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

Edinburgh 40th Book festival 2023

 

This years festival returns to the Edinburgh Art college with 600 live events, as it marks its 40th year, organisers have announced. There will be three authors who attended the first festival in 1983 – Alistair Moffat, Michael Rosen, and AN Wilson.

The festival will feature over 470 authors, writers and thinkers from 49 countries and 600 live events,

Audiences can also hear memoirs from Judy Murray, Rob Delaney and Munroe Bergdorf.

 Well known authors attending include IRVINE Welsh, Sebastian Faulks, Bernardine Evaristo, Val McDermid, James Kelman, Ian McEwan and Elif Shafak. PLUS climate activist Greta Thunberg. From the world of politics, former prime minister Gordon Brown, Ruth Davidson and Kezia Dugdale.

 

Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf will interview Hashi Mohamed, who arrived in Britain as an unaccompanied child refugee from Kenya and is now one of the UK’s leading housing barristers. Scotland-based authors appearing include Jenny Colgan, Denise Mina, Chris Brookmyre and Alexander McCall Smith, while Deborah Levy and Katherine Rundell are among UK writers.

 

From abroad the prime minister of Iceland, Katrin Jakobsdottir  joins Ragnar Jonasson to discuss their crime novel Reykjavik.

Alexander McCall Smith

Ben Okri

Anthony Seldon

Hera Lindsay Bird

**Children’s program - There will be plenty for children and young people, with authors including 

Julia Donaldson and children’s laureate Joseph Coelho returning, alongside Dapo Adeola and Nathan Bryon, Tracey Corderoy and Steven Lenton. 

 

Rachel Fox, director of the festival’s children’s program: “As well as our animated courtyard performances and character appearances, we have an array of interactive workshops with leading authors, illustrators and comic book creators. “Children will have the chance to learn how to draw manga, preserve plant specimens, make explosions with food, and write the story of their life (so far) and much, much more.”

 **Edinburgh International book festival, August 12-28 

 

Gordon Brown

Don Paterson

Festival director Nick Barley said: “This year’s book festival program is called The Joy Of Words, and it’s been truly a joy to bring it together. “My team and I have aimed to build an uplifting festival that is packed with exceptional thinkers from all over the world.  “At a time of polarised opinion and deep divisions, we hope to rediscover the pleasure of conversation; the satisfaction of spending time with people who can offer positive insights into the world today.  “This is my 14th and final program for the book festival, and I’m very excited by the prospect of 18 days in August with such a cornucopia of brilliant writers.”

 

Iain Munro, chief executive of Creative Scotland: “Featuring an impressive range of international and homegrown talent, this year’s program provides an opportunity for people from all walks of life to experience the joy of words.”

 

Scottish culture minister Christina McKelvie: “Without words there would be no books so the theme for this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival is well chosen. With the world’s greatest writers and thinkers gathered in Edinburgh, there really is something for everyone.

 

The Scottish Government is proud to support the festival as it celebrates its 40th anniversary with £182,500 from our Expo and Place funds.”

 

Tickets for the festival go on sale June 29 -  https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/

 

 

Walter Scott’s fake nationalism and false myths of Scotland

“pervasive, second-rate sentimentalist, associated with tartan nostalgia.”

 For Walter Scott - “the past is gone, beyond recall.” ….it evokes a national past never to revive it.”

.... no part of political or social mobilization of present by a mythical emphasis on

 

Walter Scott’s novels were read across the world, and his contribution to the rising tide of national romanticism, was a great one.  – “however it was great everywhere but in his own nation of Scotland.” Scott wrote of a  “romantic national culture and the rise of a kitsch Scotland.”

 

Tom Nairn, leading political theorist, denounces Scots novelist Walter Scott- ..”the destruction of Celtic Scotland was to haunt Lowlanders or the Scotland of Sir Walter Scott. He showed us “how not to be nationalist during an ascendant political nationalism. Its the language of Tory unionism and of progress”/ 

 

“From Ossian to Walter Scott played a large part in generating and defining romantic consciousness for the rest of Europe while degrading his own nation. Which led to rootlessness, a void, which cultural and literary historians deplore.  The continuity between (heroic) past and present.”…....  The heart may regret but never the head.”

