So I missed WORD Christchurch Autumn Season but just up the drag from Cape Town, in the beautiful Western Cape lies Franschoek, where every year (in May) the Franschoek Literary Festival (FLF) takes place. I was curious to see how Africa festivates*, so my daughter and I offloaded the kids and headed into the mountains.
What is it about festivals that I love? Is it the books, the authors, the coffee, the vibe? In fact a better question might be: What's not to love? The event that we booked for at FLF was entitled On Being A Book Club Writer, with three world renowned authors: Joanne Harris (of Chocolat fame), Lesley Pearse (books like Belle and Tara) and Sophie Hannah (murder mystery writer of books like Closed Casket). The event was chaired by an ebullient Mohale Mashigo who thoroughly enjoyed herself, and worked the festival miracle of getting participants to interact with one another.
Here's a selection of some gems that I gleaned:
Lesley Pearse:
I've never belonged to a book group, but I am glad they exist. Basically I am a storyteller - I think everything I write is rubbish until I'm told otherwise. My most bizarre reader interaction came from a young Korean man who proposed marriage. To this day I think he mistakenly thought the beauty selected for the cover of the book was me! All my writing is kept in my head, I make no notes, I seem to have no control over my characters. If I get Alzheimers, that will be it. You'll be on your own!
Joanne Harris:
I've attended many book clubs and spoken at quite a few of them. I love it when people come to blows over my writing. That coupled with wine and pizza, what's not to love? It certainly feels to me that Book Club members care about books and reading. But I don't write for book club members, I write for me. I too have very little control over my characters, I am more attracted to the Voodoo of writing, the making of little marks on the page. I once got a Valentine card from a Japanese man made from his hair - that's the weirdest correspondence I have had. I firmly believe that you can't express anything in writing unless you have experienced that feeling (OK so you can't murder everyone, but you must have felt murderous at some point in order to write about it).
Sophie Hannah:
I did belong to a dysfunctional Book Club once, it had nine members, all women. Two of them spoke constantly, the other seven never spoke at all. I walked out one day saying I was off to fetch Chinese takeaway and I never returned. I don't have a single weirdest correspondent. Bizarre correspondence is so regular, weirdness is so normal. I keep very detailed notes. I adore buying beautiful little notebooks. You might as well work in a canteen if you don't like writing in a notebook! I work on a battered laptop, for at least a year the letter "p" didn't work and I had to cut and paste it. I was writing a Poirot novel at the time!
This was my first festival coverage out of New Zealand. I loved it just as much as all the home fests I have covered. When I am old and very, very rich (one of those things has yet to happen!), I intend travelling the world from festival to festival ... by train.
Sawubona from Africa!
* You are allowed to create new words when you blog about festivals!
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