Junk Journaling

Above is the front cover of a wee book I made at a Junk Journaling workshop at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. You can read more about it in the latest post on my Crafty Green Poet Substack. 

Furry Purry Bean Cat at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

 Edinburgh International Book Festival has been moved entirely online this year in response to the COVID_19 pandemic. You can browse the list of events here. 

At the weekend, I tuned in to the excellent Magical Moggies session with author Philip Ardagh and illustrator Rob Biddulph. The session featured the lovely Furry Purry Bean Cat, who stars in the series of children's books 'The Nine Lives of Furry Purry Bean Cat' in which she becomes in turn a library cat, a railway cat, a witch's cat and other versions of herself. 

The first part of the session featured Philip Ardagh talking about the real live cat who inspired Furry Purry Bean cat and reading from her adventures as a Railway Cat and the second part featured Rob Biddulph giving a tutorial on how to draw your very own Furry Purry Bean Cat! So here is my version:

You can view this event here, it will be online for some time, though I think it may be only for a few days until the end of the festival. Also, you may only be able to view it from certain geographic locations, again, I'm not sure about the details there. 

Most (all?) of the events at the book festival this year are free. You can buy copies of the featured books in the Edinburgh International Book Festival bookshop.

Edinburgh City Council signed the Tree Charter, now what?

I've blogged before about how Edinburgh Council has mistreated trees and chopped down trees that probably shouldn't have been chopped down (for example did all those trees at Meadowbank need to be destroyed so a new, smaller sports centre with added flats could be built? Did all those trees in Princes Street Gardens need to be destroyed to create a disabled access pathway to the Galleries? Did all those trees at Picardy Place need to be detroyed just so the junction can be made easier for motor vehicles?).

Theoretically this should all change now, as Council Leader Adam MacVey, on behalf of Edinburgh City Council, signed up to the Woodland Trust's Tree Charter in May this year, becoming the first Scottish council to do so. This is obviously to be applauded.

However I wouldn't be the only person to be cynical about this. Just as addressing climate change needs targets to be met not only set, so does signing the Tree Charter need to be backed up with positive action to actually protect trees.

But what do we find? We find that actions in city centre areas continue to compromise the health of trees.

Last year during preparations for the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the trees in Charlotte Square were put under undue stress by being used to prop up heavy materials and by the use of machinery which compacted the soil around the trees. The Woodland Trust  have urged Edinburgh Council to take better care of the trees this year when the Book Festival is set up again in August. Already this year, the big wheel in Princes Street Gardens has already been set up and the inappropriate development around the matures trees has been flagged up by Woodland Trust and other concerned organisations and individuals (see this tweet).

The Woodland Trust are asking the council if one of the tree officers will advise those working on events in the city to respect the appropriate guidance for managing developments around trees during both the set up and take down of any structures.  

The Tree Charter principle on planning greener local landscapes stipulates that planners and developers respect the value of mature trees and the connection between trees and people. 

Mature trees are beautiful, help people to connect with nature and help mitigate the effects of climate change in urban areas. What does the big wheel in Edinburgh's city centre offer that has even half that value? 

So, Edinburgh Council, are you going to actually commit to truly valuing the wonderful trees in our city or was signing up to the Tree Charter just a publicity stunt? 

 

Nature events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

I put together this list of nature-related events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival for Living Edinburgh. These events all still had tickets available at the time of writing (I've not necessarily used the titles for the events as given in the brochure, but if you click on the links below you'll be taken straight to the appropriate booking page on the book festival website):

10.30, Tuesday 16 August Scottish Arcadias with Philip Hoare, Magnus Linklater and Alison Turnbull.

1845, Tuesday 16 August Tracey Chevalier talks about At the Edge of the Orchard.

1145, Friday 19 August poetry from Alice Oswald.

11.00 Saturday 20 August, Reading workshop Robert Hunter on The Jungle Book. 

2045, Monday 22 August Nature writing with Jim Crumley and Stephen Moss.

1600, Wednesday 24 August Opening up our House with Tobias Jones.

2045, Thursday 25 August Tracking down Birds of Prey with James MacDonald Lockart.

1015, Friday 26 Nature Writing with Melissa Harrison and Amy Liptrot.

1730. Saturday 27 August, Lost heroes of Science with Steve Jones and Andrea Wulf.

1845, Monday 29 August Surviving the Vast Forest with Ray Mears.


Nature themed book events for Children 
(I've included all types of animals here, including pets, imaginary species and human type characters in the guise of animals)


1145, Sunday 14 August  Unconventional Animal Friendships with Ed Vere (age 3-6).

1330, Sunday  14 August, animal illustrations with Barroux (age 3-6).