 

Nairn writes of the failures of Scottish Nationalism, during the 1800s under the false romantic myths such as the writing of Walter Scott and of a bereft Scottish literature at this time.  Two examples – cultural emigration and the Kailyard school of vulgar tartanry.”,,, 

 

Scotland reverted to being a province 1800s, while prosperous and imperial. Why? Scotland became void and rootless. 1. Absence of political nationalism 2. Absence of a mature cultural romanticism. The poor Highland's world and comparatively prosperous Lowland world, and the total repression of Highland culture and social structure. The highland were once half of the population of Scotland.

Scott monument Edinburgh

By contrast the real purpose of romantic history was different – cultural nationalism was the mythical resuscitation of the past, to serve the present and the future. 

 

Scott caused disintegration of a great national culture. Elsewhere in Europe, “the middle classes felt the development for people was impossible without rapid mobilization of their own resources and rejection of alien rule.”

 

Nairn claims Scotland is unique in Europe, where nationalism struggled with its national identity and along with the rise of nationalism 1800s and the rise of nation states across Europe, as the "result of the uneven development of capitalism."

 

That the Scottish Enlightenment was very much a Tory project. While Scotland prospered during the 1800s with manufacturing, its literary voice became bereft. He sees Walter Scott’s work of a mythical Scotland and Scots heroes, as very much glorifying a past that was gone and to be forgotten. Scotland became north Britain. While Scott’s romantic and mythical novels were highly successful across the world. 

 

The real interests of Scotland diverge from the auld sang

Lea Ypi on Freedom with Allan Little Edinburgh book festival 2022

 

‘Coke can with a rose’ was a symbol of the west

She spoke of the special shops for tourists, and a marker of contact with the outside world.

BOOK Lea Ypi, “Free, Coming of Age at the End of History”

Lea is a lecturer at the London School of Economics. She decided to write her book from the perspective of her childhood and the naivety of seeing the world for the first time.

Albania was isolated and communist and accused other communist nations of betraying communism. It was viewed as the anti-imperialist lighthouse of the world, surrounded by powerful foes and on the right side of history. The College of Communism at the most eastern edge of Europe. 

They used special codes, with code words like “biography” and the mystery around “university”, and “stayed to study” – (was an informer). If accused of treason, executed. Her father was not allowed to study maths because he was a teacher. There was corruption and divisiveness – there were Marxists, Leninists and Scandinavians. The regime collapsed in1923.

 

Her mother, was bourgeoisie and spoke French and had an aristocracy identity. She grew up in Slovakia and lost her identity, in order to preserve her identity. The Ottoman empire last century. Her mother become an MP, father a teacher. Her grandparents met at the kings wedding. 

In 1919 the peoples drama when the independent nation state of Albania was declared. Things changed, with a communist republic. Mass emigration and shot at border if trying to escape. The market economy became a gangster capitalism and people became poorer and lost jobs. Parts of the economy became criminalized. Civil war erupted and an economic crisis. There was no financial sector, and fraudulent investments. Collapsed, and started looting and violence. Detested any foreign imposed system. 

Liberalism had won and right all along, great powers decide borders. The EU said to reform economy. In 1989 the Berlin wall came down, but there was also nostalgia for the east and maternity leave. 

The Ottoman empire had 3 different religions - Catholic, Greek orthodoxy and Muslim. There was Freedom of religion and Religions living peacefully and not an issue. Albania is a Nato country and close friends to US. The politicians promised citizen-led grassroots, privatization and shop therapy, 

 

Tyranny and coercion versus freedom and democracy. The idea of freedom has no blueprint – the abstract idea of freedom. Against ‘Empire” and inclusive democratic idea of sovereignty and afraid of forces outside that they can’t control. Civic engagement to regenerate they can’t control.  

**Albania is a country in SE Europe located on the Adriatic, Ionian and Mediterranean seas and land borders with Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Greece. Albania has been inhabited by Illyrians, Thracians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Venetians, and Ottomans. The Albanians established the autonomous Principality of Arbër in the 12th century. 

Albania formed between the 13th and 14th centuries. Ottoman conquest in 15^th c. Albania remained under Ottoman rule for five centuries. Between the 18th and 19th centuries, the Albanian Renaissance. 

After the defeat of the Ottomans in the Balkan wars, the Nation state of Albania declared independence in 1912. In the 20th century, the Kingdom of Albania was invaded by Italy, before becoming a protectorate of Nazi Germany. 

 

Enver Hoxha formed the Peoples republic of Albania after WWII modeled under the terms of Hoxhaism. 

The Revolutions of 1991 concluded the fall of communism and the establishment of the current Republic of Albania.

