Did anyone else go along to the launch earlier this evening in Trafalger Square? I have very sore feet and was absolutely freezing, but got there early so was right up at the front. I found the readings a bit of a mixed bag - clearly some people are either naturally or through experience better "readers" in a performance sense than others, and a few of the texts were a little odd as a stand-alone section.
I'm not great with names and can't recall who everyone was, but the author who read the bit about the "ghost" woman who had come out of a lake and was sitting by a tree, then some other people found her and one of them really had to pee - I didn't quite follow that and hadn't a clue what was going on! And the reading from a short story about some sort of post-apocalytpic world where the girl gets repeatedly raped is probably very good in its context, but it felt a little out of place amongst some of the more lighthearted readings. Then again Alan Bennet's extract about his mother when she was near death was very moving, yet with a touch of humour. I don't know - I'm glad I don't have to try to plan out a schedule of events for things like this as it must have been a nightmare to coordinate!
My favourite bits were probably Mark Hadon reading from the beginning of "Stuart, a Life Backwards", the lovely man whose name escapes me who read from his own book (One Day?) a section where the main character has written a drunken insulting/emploring wake up call/love letter to the object of his affections, Boris Johnson bringing some definite life experience to a literary hangover, John Le Carre who read amazingly, and of course Mr Philip Pullman, whose book I had several copies of to share around. Most had already been dispensed to the hospital and a few friends/colleagues (slightly early I know!) but there were some left! There was a bit of swapping going on at the end and I somehow ended up copies of The Life of Pi, Love In The Time of Cholera and one or two others which I will read and pass on.
The evening has definitely inspired me to also seek out Stuart a Life Backwards, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and All Quiet On The Western Front. I'm still dodging the Seamus Heaney though!