1545, Sunday 14 August, Danger with Chris Judge and David O'Doherty. (age 7-10)

1000, Monday 15 August Unconventional Animal friendships with Ed Vere. (age 3-6).

1030, Monday 15 August Illustration with Barroux, Chris Houghton and Emer Stamp (age 10+).

1145, Monday 15 August Hercufleas with Sam Gayton (age 8-12).

1330, Monday 15 August Getting Muddy with Emer Stamp (age 5-8).

1400, Monday 15 August, Animal Introductions with Nicola Davies and Petr Horacek. (age 4-7).

14.30 Monday 15 August, drop in drawing workshop with Ana and Thiago de Moraes. (all ages).

1515 Monday 15 August, Canine Capers with Richard Byrne (age 3-6).

1000, Tuesday 16 August, Animal Mashup with Ana and Thiago de Moraes. (age 4-7).

13.30 Tuesday 16 August Getting Muddy with Emer Stamp. (age 5-8).

1515 Tuesday 16 August animal illustration with Petr Horacek. (age 4+).

1545 Tuesday 16 August Heroes of the Wild with Nicola Davies. (age 9-12).

1700, Tuesday 16 August animal illustration with Claire Maker and Ross Collins. (age 7-10).

11am - 3pm Willow sculpture (drop in) with David Powell (all ages).

1330, Wednesday 17 August Let Your Kinds Go Wild Outside with with Fiona Bird. (ages 7+)


1515, Wednesday 17 August Midnight at the Zoo (and make an animal mask!) with Faye Hanson (age 4-7).

1000, Thursday 18 August Hiccuping animals with Holly Sterling (age 3-6).

11am - 3pm Willow Sculpture (drop in) with David Powell (all ages).

15.15, Thursday 18 August Going Wild with Fiona Bird (age 7+).

1145, Friday 19 August Hibernating Hedgehogs with Cate James (age 4-7).

13.30, Friday 19 August Beautiful Birds with Matt Spink (age 4-7).

1700, Friday 19 August Furball Fun with Holly Webb (age 5-8).

1000, Saturday 20 August, Cornelia Funke and the Terrible Tab (age 5-8).

11.00 Saturday 20 August, free drop in Big Draw with Matt Spink. (all ages).

1330 Saturday 20 August The Bolds with Julian Vlary and David Roberts. (age 6+).

13.30 Saturday 20 August Mythical Scottish Sea Stories and Crafts (free drop in, all ages).

13.30 Saturday 20 August Holly Webb's Furry Friends (age 5-8).

1400 Saturday 20 August Talking to Animals with Sophie Thompson (age 6-9).

1515 Saturday 20 August The Jungle Book Retold with Robert F Hunter (age 4-7).

1700 Saturday 20 August Baxter the Giant Beetle with M G Leonard (age 10-14).

1000, Sunday 21 August Magical Monsters with Kristina Stephenson (age 4-7).

1030 Sunday 21 August  The Great Diamond Chase with Tracey Corderoy & Steven Lenton (age 4-7).

12.15 Sunday 21August The Howlet with Kate Leiper and James Robertson (age 7 - 10).

1500 Sunday 21 August A Girl's Best  Friend with Ann M Martin (age 10+).

1630, Sunday 21 August Revealing Life's Mysteries with Gill Arbuthnott (ages 8 - 12).

1345 Monday 22 August Archie the Impatient Rhino with Tracey Corderoy & Tim Warnes (age 3-6).

1330, Wednesday 24 August Odd Dog Out with Rob Biddulph (age 3-6).

1145, Thursday 25 August Odd Dog Out with Rob Biddulph (age 3-6).

1515 Thursday 25 August Japanese Melodies and Myths with Mio Shipley (age 3+).

1700 Thursday 25 August Amazing Plants with Christiane Dorion (age 7-10).

1745 Thursday 25 August Creature Companions with Louis de Bernieres and Gill Lewis (age 10+).

11.00 Friday 26 August A Birthday Party with the Large Family with Jill Murphy (free drop-in all ages).

1430 Friday 26 August Alex T Smith's Big Draw (all ages, free drop-in).

1545, Friday 26 August New Bear on the Block with Sav Akyuz & Ben Bailey Smith (age 4-7).

1415 Saturday 27 August Furry Friends (Humphrey the Hamster) with Betty G Birney (age 7-10).
I love the Humphrey books! You can read my read my review of Humphrey's adventures here).

1000 Sunday 28 August The Great Aaa-Ooo with Jonny Lambert (age 3-6).

1030 Sunday 28 August Monkeying Around with Lydia Monks. (age 4-7).

1330 Sunday 28 August Mr Cleghorns Seal with Judith Kerr (age 10+).

13.30 Sunday 28 August Peter the Badger with Emily Gravett (age 4-7).

1430 Sunday 28 August Hrefna Bragadottir's Big Draw (free drop in, all ages).

1515, Sunday 28 August Bear's Adventure with Benedict Blathwayt (age 3-6).

