Every music fan has a cool answer to the questions ‘what was the first record you bought?’ and ‘what was the first band you saw live?’ Often these answers are subject to some level of historical revisionism.
For rock critic turned radio presenter Stuart Maconie there is no need to distort the facts: the first band he saw live was The Beatles. Continue reading
I was one of eight contestants, ready to launch their thoughts, arguments and philosophical musings on the Swindon Art Centre audience yesterday.
And, as it turned out, hopelessly outgunned! Continue reading
Roman Krznaric
Oxfam and UN advisor, tennis player, gardener and furniture-making fanatic, Roman Krznaric is the Brian Cox of philosophy, making it fun and relevant.
In the first part of his event at the Swindon Festival of Literature yesterday on the curious histories of how we live, I was reminded of my first year of my degree studies. This was about the Ancient Greeks and their various types of love. How ‘love’ didn’t necessarily mean passion, and how the Greeks actually felt wary of erotic love.
Which made me think that just because we (in the English language) don’t give different types of love their own names, does this mean we don’t have similar concepts? Or does giving them their own names raise awareness, legitimise them? Raise their importance? Or is the multitasking of one word just as good? Hmmm.
And here’s a ‘did you know’: the Eros statue in London’s Piccadilly Square is not the god of romance at all. Nope, it was erected (snigger) as a monument to his twin brother Anteros, the god of requited love and also known as the Angel of Christian Charity.
Ahha! I see what you’re doing there, Swindon Festival of Literature. I’m founding out things and getting a bit of mental exercise. Mission accomplished. Continue reading
Marcus Moore
There’s no doubt that blogging has democratised publishing. Writers – including authors and poets – have been freed from the financial shackles of publishing their material in print, or establishing an expensive website.
During Blog Standard, writer Marcus Moore and poet Hilda Sheehan were on hand to show the audience just how easy it is to start a blog. In fact, within a few minutes of the event starting, the fledgling blog was already taking shape. Continue reading
John Simpson
“My life isn’t all dodging bullets and bombs,” says veteran BBC correspondent John Simpson, before telling tales of derring-do, which include dodging bombs, bullets, and Afghan border control (dressed in a burqa, hijab and niqab face veil).
For someone who grew up wanting to be a journalist (and eventually becoming one) John Simpson was something of an inspiration, so I was delighted that he was as affable and interesting as I hoped he might be. Continue reading
Newspaper pundit and author Will Hutton
Mid-festival Monday at the Swindon Festival of Literature, and the punters are getting antsy. They had their fun in the sun at Lower Shaw Farm on Sunday, now they’re ready to have a moan about the government. Continue reading
Nat Luurtsema
I’ve never seen a comedian die on stage before last night. It wasn’t pleasant, and it’s something I’d rather never see again.
Putting on an alternative standup comedy night as part of the Swindon Festival of Literature wasn’t, in itself, such a far-out idea. The festival has a proud history of showcasing comedic talent: Julian Clary in 2009, Milton Jones in 2010, Harry Hill in 2011, Alex Horne last week…
This was a new venture though – little known comedians performing club-style routines, as opposed to household names talking about their books, and cracking some gags along the way. Continue reading
Hugh Warwick at the Lower Shaw Family Fun Day, a Swindon Festival of Literature event
I wonder if there’s any point during my life at which I’ll stop thinking ‘cooool’ when someone tells me something, well, cool?
Hugh Warwick’s Swindon Festival of Literature talk about his new book, The Beauty in the Beast, is pitched at an aged 10-plus audience, by which I assume the organisers mean 10, and those whose appreciation of what constitutes cool has failed to mature past the level of, say, your average Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Continue reading
T M Alexander at Lower Shaw Family Fun Day, a Swindon Festival of Literature event
Children love stories, and love writing stories to entertain themselves and others. But how do you get primary school aged children thinking about plot and characterisation?
And at the Lower Shaw Family Fun Day, a Swindon Festival of Literature event, T M Alexander – author of the Tribes series, a kind of Famous Five for the new millennium – was on hand to take budding young authors through the creative stages of writing their own story. Continue reading
Festival Chronicle 