For a recent annual celebration a certain beloved of mine surprised me with booking many events at the Hay-on-Wye Literature Festival for us to attend.
The first of these which I'll discuss is the Hay Fever (Read- For Pre School Children) Event with Julia Donaldson. I imagine a lot of people will know her better by her best selling work “The Gruffalo” or by the fact that she has recently been made Children's Laureate, a very well deserved honour. Working with pre school children for the past 4 years has taught me which books they enjoy to listen to and which fail to hold their attention, promoting wriggling and chatting. *frowny face* Her books most definitely have the power to hold the attention of children, large groups of children even! And this is a wonderful skill to have. This said, I just had to meet her and listen to her event. Sadly on the way in I realised that waiting for the show without a small child made me stick out like a grown up at a children's event. So I found myself saying things like “Behave please” and “Don't climb that” to large faceless crowds in an attempt to make it seem like I had a child to watch over. *is secret genius* Now, child or no child, the event was amazing. Julia Donaldson is wonderfully insane, in an epic and glorious way. I think it was the point where she donned Dragon wings and began to hop around the stage that my other half actually began to cry with laughter.
She was surreal and fabulous and every single child in the room was glued to their seat. She really is great at what she does and I told her as much after waiting in line to get my book signed. (Hey, when I do have children this book is going to make me the coolest mum in the world, guaranteed, assuming that small children judge on signed books... I'm sure they do, right?)
I told her that out of the all the books that I had read to children, hers managed to keep 30 toddlers still and paying attention, which anyone who has worked with children knows, is near impossible. : ) Also rather amazingly, whilst the huge line waited for the people ahead to get their books signed, her husband strolled down the queue, holding a guitar and taking nursery rhyme requests to keep children, and young at heart grown ups, entertained. He was joined sporadically by The Gruffalo himself. (When I told a small boy, whom I was looking after, this he innocently said “But didn't he try to eat you?” as his first comment) This event was unpredictable, unique and wonderfully entertaining, I was glad that I went and had the opportunity to meet this tremendously talented woman.
Next I am going to discuss the wonderfully enlightening event with Patrick Ness and David Almond. I have been a fan of Ness since I began reading The Chaos Walking trilogy (My review of “The Ask And The Answer”) so being able to hear his opinions on various subjects, in person, was a very rewarding experience. David Almond is still fairly new to me, even though I, along with thousands of others, can recall reading “Skellig” whilst at school. David was a very thought provoking, down to earth man and I found learning about his writing process fascinating.
The group discussed many issues, only some of which I can highlight here. Patrick Ness explained that in his opinion a book making you cry wasn't a bad thing, crying was a cathartic experience and said that he actually cries all the time, recently because he woke up and realised that it was actually morning and he would have to get out of bed. (A sentiment that I can share! I love my bed *happysigh*) An interesting question that was asked was whether or not there was a limit to what they would be willing to write, a subject that they wouldn't be willing to discuss, for instance. It seemed the general consensus was that it would be written if the story called for it, but not unnecessarily for controversial reasons. After all even very sensitive issues can be handled delicately and with the appropriate level of respect.
For Patrick Ness, it was discussed how it felt to be continuing somebody else's project with his latest book “A Monster Calls”, which was an original idea by Siobhan Dowd, who lost her fight with cancer before she was able to share her idea. (The Guardian wrote an inspiring obituary for Siobhan that I wished to share in this post.) It was interesting listening to Patrick discussing how to find a balance between honouring the work of somebody else whilst still managing to make it your own. Patrick also discussed how his new book was almost bordering a Graphic Novel in that illustrations were used in very powerful ways, not just to accompany the text, but to tell the story almost separately in their own way. The success of this needs to be seen to be believed, the illustrations are overwhelming and almost make the book you are holding in your hands a character itself, it's just beautiful.
Both David Almond and Patrick Ness shared examples of how people sometimes have a fixed idea of what it is children should be reading, which often criticised both men's books. Ness shared that a “Newspaper” (Quotation marks used, because I don't believe The Daily Mail should really qualify as a Newspaper *pokes tongue*) criticised “The Knife of Never Letting Go” pretty much because it had the word “Knife” in the title, without actually looking into what the novel itself was about. David Almond said that he has been criticised for his main female character in “My Name Is Mina” with people saying that a young girl wouldn't express themselves in the ways he portrays. Both authors shared the obvious fact that all young people are different and David himself has a young daughter who enjoys the character of Mina as a believable one. David also shared that his characters appear almost complete in his head and he is the medium that puts them onto paper.
I found this event a very inspiring and compelling one. Both authors shared things that I really enjoyed learning and I found the whole experience engaging and rewarding.
Whilst getting my books signed I managed, as I often do, to say ridiculous things to people I admire. Patrick was pleased to sign my copy of “Monsters of Men” as it looked well read. (My Review of "Monsters of Men") I responded that it had indeed been very well read and that I agreed with what he said about crying being cathartic. I described “Monsters of Men” as an “Emotional Cheese Grater” (It made sense in my head, okay?) and he laughed and said that he really hoped it wasn't quite that irritating. I quickly explained what I meant by the term and he laughed again and said that he liked it.
I shared with David Almond that I found the fact that he got his inspiration almost mysteriously very thought provoking. His reply was to ask me where I was from (Thank you Northern English accent in a land of Southerners! I am sure that my accent isn't that strong *stamps foot*) We then moved on to discussing my home town, which he said he knew quite well, this all felt a little surreal. O_o
Outside of the Literature Festival I had many adventures in the town itself. Bookshelves were found unsupervised inside the grounds of a castle, down an alleyway, in a bus stop and in more basements than I can count. Most of these had a honesty policy and a money box you put your coins in before leaving with books. I found this concept amazing and over whelming and fainted clutching many novels in my hands. Hay-on-Wye was an exciting town, one where a breathtaking 3 floored beautifully furnished, cosy bookshop became a piano bar that would give you a cocktail if you placed a little paper bird in a cage. It may sound like I'm making this up, but the beauty of Hay is that you never need to make up fabulous stories about it. : ) I would happily live in Richard Booth's Bookshop. It is a magical cosy place full of wonder.
And the biggest adventure of all? Trying to find a phone signal if you are with the O2 Network and a taxi if you are staying outside of the town, they will make films about that struggle. :P
On a side note, if anybody hasn't read Patrick Ness's inspiring, passionate, provoking Carnegie Medal acceptance speech, then please go do so. It sums up all of the rage and outcry that people, me included, feel about the destruction of libraries in the UK.
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