1315, Monday 29 August Baxter's Starring Role with Hrefna Bragadottir (age 3-6).

1500, Monday 29 August The Shrew that Flew with Julia Copus (age 3-6).

Poetry in the branches of revolutionary trees

Normally I go to at least a few events during the Edinburgh Festival season, but this year I hadn't gone to anything. Today though I won a ticket to an evening of Egyptian poetry and music at Edinburgh International Book festival.

The poetry came from Amin Haddad and the music from Eskenderella (you can see some of their music videos on YouTube here). Eskenderella are one of the foremost revolutionary bands in Egypt and they perform musical settings of many Egyptian poets, historic and contemporary but for tonight they performed solely their settings of Haddad's poetry.

The poetry was in Arabic with English translations (by Professor Marilyn Booth) showing on the screen behind the musicians. The opening poem was about Bread and this was a theme that wound through the rest of the poems, along with the blood of the martyrs and themes of solidarity and freedom. I was fascinated by the walking, talking trees, a seemingly silly piece of whimsy on one level but a powerful metaphor for political freedom on another level. Likewise the flying horses that gathered children to safety. All through the poetry, trees, moon and sun seemed to be participating in the creation of poetry and there were many beautiful phrases.Thanks to Edinburgh International Book Festival's Twitter feed I can rememeber at least this one:

Poetry is the startled heartbeat when the danger siren goes

Powerful rousing music to accompany the words. Played on ouds (a pear shaped instrument related to the guitar), a wonderful variety of drums, with bass guitar and keyboard.

There was a standing ovation and, possibly for the first time in the history of Edinburgh International Book Festival, an encore.

Eskenderella have an album coming out soon, it will be worth checking out, but if you ever get the chance to see them live, take it.

Thanks to Edinburgh International Book Festival for my ticket for this event, which I won via a competition on Twitter.

really my Last review from Edinburgh International Book festival 2012

On Thursday, I prematurely claimed to write my last review from this year's Edinburgh International Book Review. I was wrong, though I didn't know it at the time.

I then won a Twitter competition for tickets to the Book festival event with Susannah Clapp talking about the life and works of Angela Carter. It was a fascinating event, Clapp is Carter's literary executor and spoke insightfully about Carter's work and her own book, A Card from Angela Carter an illustrated memoir about the writer. But that event, excellent as it was isn't what I'm going to review here.

After that event I managed to get a last minute press ticket for Robert MacFarlane talking about The Old Ways his book about walking. He was in conversation with Stuart Kelly and they covered a lot of ground in their discussion as well as MacFarlane reading several passages from the book. They talked about paths and journeys really having no beginning or end and the parallels between land art and path-making.

MacFarlane had put together a slide show, which included some haunting black and white photos of the coastal causeway at the Broomway in Essex. There were also photos from his visit to the Shiants (which some of you may remember from my review of Sea Room, Adam Nicholson's book about those islands). This lead to discussion of sea ways, the hidden paths across the water that in many cases have been used for generations. Going even further back, MacFarlane talked about finding the prehistoric footprints at Formby that Jean Sprackland had also mentioned in passing earlier in the festival. When the talk moved to the politics of walking in Palestine, MacFarlane said that some of his friends there felt that the connection they felt with deep time as they walked through the ancient landscape of the area, helped them to see political unrest in a different perspective.

This was the only event I went to at this year's Book Festival that had a sign language interpreter, Rachel. She was brilliant, even giving a very fluent interpretation of what seemed like a challenging passage from Old Ways that she hadn't been shown before (MacFarlane at the last minute, changing his mind about what to read!). I don't understand much sign language, but it is always so beautiful to watch.

Thanks again to Edinburgh International Book Festival for another excellent event and to Clicket for arranging the press pass and tickets!

As ever, text in red contains hyperlinks that take you to other pages, where you can find out more.

Revealing the Secrets of the Land

Today was my last day reviewing the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Thanks to the festival and to Clicket for giving me press tickets for the events I've been to and reviewed on this blog. I've been particularly impressed by the discussions I've attended this year, you can read my reviews of events earlier in the Festival by following the links below.

Foraging and Bee-keeping.

Nature Calls.

Science in Fiction (and Science Fiction).

Into Africa.

Today's event was another fascinating discussion between the poet Jean Sprackland and the religious historian Martin Palmer, chaired by Fiametta Rocco.

