Bradford Lit Fest: The Kick-off


400 Writers. 300 Events. 10 Days. One City.

Bradford Lit Fest is here again! It's truly incredible how this world-class festival has been built up in only three years by Syima Aslam and Irna Qureshi. In true Bradford style, it's a cutting-edge festival that reflects our city's diversity and desire to discuss religion and politics openly. It's also an intelligent festival.  There are serious academic discussions with serious academics, alongside fun, family events. And on the menu for 2017, a whole stream on Fairy Tales, Myth and Legend!

This year, I have been offered a feedback pass by the festival organisers, which means I will be going to LOADS of events!  And I'm going to attempt to blog about every single one of them.

My first event is Mastering Eloquence with linguist David Crystal.  I've heard David - and his actor son Ben Crystal - speak more than once at Swanwick Writers' Summer School, so I know to expect something good.

David doesn't disappoint.  He keeps us entertained and laughing, while basically teaching us how to make a public speech, and very much demonstrates that old authors' adage: "Show, don't tell."

I now feel enthused for tomorrow, when the festival begins in earnest! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Praise of Hairy Women

Image
Who doesn't love Lettie Lutz, the Bearded Lady character in The Greatest Showman, who sings   the iconic anthem, This is Me ? Yesterday, my daughter took me to a singalong version of the film for a Mother's Day treat, and we both belted out This is Me at the tops of our voices. Both Lettie and the song have become symbols for anyone who feels marginalised or different. It so happens that last week I watched another film about a hairy woman, the very beautiful Norwegian coming-of-age film,   Løvekvinnen , or The Lion Woman, based on a book by   Erik Fosnes Hanson.   It tells the story of Eva Arctander, who is born in a small town in the early 20th century and struggles to find her place in the world. Especially, it concerns her relationship with her stationmaster father, widowed at her birth. I loved this film - which I watched on Netflix - and I definitely want to see it again. One of my best reads of last year was Orphans of the Carnival by Carol Bi...
Read more

Beauty and the Beast: King of the Wood

Image
She asked for a rose.  Her father reaches out to pluck one.  Suddenly, a Beast appears, furious, accusing him of theft.  The penalty is death.  Or the surrender of his daughter. But why such a harsh penalty for plucking a rose?  Much has been said - or invented - on the possible meaning of the rose.  When the last petal falls, the Beast's fate is sealed eternally.  It is the first thing he has learned to love.  It symbolises virginity; the plucking of the rose mirrors the deflowering of the daughter; the aristocratic Beast is excercising his  droit du seigneur  over Beauty, the merchant's child. But why should the plucking of a flower carry such a heavy penalty?  And why does the same motif occur in other fairy tales?  For example, Rapunzel , in which the father must sacrifice his child as payment for picking herbs from the Witch's garden. One answer may lie in ancient mythology.  Most ancient polytheistic religions have s...
Read more

St Theresa and Zellandine: The Agony and the Ecstasy

Image
"Zellandine and Troylus" by Anna Hopkinson, 2019 [Warning: contains sexual content] As Asexual Myths & Tales comes out this week, I would like to return to one of the most controversial stories from Asexual Fairy Tales , “Zellandine and Troylus”. The reaction of some readers to this story almost caused me to abandon writing the second volume of tales. Opinions were raised about the "lack of consent" in the story and how offensive it was. (Yes, yes, I know. Never read your own reviews). Be assured, I take this kind of thing very seriously. I've tried very hard to put trigger warnings into Myths & Tales . And there is also a story - "The True Love Knot" which could be considered the antithesis of "Zellandine". I won't give any spoilers here. As I wrote in Asexual Fairy Tales : “Zellandine and Troylus” is one of the earliest known versions of “Sleeping Beauty” and comes from the medieval French romance Perceforest (c.1330-44). It als...
Read more