Good reads
I picked up the Brighton Festival programme at the station a few months back and was overwhelmed with the range of events on offer.
Ali Smith (How to Be Both) was the Guest Director, and I’d already heard her speak as part of my MA in Critical and Creative Writing. So I was interested to see what she would include in the month’s events.
I wasn’t disappointed.
At all!
My only challenge was to choose what to see.
Award-winning speakers
‘Boldness in the Face of a Blank Page’ was the title of author and radio presenter Jeanette Winterson’s talk.
And it was great to be able to take up a friend’s spare ticket as I’d missed out on buying my own – tickets sold really quickly.
The talk took place the night of the General Election. So it was interesting to see that Winterson (The King of Capri, The Daylight Gate) had a great rapport with the left- leaning audience, whose main concerns were ‘Labour or Green?’
She started by explaining how her talk had little to do with the title, which she had come up with when called by the festival co-ordinators!
Despite that disclaimer, her talk was full of boldness and took us through her personal slant on writing.
Inspiration
She is a sparky well-informed speaker, mixing quotes from her own work with others. A quote that stuck with me ties in with my own research on story:
‘Of course that is not the whole story, but that is the way with stories; we make them what we will. It’s a way of explaining the universe while leaving the universe unexplained, it’s a way of keeping it all alive, not boxing it into time. Everyone who tells a story tells it differently, just to remind us that everybody sees it differently. Some people say there are true things to be found, some people say all kinds of things can be proved. I don’t believe them. The only thing for certain is how complicated it all is, like string full of knots. It’s all there but hard to find the beginning and impossible to fathom the end. The best you can do is admire the cat’s cradle and maybe knot it up a bit more.’
— Jeanette Winterson, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, p119 Vantage London 2014
So, the talk was great, the Dome was packed and the audience asked relevant and mostly interesting questions: in a lot of ways it was very typical of the whole Brighton Festival experience.
And the rest
As well as the Winterson talk, there were other literary events, lots of theatre and book readings for adults and kids, events ranging from Jaqueline Wilson and Noggin the Nog to Ali Smith’s own talk.
This was a wonderful month of events that drew together the best of Brighton and beyond.
Brighton street. Photo © Carnegie42
Right on the coast, and home to a unique mix of artists and tech specialists, this city is the ideal place for a festival.
Walk through Brighton and you’ll see amazing fashion and style too, street performers, and posters for hundreds of events. Especially around the Brighton Fringe.
If you’re planning a trip here – for the next festival or just for the weekend – there are a couple of central Travelodge hotels that put you right in the heart of the city.
