Bailey instead. There are so many venues and talks going on here at once, Christ Church is so huge but when we looked through the list for 2 p.m., really Fay and Paul were the best on offer.
So all that to explain what we were doing there. I'm not a big fan of Fay Weldon, though lots adore her (Confessions of a She Devil etc ) and she is interesting in that she is 79 and writes every day!!! Described as a feminist wit she has countless novels to her credit and currently teaches creative writing in Brunel University. Bailey is 74 and has just published "Chapman's Odyssey" - has awards for several novels - At the Jerusalem and Gabriel's Lament among them and also teaches creative writing at Kingston London uni. Both great raconteurs, talked a lot about hospitals and their experiences of but were very funny in the telling.
So what did I learn from them? That age is of absolutely no interest to a writer, only that it has added value in that your are wiser and have less to worry about, and - more time to write the ideas that you now are more sure of! ( Mind you, Bailey said that on reflection, he wasn't sure if he was wiser, but that he 'knew more" - which i certainly agreed with.
More soon. Humanism, Ethics, Shakespere and Ingrid Betancourt to come. .. Hope you've not dozed off....
Would we like tickets for another speaker then? of our money back? Devastation etc and then we plumped for Fay Weldon and Paul Bailey instead. There are so many venues and talks going on here at once, Christ Church is so huge but when we looked through the list for 2 p.m., really Fay and Paul were the best on offer.
So all that to explain what we were doing there. I'm not a big fan of Fay Weldon, though lots adore her (Confessions of a She Devil etc ) and she is interesting in that she is 79 and writes every day!!! Described as a feminist wit she has countless novels to her credit and currently teaches creative writing in Brunel University. Bailey is 74 and has just published "Chapman's Odyssey" - has awards for several novels - At the Jerusalem and Gabriel's Lament among them and also teaches creative writing at Kingston London uni. Both great raconteurs, talked a lot about hospitals and their experiences of but were very funny in the telling.
So what did I learn from them? That age is of absolutely no interest to a writer, only that it has added value in that your are wiser and have less to worry about, and - more time to write the ideas that you now are more sure of! ( Mind you, Bailey said that on reflection, he wasn't sure if he was wiser, but that he 'knew more" - which i certainly agreed with.
More soon. Humanism, Ethics, Shakespere and Ingrid Betancourt to come. .. Hope you've not dozed off....
I really liked this blog.
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