Albania is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic and a developing country with an upper-middle income economy dominated by the service sector, followed by manufacturing.^[10] It went through a process of transition following the end of communism in 1990, from centralised planning to a market-based economy. Albania is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, UNESCO, NATO, WTO, COE, OSCE, and OIC. It has been a candidate for membership in the EU since 2014. 

 

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.

Goa Xingjian

Goa is from China, after speaking out against the cultural revolution he now lives in exile in France, in his Second Life.  As happened in Russia after this country's revolution, the 'free thinkers' and the creative people have had to flee China.  He is a writer, poet, playwright and painter and I went to his talk this August at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2011.

 

Goa discussed his views on the differences between the artistic genres and the aesthetics of the different art forms - he spoke of how painting is not literary, theatre is not literal, and the art of the narrative. He said that Literature has suffered from political interventions and it can subjugate literature when authors submit to politics. That globalization imposes also. 

He talked of the necessity for literature to confront experience. Of how we don't understand 'Evil' and the 'Nazi' experience and how history could easily repeat itself. That people 'like to be led' as it is the easy way and how important 'independence' of Thought' is. 

Gao had a deep serenity and calmness about him.  His paintings are very good and they lead the eye on mystical journeys. He talked of setting aside months to paint when he barely reads at all - because image and painting must come direct (without words). When he paints he listens to music and he feels that painting is beyond words.

Gao describes himself as a 'total artist' - creating novels, short stories, essays, plays, paintings and film.  His 'Ballad Nocturne'  continues his ongoing experimentation with dissolving and redefining artistic boundaries, and with melding aesthetic forms.

*Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF)

Neil Gaiman

Lazlo Krasznahorkai

Simon Callow

Joan Bakewell

John Vailliant

John Byrne

Michael Ondaatje

This blog is mostly about music, but it is also about how music and words/lyrics/poetry and art work together.  While I enjoy Mozart, the music I enjoy most is also about the music and power of words.   
Edinburgh Festival is quite unique as it celebrates all forms of creativity in a major way - from the silent performance movement of the award winning fringe show LEO, the music of the Edge and the main International Festival, it's Arts festivals and theatre and drama all abound here. 2,500 shows at 250 venues over 3 to 4 weeks, over one million visitors.  

Some of the authors at EIBF were also musicians and artists.  For example Norwegian author Jo Nesbo who is known internationally for his crime novels and who also writes songs for the band Di Derre.  Also Nobel prize winner for Literature from China Goa Xingjian.
He is a writer, poet, playwright and painter. Gao describes himself as a 'total artist' creating novels, short stories, essays, plays, paintings and film. His 'Ballad Nocturne' continues his ongoing experimentation with dissolving and redefining artistic boundaries, and with melding aesthetic forms. After speaking out against the cultural revolution he now lives in exile in France, in his Second Life.  As happened in Russia, the 'free thinkers' and the creative people have had to flee China. 

Revolutionary change and times was the main theme for the EIBF this year. Change is not simply a good but also a necessary thing. Which begs the question - why have recent years seen such an upsurge in revolutionary thinking. Is it Twitter and Facebook!?  Those who are saying 'NO' - this isn't working and we want a better way.  

The Debates (the Spoken Word). This year the EIBF started doing Debates each evening and I went to the one on 'Scottish Independence'  The speakers were Ming Campbell, Mike Russell SNP, and articulate historian Neal Ascherson.  The main issue became around one of a hope for Forward Optimism.(refer to another Blog later for this debate). Fun comes in many guises and I had a fun time at the Debate as I reflected on the power of words.  And on how words and music together have the most powerful effective over our memories and emotions.  

My best images often come when the shoot has a buzz about it and where the author is either up for having portraits taken or has outstanding depth of character.   

Karin Altenberg

Candia McWilliam

A good portrait is about the character of the sitter and their stories.  This year I took photos of Irish writer Edna O'Brien, eccentric character and artist John Byrne, Chinese writer and artist Gao Xingjian, presenter Joan Bakewell, 'Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh, footballer John Hartson, playwright and artist John Byrne, Scottish national poet Liz Lochhead, actor Simon Callow, writer Neil Gaiman, journalist John Valliant, The English Patient author Michael Ondaatje, comedy writer Rowland Rivron, feminist Badisha, writer Karin Altenberg, as well a Philosophers, politicians and other creative thinkers. MORE AUTHORS images on my Photographic Blog - http://musicfootnote.blogspot.com/  and website -   http://pkimage.co.uk/