Books on Tyne 2017

This morning, Mum and I went to the Christmas Fair in the Queens Hall, Hexham. The quality of crafts was sale was high and we enjoyed looking at everything and making a few modest purchases. We also did a bit of Christmas shopping in Hexham itself.

Later in the day, I managed to attend one of the events in this week's Books on Tyne Festival and it was excellent. In my blip you see Val McDermid, one of three speakers at an event organised by Polari, an organisation that showcases new and established literary talent from the LBGT community.

The other speakers were Emma Flint and Sophia Blackwell. Emma read from her book, Little Deaths, inspired by the double killing of a brother and sister in 1965 in New York. She read well. I'm not sure about reimagining the details of a real murder, but perhaps I should read the book. It has had widely differing reviews.

Sophia Blackwell is a novelist and poet. She performed some of her poems for us and did it brilliantly. She is witty and hard hitting. I was in awe of the speed of her clear diction. Sophia had run an afternoon workshop and two of the participants came to read their poems about the origin of their names. Both were very moving.

Val McDermid read the whole of a short story about a death (was it caused by lightening or a murder?) As always she was very good value.

The centre of Newcastle was heaving in the early evening with people enjoying food and drink, some wearing very little clothing. Thankfully the temperature had risen to about 6 degrees!

I then went to Julie's for dinner. As usual she had assembled an interesting group of people. Perhaps we won't mention the moment when the dish of rice made an arc and landed upside down on the carpet! She is a wonderful hostess and we had a great time. Everyone had stories to tell about boiler problems as Julie's boiler made alarming banging noises at regular intervals.....

I was too late home to blip so this is a back blip. The extra shows Paul Burston of Polari, Sophia Blackwell and Emma Flint after the event.