Thursday, 20 August 2009

More from the Book Festival

Yesterday we went to hear Sandy McCall Smith in conversation with James Naughtie. As always, McCall Smith was in good form. He could probably pack in big Edinburgh crowds every week of the year. As always with Sandy there was nothing threatening, nothing nasty. Just quite a few of us thinking that McCall Smith's civilised world is quite achievable once the political class has been sorted out...

Afterwards I listened to Antony Beevor speaking about his new book on D-Day. Or, more precisely, on the Battle for Normandy. His talk was mainly about the fighting after the landings. Having read his Stalingrad and Berlin, this is certainly one to get once the paperback is out.

This afternoon it was time to hear Claire Harman and Charlotte Higgins on Jane Austen and Ancient Greece respectively. A very enjoyable session with both ladies dealing well with the other's speciality. Another sell out - as have been eight of nine events so far.

1 comment:

David Farrer said...

Comment made on previous template:

Colin Finlay
McCall Smith, in one of the Scotland Street confections, has a liberal character remark, "South Africa will be an excellent place once they get the crime problem sorted out". If the author imagines that this is possible then despite his philosophical bent he is not, sadly, a man without liberal illusions. Whether McCall Smith knows it or not, these illusions have their etiology in the desire to abide by the supposed wishes of an ancient Hebrew tribal god.

22 August 2009, 01:56:13 GMT+01:00