Sprackland's latest book Strands, her first foray into non-fiction, is a poetic account of a year on the beaches of North West England (beaches I know quiet well, having grown up in Manchester and visited those, our nearest beaches quite often!). She explored the beaches with a mind open to discovery, never knowing what she would find, but always willing to pay equal attention to everything, whether an ancient artifact or a clump of plastic. She's found Roman coins wrapped in seaweed, a wooden door (she read a beautiful long passage about this door and how different it seems out of context) and ancient prehistoric footprints. As some of you may know, I'm a bit of a beachcomber myself and so was particularly interested in her descriptions of the items she found and her sense that they all have interconnected stories. She uses these stories to comment on the environmental problems facing the marine environment, but spoke also of a lasting sense of being on the edge of 'still unfathomed space' when standing on the beach looking towards the sea. A sort of spiritual feeling.

Palmer's book, Sacred Land, is much more academic and looks specifically at sacred spaces in the UK. Fifteen years ago he wrote Sacred Britain, which was a guidebook to the sacred places in Britain and he describes this second book is a handbook for people to find their own sacred landscape. Palmer remembers his godmother taking him out to the open spaces round where he lived and telling him stories about the sacred elements of the landscape. He talked about the fact that up until the Victorian period, in Britain we had a vision of the city as a sacred space, able to tell a sacred story (he talked us through some of the layout of Edinburgh's Georgian New Town, to give an idea of how this storytelling might work). He went much further back into times before cities were even an idea for our ancestors and discussed the relationship our prehistoric ancestors had with nature and their sacred spaces like long barrows and stone circles.

In essence the two speakers were talking about the stories that can be found wherever we are, if only we look hard enough and pay full attention. It was a fascinating discussion!

Foraging and Beekeeping

I've blogged a couple of times recently about foraging (see my posts here and here) so I was particularly pleased to get a press ticket (via Clicket) for this talk at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Alys Fowler is the author of several books, most recently The Thrifty Forager. She gave a very informative illustrated mini-presentation on some of the plant species that can be foraged in urban areas of the UK. She recommended the young leaves of lime (linden) trees as a lettuce substitute, while pointing out that the flowers make a lovely tea. Chickweed, sow thistle and wild rocket are all species whose leaves can be used in salads. The leaves of many species including nettles, dead nettles and bladder campion can be used in soups. She gave a wonderful description of garlic mustard leaves as a 'Willy Wonka type of foraged leaf, it starts off as a very strong mustard taste, then as you chew it changes into a very distinctive garlic flavour. She talked about the value of urban apples, and explained that apple trees store pollution in their leaves and the apples themselves are free of toxins as long as you peel them. She also made a very clear plea for people to be considerate foragers and to take only what they need and to be sure to leave enough for other foragers and more importantly the wildlife.Her book also goes into quite some detail apparently (though she didn't say a lot about this in the presentation) about the need to plant edible landscapes and she recommended Incredible Edible Todmorden as an example of a community that has really dedicated itself to creating such a landscape.

Steve Benbow is the owner of the London Honey Company and author of Urban Beekeeper. He keeps bee hives across London including on the roofs of iconic buildings like the Tate Gallery and Fortnum and Mason (where the bee hives are particularly decorative and a red carpet was laid out on the day the hives were officially opened!). These bees produce excellent honey. Steve spoke about his journey as a beekeeper, starting with the bee hives on the tops of New York apartment blocks which had been his first inspiration. He has designed a bee taxi, that is decorated on the outside in a furry bee design, inside of which is a cinema that shows bee movies to educate children and young people on the importance of bees. He recommends UK bee keepers to use British bees, which are dark (so they can absorb heat) and don't mind the rain too much, they're also thrifty and hard working compared to the golden coloured bees from hotter climates, which also get really stressed on the journey when they're imported here.

Both Alys and Steve have found that foraging and beekeeping have helped them to develop friendships and community links as well as helping them to feel more a part of their local ecology.

The Thrifty Forager by Alys Fowler is published by Kyle Books

The Urban Beekeeper by Steve Benbow is published by Square Peg

This morning, I had been lucky enough to have a ticket for Mark Lawson's excellent interview with Iam McEwan at the BBC Edinburgh Festival. You can catch it on Front Row, Radio 4 tonight at 7.15pm.

And I'm delighted to have a piece on late summer at Musselburgh up at Lothian Life. 


As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other pages where you can find out more.

Green Issues at Edinburgh Book Festival

The Edinburgh International Book Festival has got its recycling all sorted with these well organised recycling bins, nicely colour coded for the different kinds of waste. So full marks there.

They're also signed up to the comprehensive Environmental Policy that covers all the Edinburgh Festivals. So again, full marks. 

