Book Festival from George St.

You can just about see it in the distance....

Maggie and I were there earlier to see Pat Barker talk about her new book 'Toby's Room' which is a kind of prequel/sequel to 'Life Class' (I've just finished reading Life Class and loved it). She was brilliant and so interesting to listen to. She was being interviewed by Allan Little, a BBC war correspondent, and the parallels between his experiences of modern warfare and her writings on the 1st World War were fascinating, especially the public reaction to returning wounded and disfigured soldiers. I suppose war doesn't change very much in essence, we just find more effective ways to kill and maim people. And then prefer not to witness the consequences, bit too uncomfortable for the general public.

If you fancy reading Toby's Room you don't need to have read Life Class first, it works just as well as a stand alone novel. But Life Class is excellent and has a lot of the same characters so I thoroughly recommend it.
I've always enjoyed her writing but now I want to go off and read everything!