Edinburgh Notes
Each month Jenny Brown writes about Scottish literature and publishing world for the book trade magazine Publishing News www.publishingnews.co.uk.
To the august surroundings of the Royal College of Physicians for a splendid celebration of ten years of Mma Ramotswe. Sipping champagne, we listened to especially composed fiddle music and three arias, then watched a sneak preview of Mma on screen, courtesy of director Anthony Minghella. Alexander McCall Smith was on fine form, pleading our indulgence for the musical entertainment before returning to what we had all come for – talking to our friends. He mentioned that he had visited the film set briefly last summer, on location in Botswana (filmed there at his insistence), and had been allowed to say ‘Cut!’ Everyone else will have to wait for until the screening of the film by the BBC over Easter. He introduced a reading from the latest and ninth book in the series, The Miracle at Speedy Motors, lost his place then suggested it didn’t much matter where he read from ‘as nothing really happens in the books anyway’. He recalled that the print run of the very first Mma Ramotswe novel, The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, had an initial print run of 1500 copies – and that sales had since increased by a factor of hundreds of thousands. His two publishers present, Ursula Mackenzie of Little,Brown and Hugh Andrew of Birlinn, nodded sagely. There was a brisk sale of the book afterwards, but whether this was due to Sandy’s pitch, or because of the free tin of Mma’s favourite tipple, redbush tea, with every purchase, one really couldn’t comment.
The inclusion of the arias was significant – McCall Smith has announced his part in creating Botswana’s first opera house. Two operas are planned each year, playing to a capacity audience of just 60. The venue is the former workshop where Minghella sited Speedy Motors Garage. And back in Scotland, between launching books, Sandy McCall Smith had his own opera premiered last week, one of the five writers invited by Scottish Opera to write a fifteen minute libretto. His opera is Dream Angus based on a short story, and other writers commissioned are Ian Rankin, Ron Butlin, Suhayl Saadi and Bernard MacLaverty. Rankin collaborated with film musician Craig Armstrong on Gesualdo, the story about a murder Renaissance composer’s remorse following the murder of his wife and her lover. True to form, Rankin was keen to point out that the piece, although short, starts and ends with a bloodbath.
After two months’ winter hibernation, the literary world is now emerging, launch parties thrown, and the festival calendar underway. Writers learnt how to take matters into their own hands with a one-day conference entitled ‘Authors in Control’ masterminded by Society of Authors Scotland under the energetic chairmanship of Nicola Morgan. A panel including Danuta Kean and literary editor Stuart Kelly debated the Scottish or British label if authors want to sell books – does it matter if The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is in the Scottish section at Waterstone’s, but not in General Fiction? Or that Amazon has no way of differentiating books by Scottish writers? (for some answers, listen to the podcast http://living.scotsman.com/books/Podcast-Society-of-Authors-in.3808264.jp)
Scottish Book Trust unveiled its new identity and impressive website at a party packed with writers and publishers. The Trust pledges to invest £1.7 million to encourage and inspire readers in Scotland, but perhaps their most popular programme amongst writers is the Isle of Jura residency. Poet Tom Pow launched his new collection Dear Alice (Salt Publishing), with two parties, one in Edinburgh at Blackwells, and the other at the Crichton Campus in Dumfries, the latter notable for its impressive canapés and the eloquent afterword given by government minister Mike Russell. Edinburgh is buzzing with the successful launch of its second citywide reading campaign featuring Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, ten thousand free copies have been distributed, and events have been packed. Next week sees the start of two major literary festivals, Stanza in St Andrews, and Aye Write! in Glasgow.
There has been general sadness at the death of writer Archie Hind. He was the author of just one book published in 1966, The Dear Green Place, a seminal novel of a working man’s aspiration. It is scheduled for republication this month by Birlinn with a fragment of an unpublished work, Fur Sadie, and Hind was due to take part in Aye Write! along with his lifelong friend Alasdair Gray. The organisers are now planning a memorial event instead.
Posted on Mar 07, 2008 - 04:33 PM