I got my depressing programme this morning too, Tim.
Alas, one has to recognise that this kind of festival is about celebrity, and not about literature. It also seems to be aimed (no doubt accurately) at a certain kind of 50-plus Radio 4 listener. Wait a minute, that's me too, but I don't seem to fit their demographic. I would imagine however that a number of the "performers" (for such they are) put on a good and lively show for this kind of audience. They did include poetry for 2 or 3 years but almost no-one turned up, except when it was a locally-managed event and the locals came along to hear themselves. (And, ahem, they got a bit of extra money from the Arts Council to support said poetry events.)
I suspect poetry just does not fit this kind of festival, unless it's the Poet Laureate, or the almost-most-recent-Oxford-Professor-of-Poetry.
But, I must say, they've surpassed themselves this year with the fact that there is not one thing that I'd like to attend, even if I had nothing better to do.
Tony
On 13 May 2010, at 15:48, Tim Allen wrote:
> It's not just the lack of poetry Jamie, got used to that a long time ago. I suppose it is something to do with trying to fathom why this particular array of media people, novelists, travel writers, politicians and cultural commentators are such a turn-off for me while being such a turn-on for the thousands who flock to things like that. It makes me feel as though something is wrong with me. I used to go there and attend some of the events because in the old days if you were on the bill you used to get a rover ticket as payment - have read there a number of times in various groupings until they seriously curtailed the local input. Once witnessed that obnoxious Edwina Currie in the book shop tearing a strip off her assistant because there were not enough of her books on the table - really nasty - not relevant I know, just reminiscing.
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