Showing posts with label Edinburgh Book Festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edinburgh Book Festival. Show all posts

Monday 31 July 2023

Black & White Photos at Edinburgh book festival



Mark Baeumont

Tarqi Ali

Some portraits from the Edinburgh international book festival, because of their contrast go well into black and white, which is my favourite art form. 

 

We’ve had many famous faces and well known authors from across Scotland, the UK and the world, over the past twelve years. 

 

While some images only work in colour. 

Alan Cummings

Isabel Greenburg
Karl Ove Knausgaard
Katherine Quarmby


Neil Gaiman

I love the old-fashioned, graphic simplicity and impact of the black and white image. Or the way they capture textures, shadows and expression. 

Paul Muldoon

Ahdaf Souief-Andrew

Gao Xingjian

ian bell


Rowan Hisayo

Friday 30 June 2023

Memories as Edinburgh book festival celebrates 40 Years

 

This year Edinburgh International book festival, one of the first book festivals, will celebrate 40 years. I have been attending the book festival and taken photos there as well as attending talks since 2008. My most impressive talks include – the pianist Alfred Brendel, George RR Martin, Tom Devine, Fintan OToole, 

Times Change and things move on….remember the Small Notes!

While memories inform who we are and will become. The EIBF has a new director Jenny Niven for 2024.

We had the traumas and seclusions of Covid that perhaps we’ve not recovered from really

(2020- 2022). It must have been a deadening impact on our children. Festivals were closed, the main streets empty, people were fearful of hugs and contacts – we were unprepared for anything like it. We held zoom meetings .some things continue. People moved for family now too, after the pain of separations.

 

The EIBF (and other major festivals) went online and continue with in person and online. 

 – EIBF began in 1983. I was last at Charlottes Square EIBF 2019. I used to enter its secluded and buoyant open square with many anticipation – of the famous faces, the informed conversation, the chance meetings and the vibrant buzz. The power of words, imagination, academic might, creativity, poetry and art.

 

Russian oligarchs have bought section of Charlotte Sq (why can Scotland not protect our land and resources?) and so the festival was forced after 36 years to relocate to new premises in 2021 and in 2024 will set up at the Futures Institute Edinburgh University. In 2021, EIBF set up at the Edinburgh art college for 3 years. Its not been quite the same with less space in the square for press, photo calls, books shops and people gathering. Sometimes it is simply time to move on. 

 

Last year 2022, I enjoyed several excellent talks, the inspiration continues – Fintan OToole, Oliver Bullough’s Butler to the World an the inspirational Outlander author Diana Gabaldon. 


**I have many great EIBF memories! – from the past fourteen years. Meeting Brian Cox (the actor) Alex Salmond, Alan Cummings, Nile Rodgers, George RR  Martin, Tom Devine, Alfred Brendel, Seamus Heaney, Fintan O’Toole, Li Yea, Freedom Coming of Age at the End of History. So many images!

 

The photo shoots were set up behind the press yurt, where we could see Bute house and the shadows and sunshine fall through the tall trees and over the Georgian facades. Or the late sun around five creating its own warm buzz. Having the front page of the Scotsman’s for Chelsea Clinton. Photos involve patience and waiting as well as inspiration. We learned them all at EIBF. Also the chat and meeting other interesting photographers – from Italy, Wales, Hebrides, Spain, England.


Diana Gabaldon
Martin Amos

**I have three powerful EIBF memories. 

I remember waiting one balmy afternoon, when I noted a small gathering of women and a robust man attempting to open the side gate. I realised quickly it was Game of Throne author George RR Martin. I walked quickly round to the press tent to inform them he was there (perhaps early) so he could be escorted in. I was also fortunate to get one of the two last tickets to his show! Martin talked of how much Scotland’s stories influenced his books – he spoke of standing on Hadrian’s wall thinking of the Roman soldiers there, so far from home.

 

Another vivid memory is my being mistaken as the wife of Seamus Heaney as I entered the main book signing tent! I was hugged and greeted and embarrassment followed. The great Irish poet was ahead inside the tent. 

 

My third great memory, is Nile Rodgers who gave us an impromptu concert one evening at the Spiegel tent, with chat about his life interspersed with his well loved guitar riffs and songs, and with everyone singing along. What a joy! 


Seamus Heaney
George RR Martin
Nile Rodgers


Another top talk was the great pianist Alfred Brendel (always remember the small notes!) Plus the wonderful informed talks by top Scots historian Tom Devine.who has done so much to restore Scottish stories  - the Darien Project, Scottish enlightenment, Lowland Clearances.

There is a strong international flavour at EIBF with great writers and thinkers from across the world attending. 

As well as many great Scots from the world of literature, film, politics, science, sport, art, novels, poetry, music, theatre and more besides. Many thanks to the press team for all their assistance.

 

Alfred Brendal - Remember the Small Notes! 

Quotes from his A Pianists A to Z  “Be aware of the middle voices. Chords can be illuminated from within. Character - For me it has always been the dualism of form and psychology, structure and character, intellect and feeling, that determine music making. “

Alan Cumming



Friday 28 September 2018

Paris Riots of '68: talk Edinburgh book festival 2018


James McNaughtie interviewed highly respected Scottish author Neal Ascherson, at Edinburgh international book festival 2018,Iwho was BBC European correspondent in the 60s. The Cold War was halfway through; Vietnam war was raging; there was American imperialism to protect us from Russia.; there was Prague spring; Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated in America.

