George RR Martins Talk at Edinburgh

"I am a writer who likes to ask questions." He said he liked to do things that some thought couldn’t be done and he liked to break the rules. 

 

RR Martin brought his spirit of fantasy with him to Edinburgh yesterday. He was spirited in the side gate by his lady helpers to Edinburgh International, Book Festival 2014,and smiled for his photo shoot on the festival walkway.  He has silver white hair and beard and could be one of the characters in his writing.  .

A younger than usual crowd packed into his talk, when he spoke of how Scotland and Scottish history had informed his epic Game of Thrones, now a massively successful HBO tv series.

He spoke with Booker prize judge and literary critic Stuart Kelly, of a visit in ‘81 to Hadrian’s wall, on a cold grey October in the late evening, when he thought of all the Roman legionaries posted there and how it might have seemed the end of the world to them. This later became his Wall of Ice, He also spoke of famous Scottish women who were often Queen Regents to 3 year old kings – such as Lady MacBeth, Mary Queen of Scots. Other Scottish stories have also inspired his writing - the Glencoe Massacre, (the Red wedding) and the writer Walter Scott. He was particularly interested in medieval history and its blood thirsty side.

Martin started out writing science fiction, with a horror twist – such as the Sand Kings. 

He thought since Tolkien that most were writing in a Disneyland style of fantasy. He liked to explore the grittiness of history.

One of his main motivations Martin said, was strong characters who wrestle with the issues. He asked what are their motivations, what is their culture?  Writing about a villain can be fun and looking at their dimensions and motivations. His books are infused with moral realism and he said that he enjoyed writing about broken things – outcasts, bastards as there is more drama and that conflict is the heart of drama.

He was asked about the locations in his books. He spoke of growing up in New Jersey, between 1^st street and 5^th street and of how he escaped in fantasy to Gotham, Middle Earth and with HG Wells. 

He said, I lived a thousand lives in the pages of books.

Women Writers

Katharine Quarmby

Recently historical fiction has been selling well with the success of such series as George RR Martin's Game of Thrones which combines fantasy and history for vivid effect and also Hilary Mantel's Bring up the Bodies.   

Many of the writers of historical fiction happen to be women and they have found that in order to achieve sales to men they have to publish under gender non specific names such as - SJ Parris, Al Berridge, MJ Carter, MC Scott. 

As stated in the Sunday Times magazine (P.Nicol Dec 2013) when writer Miranda Scott published her Rome espionage series as Miranda her readership was 80% female/ 20% male, yet when she published as MC Scott her readers shifted to 50/ 50 male/female.  

Philippa Gregory author of the White Queen holds 7 of the top 20 titles and Cornwell is the only male author in the top 15 of best selling historical fiction. . 

It should be noted also (!)  that not ALL women writers of historical fiction are writing romance tales and that some write of bloody war adventures and intrigue. 

Women will read male writers and watch male movies and it helps women to understand the male psyche. A male writer wrote recently that if men want to understand women then they should read the books on women's book shelves and watch the tv and films that women enjoy!  

Cathy Renzenbrink, reviewer The Bookseller, ' While more women read books, there is more attention in book-review pages to books written by men.  Hilary Mantel's Bring up the Bodies, the second in her Thomas Cromwell series, was a best seller in 2013.  She holds the top and third place in the best sellers list and she says,' It is the nature of the World that men and women take men more seriously.'

 

(Some of my photos of women writers at Edinburgh Book festival)

Elif Şafak

Noo Sara-Wiwa