#askAtwood

I had an odd but not unprecedented experience when running, this morning. I went out and did a route from Chorley to Coppull and back, but it seemed like such hard work all the way 'round, and yet, when I got home, I found I'd knocked thirty seconds off my pace per mile. I mean, that explains why it felt like hard work, sure, but how was I unaware that I was doing it?!

Anyway, in the afternoon we went out to the Lowry to see an interview with Margaret Atwood, followed by a Q&A. I don't know why I find these events so nerve-wracking: I swear, the only live performance I enjoy - and love, at that - is music. 

But actually, she was brilliant. Smart, of course, but also eloquent (not a given with writers), acerbic, and very funny, in a dry, Canadian kind of way. After maybe twenty minutes or so, I was able to relax and simply enjoy myself.

And, brilliantly, for the Q&A, after the interval, they took the questions via Twitter. Thus, unlike when Dom and I saw Christopher Eccleston here last week, the questions were both vetted and succinct! And she took them brilliantly, answering the interesting ones specifically and using the less strong ones as a launch pad to somewhere else. 

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-13.3 kgs
Reading: 'The Testaments' by Margaret Atwood