I'm less impressed by the fact that the Book Festival and the various newspapers selling copies at the festival are all giving away cotton tote bags freely. Yes, cotton tote bags avoid plastic waste, but each cotton tote bag takes more energy to make than a plastic carrier bag. I read somewhere that you need to use a cotton tote bag 50 times or more before you actually start saving on the energy needed to make it. So cotton tote bags are only fully a good thing if you use them over and over and over. I'm guessing that a lot of people will collect several cotton tote bags from the Book Festival (and at other similar events) and then store them in a cupboard somewhere, likely in the same place where they used to store their millions of plastic bags before they realised that was a bad thing.

So, if you are going to the book festival, take your own cotton tote bag, how about the one you picked up at last year's book festival? It may not have one of this year's designs, but it probably hasn't yet got holes in it, or a broken handle.

(I have about ten cotton tote bags, most of which I've had for several years: two in my everyday handbag, one in my evening handbag. one in my rucksack, one extra strong one that I use for carrying books, one that I use for carrying recycling, one that I use for carrying my equipment when I'm out volunteering along the Water of Leith, and one on each door in the flat just in case we need one when we're rushing out the door. I also have to admit I've picked up a tote bag at each of the Film Festivals over the last two years, this is because those were fill to the brim with delegate gifts and I was too lazy to take everything out and give the bag back. Plus, in that context, the tote bag in reality is less an alternative to a plastic carrier and more an alternative to a plastic document carrier / brief case and actually needs less energy in its production than the item it's replacing.)

***

Just a reminder,  I'm appearing in Venus in Transition  at 6pm, tonight at Captains Bar. 4 South College Street, Edinburgh. This is a spoken word and musical tribute to the 70s Scottish singer songwriter Venus Carmichael, devised by Andrew C Ferguson and featuring poet Fiona Lindsay and singer Kelly Brooks.

Also at Captain's Bar, I'll be reading short stories and poetry at 6pm on 21st August (tomorrow!). Also reading will be: Rosie Bell, Mark Gilfillan, James Spence and Helen Boden.

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other pages where you can find out more.

Nature Calls

As any reader of this blog will be aware I am very interested in the human relationship with nature and so was particularly pleased to get a ticket for this event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Author Melanie Challenger and environmental historian Chris Smout were in conversation with Al Senter, about human attitudes to the environment.

Challenger's book On Extinction looks at extinctions in the natural world but starts in Cornwall, where she grew up surrounded by the relics of the old tin mining industry, which left an industrial landscape that she found fascinating and poignant (and one that I remember from many childhood holidays in Cornwall - the tall chimneys of the derelict tin mines stand in such contrast to the wildness of the sea cliffs).

From there the discussion explored human attitudes to nature through history. Smout pointed out for instance that although it is very easy to point the finger at religion (specially Christianity) as having encouraged us to exploit nature, the same religions contain strong elements exhorting stewardship towards the earth.

The current fall in importance of environmental issues on the political agenda was linked directly to the economic situation, which is pushing politicians to urge growth and more growth as a way of getting us out of the downturn, while overlooking the fact that unchecked economic growth is in fact unsustainable and will only lead to increased climate change and increased pressures on already threatened species of plants and animals.

The speakers acknowledged that extinction is part of nature but pointed out that we are having a disproportionate effect on species being pushed towards extinction. Challenger admitted that there is an element of nostalgia around potential extinctions, but that we lose so much if we allow species to become extinct. In specific discussion about whether it was worth investing so much in saving the  giant panda, the speakers discussed the charisma of pandas and their role in helping to engage wider audiences in conservation in general, as well as the value of the panda itself as being such an amazing creature.

There was quiet a lot of discussion about nostalgia, going back to the Roman nostalgia for the Great Forest of Caledon, which once covered Scotland. in fact the Romans are believed to have exaggerated  the extent of this forest, which was already before their time reduced in extent due to climate change and the axes of the Iron Age inhabitants of Scotland.

The conclusion was that we need to instil environmental consciousness in everyone, but it was admitted that no-one knows how to do that. Some people seem to have more natural propensity towards caring for the environment and others just seem as though they will never really care.

This was another very thought provoking session at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, thanks again to Clicket for the ticket. You can read more about the various Edinburgh Festivals on the Clicket blog.

I'm appearing at the Fringe Festival myself over the next couple of days. I'll be part of Venus in Transition  at 6pm, Monday 20 August at Captains Bar. 4 South College Street, Edinburgh. This is a spoken word and musical tribute to the 70s Scottish singer songwriter Venus Carmichael, devised by Andrew C Ferguson and featuring poet Fiona Lindsay and singer Kelly Brooks.

Also at Captain's Bar, I'll be reading short stories and poetry at 6pm on 21st August. Also reading will be: Rosie Bell, Mark Gilfillan, James Spence and Helen Boden.