It was a time to the old ideas…. 
The student unrest in Paris began when male students were not allowed to visit female dorms! Old France was not changing and France has retained the idea of revolution as a possibility, an unconscious idea. In 1789 to take to the streets and make everything different.  The establishment in Uk were terrified it would come to Britain. Late 18thcentury, instead we suffered the suppression after Culloden and later there was imperial suppression on a global scale (slavery, exploitation)

Revolution – Marche On!
Students were jailed and large marches took place. They hoped to reframe communism with a human face. The university closed down, and the idea of self-management and independence took hold. 

In Berlin, there was the revival of late Marxism, to rediscover yourself, and create revolution. 
The Prague Spring - Eastern block, not Marxism. Polish revolutions, demonstrations and democracy at the level of the workplace. The communication of ideas was so important.
Riot police were used to smash communism/ republicanism to protect the state and there was intense tension
De Gaullewas an authoritarian general and highly presidential, his aim was to defend old France. Are you red or white? There was a frozen France.

The Sorbonne was a centre of revolution and barricade. 
The noise and sight of revolution was scary, with huge crowds gathering. Revolution ‘morphed’ and everything changes, institutions collapse, anything is possible. It is all intoxicating, all brothers in arms. Tear gas was used and violence and the French public were unaware. In Munich a student was killed by a brick. Neal believed, considering the level of violence more students were killed. 

It doesn’t last long though and leads to a new situation. Things began to subside and some scenes of dissolution and the beginning of a general strike. Germany was deeply against communism. 

 

The Legacy of the Paris Riots:  In France, the communists were divided. De Gaulle was protected by the French army in Germany. But the riots eventually defeated De Gaulle, who resigned a few months later.

There were changes in the Soviet system to stop this ever happening again. There were a  change in the social institutions with younger people in positions of power. It scared the established orders, that they could be overthrown; both America and Russia were both shaken. There was 67,000 killed in Vietnam. There were aspirations In Northern Ireland for democracy, and peoples marches. The media was extreme .

It all forced reforms in Germany, not suffocated by bureaucracy and institutions. It was a revelation and changed how people related to each other. Many of the rioters fled – and asked, where is the next barricade? Others concentrated on change in more humane and different ways, such as educating children. 

There was no time to chat over the unstable, leaderless and corrupt situation today. A very illuminating and highly interesting chat. 
This talk was part of EIBF Freedom and Equality series of events.  Vote for The Death of the Fronsac by Neal Ascherson in the First Book award. 

Friday 31 August 2018

Edinburgh Book Festival (EIBF) 2018 Photos

Karl Ove Knaasgard
Freedom to make the stories that shape us
Freedom to travel, the horizons we will know and understand, different landscapes, challenging people, new perspectives…

Many spoke of moving on from divisions – but also about us all having a voice. Activist and business women Gina Miller said these are dangerous times, we cannot afford to keep quiet, with her book 'Rise'. Chelsea Clinton was there to talk about women's voices, with her book 'She Persisted.' 

Neal Ascherson and James Naughtie the 1968 Year of Unrest and freedom spoke of the Paris riots of 68, in France they continue to believe they can make a difference. Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis spoke of the difficulties inherent in Europe but also the peace it has afforded us. 
Brian May

There is such a wide diversity of writers at EIBF – 
the big established names, the aspiring new writers, award winners, celebrities, sportsmen, politicians, academics, poets, musicians, artists, critics, crime writers, comedians, novelists, illustrators, children’s authors, psychologists, medical writers, economics, business people.

Bringing different voices together from across the globe, creates an inspiring place to exchange ideas, renew and interact..
The book festival provides an important balance to the daft comedy or the absurd at the Fringe - everything goes in August in Edina. The backdrop of Charlottes Square puts EIBF at the heart of Edina’s historic Georgian new town: the photographers come here from Spain and Italy. 
Chris Brookmyre

 TALKS EIBF
Paris Riots 68, with Neal Ascherson and James Naughtie
The 1968 Year of Unrest and freedom
Yanis Varoufakis
Karl Ove Knaasgard
Michael Marra: Arrest This Moment
Tom Devine: English in Scotland
Gina Miller; Rise

BOOKS
The Gathering poems – Alexander McCall Smith
Gina Miller
There were problems with several writers gaining visas to attend EIBF. Sadly too this is the last year that Scotland will be in the EU, because of this unwanted Brexit being imposed on us– and this has very serious difficulties for an international festival on this scale. 
Activist and business women Gina Miller said these are dangerous times, and we cannot afford to keep quiet. She spoke of moving on from past divisions – and I agree – but moving past our extreme and feudal wealth divisions will not be so easy. It is the system here that needs changed.
False tribalism and division must end for the sake of our country. But there are differences here. I believe difference and informed different views are essential to reach a realistic consensus. But artificial tribes, around old, ignorant hatreds have no place in a progressive democracy.  It is a total fallacy that ’Brexit’ is about any kind of independence – its about leaving the world’s most successful trading block and stopping immigration. By contrast Scotland needs and desires immigration.  
How can we best protect our civil rights. Maybe if Scotland does this, other parts of England will follow. Recently I saw a map of who owns Scotland recently, and I was shocked by the tiny white sections of publicly owned land. Scotland has the most unequal land ownership in the world. I hope this isn’t all about money and that we can all have an equal voice. We need a culture of equal chances and co-operation, that starts in the early years. of education. 

We must act, and act soon to change all that.  
Chelsea Clinton
Yanis Varoufakis, Maria Alyokhina (Pussy Riot)

**What freedoms do we cherish? Maria Alyokhina fled from Russia to perform in Edinburgh. 

Interesting article on Democracy in Sunday Herald – that into todays world of peer to peer interconnectedness -  this centralised, top down state of government that worked centuries ago is no longer working for us.