Across the Forth - and Black Rock!

We had 3 events today at the book festival.

1 - a workshop supposedly on Katherine Mansfield, but we spent 15 minutes introducing ourselves and the facilitator spent 1/2 hour telling us about her own graphic novel based on KM, then a couple of people read aloud one short story. The result was very frustrating - We could have read the story ourselves, as no time was left for insight or discussion on her work. A few years ago we had John Mullen who was so stimulating and knowledgeable so I was very disappointed.

2- William Dalrymple on his new book about the Koinoor diamond. The pace of his talk on the history of it was fast, and he spoke well, but there was no time for questions at the end.

3- hooray for Ali Smith in conversation with a chap who asked good questions and encouraged her to talk. He was not on an ego trip. She was clever and funny, and only read for a few minutes from her books "Autumn" - the post-Brexit novel. It sounded wonderful read aloud but I find her work difficult. I should give it a go,. She said how lucky she was to have had the benefit of a Scottish education, and how privileged she felt to have been able to steep herself in the country's rich heritage of literature.

We dashed for our train - what a lovely evening. This blip is taken from the train as we approached Kinghorn. Arthur's Seat and the city conurbation is on the left and the Pentlands on the right. I wish we'd had time for a walk.