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Orange Night and Dunsinane
Jun. 9th, 2006 11:03 amMy Bad Day last Thursday shaped up considerably in the evening, when my book group all went to the Perth library's "Orange Night." They get an author (Candia McWilliam, in this case) to come and speak, serve up some orange food--carrot cake and mimosas [Bucks Fizz, you Brits]--and then they get local mugs to review, aloud, as part of a panel, the shortlisted books for the Orange Prize. I was one of the local mugs, and the book I reviewed was Everyman's Rules For Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany. At the end of the evening the audience votes for the book they like the sound of best, as their own Orange Prize selection.
It's kind of in the form of a debate, because you're supposed to advocate the book you're assigned, and I was prepared to do this even if I didn't like mine. Fortunately I adored it. And, as I also quite enjoy showing off in front of a crowd, and as the two or three other strong speakers on the panel openly didn't like their books, my book carried the evening with a practically unanimous vote--stunning and delighting me.
That Perth library and the Perth Writers Group still don't have a clue who I am, no matter how much I pester them. The librarian who invited me to speak (she invited me because I am the contact for our book group, not because she has any idea that I might have a few literary connections myself) sent me a note congratulating me on having the guts to stand up and articulate some ideas, compellingly and entertainingly, in front of 150 people without faltering. I am going to write her back and tell her "I do children's parties too."
It was lovely, getting a little applause at the end of that rubbishy day.
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On Sunday we went to Dunsinane--yes, Dunsinane, as in Macbeth. It is an iron age hill fort about 8 miles from here, which they reckon was inhabited up until about the 12th c. and probably was Macbeth's seat (Birnam is about 12 miles in the other direction from us--there is one massive 1000-year-old oak tree left of the forest there, touted as "the last scion of Birnam Wood"). The view from the top of Dunsinane is pretty spectacular, but my favorite thing about the trip was finding "Macbeth's Well." It is marked by a single old willow tree growing all by itself in the middle of empty moorland--the well is long gone, but you can tell there is a spring there by the willow and the green grass beneath it (I once managed to locate the source of the Thames by following a line of willows across a field--they marked the baby river underground).
Tim overflew it all again on Wednesday and took some cool pictures.
( Pictures here )
It's kind of in the form of a debate, because you're supposed to advocate the book you're assigned, and I was prepared to do this even if I didn't like mine. Fortunately I adored it. And, as I also quite enjoy showing off in front of a crowd, and as the two or three other strong speakers on the panel openly didn't like their books, my book carried the evening with a practically unanimous vote--stunning and delighting me.
That Perth library and the Perth Writers Group still don't have a clue who I am, no matter how much I pester them. The librarian who invited me to speak (she invited me because I am the contact for our book group, not because she has any idea that I might have a few literary connections myself) sent me a note congratulating me on having the guts to stand up and articulate some ideas, compellingly and entertainingly, in front of 150 people without faltering. I am going to write her back and tell her "I do children's parties too."
It was lovely, getting a little applause at the end of that rubbishy day.
------------------------------
On Sunday we went to Dunsinane--yes, Dunsinane, as in Macbeth. It is an iron age hill fort about 8 miles from here, which they reckon was inhabited up until about the 12th c. and probably was Macbeth's seat (Birnam is about 12 miles in the other direction from us--there is one massive 1000-year-old oak tree left of the forest there, touted as "the last scion of Birnam Wood"). The view from the top of Dunsinane is pretty spectacular, but my favorite thing about the trip was finding "Macbeth's Well." It is marked by a single old willow tree growing all by itself in the middle of empty moorland--the well is long gone, but you can tell there is a spring there by the willow and the green grass beneath it (I once managed to locate the source of the Thames by following a line of willows across a field--they marked the baby river underground).
Tim overflew it all again on Wednesday and took some cool pictures.
( Pictures here )