As ever, text in red contains hyperlinks to other pages where you can find out more. 

Science Fiction at the Book Festival

I was back at Edinburgh International Book Festival today to listen to a discussion about the role of science in fiction and the role of fiction in promoting science.

I always like to read about science, though I generally tend to read popular science non-fiction. I am a great fan of the potential of science fiction in stimulating people's thinking about potential futures (and the novel I'm writing could be defined as science fiction though I think of it as speculative fiction in the broader sense, as there isn't enough science in it for me to feel that it really qualifies as science fiction).

Pippa Goldschmidt chaired the Book Festival discussion between Jennifer Rohn and Neal Stephenson.

Rohn is a scientist and author, who set up Lablit, when she found herself disappointed by the scarcity of real scientists in mainstream and literary fiction (rather than in science fiction or crime fiction). Lablit publishes creative writing about contemporary science and discussions about books in that field.

Stephenson writes mostly novels about the history of science and has set up the Hieroglyph project to bring together science fiction writers and scientists to collaborate on bold ideas.

The discussion was wide ranging and thought provoking, covering topics including feminism and science, scientists as heroes and public distrust of scientists. I've pulled out some of the most interesting points below:

Stephenson said that the current trend for dystopian science fiction is the tail-end of a backlash against the techno-optimism of the 1950s/60s that lead to several environmental disasters and is still seen by some as a large part of the reason we face so many problems today.

Rohn claimed that good science fiction (particularly if it is then made into a movie) can reach a much larger audience than popular science books can, which she seemed to suggest are preaching to the converted. (Personally I think that many SF books are preaching to the converted, because there are a lot of people who won't read SF any more than they'd read popular science).

Rohn suggested that some people don't like to read fictionalised accounts of history (specially if they involve real people) because they don't like the uncertainty of the truth of the story (I agree with this entirely, I don't like historical fiction about well known people unless it is made entirely clear how much of the story is true and how much is made up). Stephenson said that he gets round this issue by using a fictional character as the Point of View character, telling the story, because their point of view doesn't need to fit perfectly with history.

Both authors agreed that large parts of science are boring (endless repetitive experiments!) and these need to be edited carefully to avoid dragging down the plot. At the same time, they both agreed that large parts of science are very difficult to understand, even by scientists studying a different branch of science and that getting information across to the reader can be a real challenge, if you are to avoid the ten page lecture! Rohn suggested conversations between scientists of different disciplines as being the best answer here!

All in all it was a thoroughly thought provoking event and gave me a lot of ideas for how to approach certain issues in my novel! Thanks to Clicket for the ticket and you can read more about all the Edinburgh festivals on the Clicket blog.

*****
In other news, I'm delighted that my piece on Colinton and Craiglockart Dells has been published on the Scottish Book Trust's favourite places website. 

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other pages, where you can find out more.

Into Africa

As some readers of this blog know, I lived in Malawi for two years and travelled in Zimbabwe and Botswana. So I was particularly interested in the Into Africa event, chaired by Rosemary Burnett at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and I wasn't disappointed.

Alastair Hazell (who was born and brought up in Malawi) opened the event with a moving,  fascinating and illustrated account of the history of slave trading on the island of Zanzibar. The trade, selling people from the mainland of Africa through Zanzibar to the Middle East followed the route of the monsoon winds along the African coastline. Zanzibar was an incredibly wealthy state then, not due purely to the slave trade but to ivory. The amounts of ivory traded back them were astonishing, cutlery makers in Sheffield, England, imported 25 tonnes of ivory per year. Hazell's book The Last Slave Market tells the story of how John Kirk, a Scottish botanist went to Africa with David Livingstone and ended up playing a crucial role in ending the slave trade.

Rosemary Burnett then asked Gus Casely-Hayford to talk about the book of his TV series The Lost Kingdoms of Africa. Their conversation focused on the amazing culture and learning that took place in Africa during the time that Europe was going through the Dark Ages and how much we need positive stories from Africa to balance the bad news stories.They talked about the commitment of the north African Berber culture to learning and libraries, and Ethiopia, which has the oldest continual Christian history of any country.

Finally the discussion opened up to the floor and explored the common themes to the two books, largely slavery and forgotten histories. There was also a discussion about the links between Scotland and Africa, ranging from the fact that apparently different areas of Ghana have adopted different Scottish tartans to the number of Scots who were employed in the colonial administration in African countries. In my own experience, when I was a VSO volunteer in Malawi, a very large proportion of the other volunteers were either Scots or had been educated in Scotland.


The Last Slave Market by Alastair Hazell published by Constable and Robinson

The Lost Kingdoms of Africa by Gus Casely-Hayford published by Bantam Press

Thanks to Clicket for the ticket for this event! You can read more about all the festivals on the Clicket blog here.

