Back again

In an unplanned coincidence I was back at the Book Festival exactly one year after my last visit. Last year it was Pat Nevin and Tony Adams. This evening it was Nicola Sturgeon and Arundhati Roy. Same venue, packed out again, although I would say the balance of men and women had flipped completely - many more women than men there this time. Anyway it was another interesting session and while I am sure those who instinctively and unthinkingly are opposed to the First Minister and everything she says and does will see it as another example of 'not getting on with the day job', for me it seemed another positive instance of how our politics here in Scotland is different. As an interviewer, Nicola came across as knowledgeable and well read and the interaction between the two women seemed genuine and engaging. Having politicians who have read some literature can only be a good thing and, rather than appearing as a distraction from her political role, this further evidence of her more rounded personality seems to me to be completely positive. Arundhati told the joke, originally said about Reagan but sadly all too repeatable for both George W And Trump, about the fire in the President's library that had destroyed both of his books. And he hadn't even finished colouring one of them in. She ended with a reading from her book of essays that sounded like a manifesto for living - I will need to get the book and check out the full passage.