*****

Also at the Book Festival today, I popped into the Guardian Spiegeltent as I had heard via Nasim of Velogubbed legs, that they had set up a bookswap so I left a book there. But there were very few books there, so either people are taking books and not leaving any in return or the whole thing is just very much underused, so please, if you're going to the Book Festival and have books you are happy to hand on to someone else, leave one or two in the Spiegeltent.

And in other news, I love this etegami artwork that dosankodebbie created in response to my recent haiku.

Zero Waste Week 2011

Zero Waste Week starts 5 September. The theme this year is ‘Reducing waste away from home'. You can read more about the campaign here.

One of the obvious ways to reduce waste away from home is to use a reusable carrier bag. I have several canvas carrier bags, two in my daytime handbag, one in my evening handbag, one in my rucksack, a couple that hang on doors around the flat (so there's no excuse to not be able to find a carrier bag if we're just popping to the shops), one I use for recycling and one I use to carry my conservation work materials in. All these bags are well used and I've had most of them for years.

I noticed at the Edinburgh International Book festival that the Book Festival bookshop was giving out canvas carrier bags with purchases. As indeed were the Guardian newspaper and the Scotsman newspaper. I wonder how many people picked up their free carrier bags from all three outlets? (I didn't pick up any by the way). Canvas carrier bags are the ideal carrier bags, but to be effective in reducing waste, they need to be reused. It takes more energy to make canvas carrier bags than it does to make plastic carrier bags, I think you need to use a canvas carrier 50 times before you reduce your carbon footprint compared to using a plastic bag (though of course, by using a canvas bag you reduce the amount of plastic waste that damages wildlife). Using a canvas bag 50 times is easy, but not if you have more than just a few. So when we think of canvas bags we need to be think re-use. If you already have a bag, don't automatically take the free carrier bag offered to you, whether its plastic or canvas. That goes for outlets that sell or give out canvas bags too. Please, if the customer has already got a bag, they don't need an extra carrier bag, whether it's plastic or canvas. Specially if all they've bought is a very slim poetry chapbook that can slip into a handbag.

Edgelands

Poets Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts collaborated on Edgelands, a book about the areas of nature that are found in and around the abandoned edges of built up areas. Yesterday at Edinburgh International Book Festival, they discussed this book with Stuart Kelly, the literary editor of Scotland on Sunday. The two poets read from the chapter on Water from the book, which talks about how there are many ponds and wetland areas in and around towns that are underappreciated, unnamed and often ignored, that are actually wonderful areas for wildlife and wilderness. There was then a discussion around some of the issues from the book:


Children are much less likely these days to go out by themselves to explore nature or to make dens in wild places. (Did you build dens when you were younger? Do your children? I had a den in my garden, I wasn't allowed out by myself when I was young, my parents were very overprotective.)


The process of searching out the forgotten areas of nature engages the senses and increases our powers of observation and attention.


Forgotten areas of nature are dynamic and ever changing. To some extent they are a barometer of economic situation, in that during economic downtimes more buildings are abandoned and then reclaimed by nature.

Safari Blessings

Yesterday I read my short story Safari Blessings at the Edinburgh City of Literature Story Shop event at Edinburgh International Book Festival. It was lovely to read in front of such a nice audience in the wonderful Spiegeltent. Thanks to everyone who came along to listen!

I've been delighted to have been a part of Story Shop. As well as having the opportunity to read at the Book Festival, we had an excellent workshop on reading in front of an audience and it's been great to meet the other authors involved and to go along to all their readings - and there are still more - at 4pm every day until the end of the festival! So if you're in Edinburgh why not pop along! The readings are free and last just ten minutes so you can easily slot them into your other festival activities!

For those of you who weren't there, you can now read Safari Blessings in full here.

Robin Harper, Scottish Green Party

Robin Harper became in 1999 the first green parliamentarian to be elected in the UK, to the Scottish Parliament. Before that he had already long been a major figure in the Scottish Green Party in Edinburgh and Scotland. Yesterday evening, at the Edinburgh International Book Festival he was in conversation with Ruth Wishart.

Ruth Wishart steered the interview expertly, but made a major assumption that the audience was made up of 'political junkies'. However, I can't have been the only person in the audience who would have been interested to hear more about Robin's inspirations anod motivations and his visions for how to mainstream environmental issues into the political process. I feel that any MSP* could have given us similar insights into the advantages and disadvantages of the Scottish Parliament. The specific environmental issues covered in the interview were covered only briefly and there was no discussion of the need to green our whole political system or how we can start to do that. Robin was the longest serving Green Party MSP and could give us real insights into this issue.

Robin's book Dear Mr Harper: Britain's First Green Parliamentarian covers more of his personal take on green issues and politics and is available on Amazon here.

Disclaimer - I had a free press ticket for this event.

*MSP = Member of the Scottish Parliament

Poetry by Adam Zagajewski

The Polish Poet Adam Zagajewski read today at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. He read entirely from his new collection Unseen Hand, which so far has only been published in the USA and is not yet available to readers in the UK. His poetry is quietly spoken and full of detail and depth. He has a keen eye too for nature, as demonstrated most particularly in this reading by the poem Swifts Storming St Catherine's Church, which describes the swifts' aerobatics around a ruined gothic church. He states that the swift needs both eyes and hearts to understand them, which I think is a statement that applies to all of nature.

After the reading there was a lively audience discussion about translation. Zagajewski writes all his poetry in Polish and it is translated by Clare Cavanagh. Given the number of Polish people currently living in Edinburgh (and attending this particular event) it would have been interesting to have had heard him read the poems in the original Polish and to have had another poet read the translations in English.

Adam Zagajewski's page on the Poetry Foundation website has links to some of his poems.

Disclaimer, I had a free press ticket for this event.

Later, I went to Story Shop, the free event which is showcasing a different up and coming Edinburgh writer every day. Today, Nasim Marie Jafry read two very short stories.

Life in the Slow Lane

Two editors of the Idler Magazine, discussed slow living with Al Senter.

As the rain poured down on the Edinburgh International Book Festival tents in Charlotte Square, Matthew De Abaitua talked about the joys of camping. Spending time in a tent in a wild place can take you back to nature, he argued, and help you rediscover a self that is more in tune with the natural world, more able to cope with mild adversity and become more self sufficient. His argument might have been more convincing if the weather had been better, but he was certainly very interesting as he outlined some of the history of camping as a leisure pursuit and tool for developing character. He also shared some of his personal experiences of camping, from watching an early sunrise to the problems of camping on a roof in the middle of London.

Then the focus moved to Tom Hodgkinson, who talked about his move from city living to living in a huge abandoned farmhouse and taking up smallholding with his family. He also very eruditely talked about the history of 'back to the land' literature (mentioning Thoreau among others) and of farming didactics in poetry (mentioning Virgil among others as writers of verse that was intended to offer instruction in agriculture as well as entertain). He talked about how we can reclaim the best things from our ancestors, arguing as did de Abaitua that we have lost our once close relationship to the land.

There was then a lively audience discussion about how can we find more space for nature and slowness in our lives without necessarily moving to the countryside or spending all summer in a tent in a muddy field in the Scottish Highlands. Ideas included:

* spend time in public parks

* watch the clouds

* carry a notebook at all times to jot down thoughts or make sketches
*nap

The Art of Camping by Matthew de Abaitua published by Penguin.

Brave Old World by Tom Hodgkinson, published by The Idler

Disclaimer: I had a free press ticket for this event.

Later in the day, I went along to hear Sian Bevan reading a short story as part of Story Shop, an Edinburgh City of Literature project celebrating emerging writers in Edinburgh.

The Secret Life of Stuff by Julie Hill

Julie Hill is a long standing environmental campaigner. Her new book The Secret Life of Stuff explores the environmental issues around consumerism and our love of material stuff. Julie describes herself as an 'unashamed optimist' and 'someone who really likes shopping' but who buys most things in second hand shops so she doesn't feel guilty about it (she also admitted to being totally fascinated by what people give away to second hand shops). In her conversation today with environmental journalist, Rob Edwards, at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, she ranged over some of the environmental and economical issues relating to consumerism and our love of stuff. The event was, like most book festival events, only an hour long, and aimed to start the audience thinking about the issues rather than to solve the problems! These issues include:

are there limits to growth and how are these defined?
how much stuff is too much?
at what point does attachment to material things become a problem?
how much can materials and energy be reused and recirculated to reduce consumption?
how can we take green consumerism out of being a niche lifestyle choice and make it the ordinary way that we look at our choices around stuff?
can capitalism ver be compatible with sustainability?

The discussion was engaging and wide ranging and left the audience with plenty to think about. To fit in with the arguments of the event, Julie suggested that the audience should borrow or share copies of the book, but it can also be purchased in most book stores or online here.

Julie Hill used to work for Green Alliance and you can read their review of the book here (this article also has some useful links).

The Secret Life of Stuff by Julie Hill, published by Vintage Books.

I attended this Book Festival event for free due to having a press pass. I then attended the Story Shop event which is FREE for everyone. Today, Sarah Stewart read a couple of very short stories. Story Shop is a series of ten minute readings from new and emerging Edinburgh writers, at 4pm every day during the Book Festival, you can see the full Story Shop programme here.