This event was subtitled, “We are all from somewhere else.” The subject was her new book The Mara Crossing – or rather, the many fascinating aspects of that book and the many thoughts they promote. In a mixture of prose and poetry, Ruth moves from the earliest forms of life on the planet, to many forms of migration, especially those of birds, with which she is greatly taken, and even of jellyfish, to the migration of refugees and asylums seekers, which she observed at the edge of Europe, in Greece, recently.

Chair James Naughtie commented on the amazing range of the book and the great research that must have gone into it, as well as the rich poetic content. However, the poem with the continual refrain, “You go,” with which Ruth Padel ended could, I felt, have made its point very effectively more briefly.

Yet, this is a book both to dip into and to read with thoroughness, and one which cannot fail to make the reader more appreciative of the amazing world we live in, and more concerned to preserve and sustain it in the face of our human depredations.

TC

Toby’s Room, Pat Barker’s latest novel, is a sequel to her acclaimed Life Class. She mentioned reading in the papers that this was going to be a trilogy, so she is now a couple of chapters into the next book. She has returned to the First World War as a topic; Elinor’s brother Toby is missing presumed dead. There is a mysterious secret concerning brother and sister in 1912. Kit Neville was her fellow art student, and he returns from the war with a disfigured face. In the extract that Pat Barker read at the event we find Neville – a difficult and irascible person – wearing a face mask of the very handsome Rupert Brooke – also killed in the war. He jokes about causing panic when removing his mask on the London tube.

Elinor seeks the truth about what happened to her brother, and believes Kit Neville can help her discover that. This very vividly written novel is a worthy addition to Pat Barker’s considerable oeuvre. Readers may be familiar with her Regeneration trilogy, which also concerns the effects of fighting in the First World War and which was filmed. This new novel asks how far we want to face the truth, both of what has been done to the injured who are in our midst, and what really happened in the course of conflict.

TC

In 2010 Polly Toynbee and David Walker published a volume called, The Verdict, an appraisal of the achievements and lack of them of the outgoing Labour government. Now, just in time for this Book Festival, they have produced a short but incisive volume called Dogma and Disarray: Cameron at Half-time. This was the main focus of today’s discussion, where Toynbee and Walker made a series of alternate statements outlining the ways in which they claimed the Conservative opposition had misled the public in terms of their intentions, and then the radical ways in which the ensuing government were using the crisis to reshape much of British society in an image comfortable to them and their powerful friends.

There was very concerned discussion of the damage the Lansley reforms were seen as doing to the National Health Service. Some in the audience seemed to feel safely glad that these reforms did not affect Scotland, but there were warning voices suggesting that this security may be short-lived. Polly Toynbee also suggested Scotland needed to think of the level of taxation it would be prepared to tolerate when independent to maintain the kind of services it desired. She was perhaps thinking of economies of scale when she said that larger countries could more efficiently provide high quality public services.

These two writers clearly appeared to feel that things would go from bad to worse for the present British government, and that it would not last beyond one term. They provoked a range of responses, with some audience members referring to other political discussions at this festival. Toynbee, Walker and their books will encourage much vigorous discussion for the foreseeable future.

TC

Many of us know John Burnside for his poetry, for which he has won an almost embarrassing number of prizes, most recently for the very resonant and suggestive Black Cat Bone. Today we learned more about the man who lies behind the poetry, and about his political concerns and enthusiasms.

John Burnside has become fascinated by the life of David Gilbert, an anti-imperialist American author and activist who is serving time in a U S prison for his part in an attempted robbery. He was involved as a driver, but his sentence is long. John Burnside is working on a novel inspired by Gilbert’s life. He describes him as a gentle man who is happy to be an inspiration to others from where he is.

John Burnside was, if anything, keener to enthuse the audience about the writings of David Gilbert than about his own, and he had brought quite a pile of copies of Gilbert’s book, Love and Struggle, published in the U S A by PM press. The book recounts the experience of a political radical in the 1960s, amongst other things, a time which now appears historical. ( I lived through it, and not only that decade but the 70s are often misrepresented now – television accounts of that decade can now  cause wry smiles.)

The discussion was wide ranging, covering what was and was not achieved back then and the chances of change now, plus the possibilities and restrictions made available by new technology.

John Burnside is a prolific writer, with much poetry, fiction and autobiographical non-fiction to his name (his memoirs  A Lie About My Father , and Waking up in Toytown  were available today.) I very much look forward to seeing the publication of his new novel.

TC

This was a discussion of the continued influence of one of the most iconic of early twentieth century writers. Sadly, neither the Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai nor the highly regarded Chinese novelist Can Xue were able to be there. However, chair Daniel Medin has written a study of Kafka’s influence, focusing particularly on the American Philip Roth, originally famous for Portnoy’s Complaint, the South African J M Coetzee, and the German writer who lived most of his career in England, W G Sebald.

There was plenty of time for a lively discussion, covering the status of Kafka and how he compares to other significant figures in modern western literature, who, it could be argued, create more deeply felt social structures and a wider emotional range; but it was felt that his labyrinth tended to draw in and seduce the reader. Particular reference was made to the way that people’s students tended to find Kafka “easy” whilst perhaps missing his depths.

The way in which people in many different countries and cultures could identify with Kafkaesque situations was seen as evidence that he had pinpointed an aspect of human existence not often highlighted in writing, and which could be related to in China, in European dictatorships, under communism and in today’s increasingly surveilled  and bureaucratised world.

This was a very involving discussion of the work and legacy of a writer who will continue to be read and talked about, no matter what the critical view of his position becomes.

TC

Lavinia Greenlaw’s most recent collection of poetry is called The Casual Perfect. She is also well known for writing opera libretti, radio dramas and essays on art. Her absorbing poems reflect her fascination with the depth that lies beneath the ordinary and everyday.

Marie Howe is a celebrated American writer and teacher, who began by saying how she loved Edinburgh and how it was different from what she imagined. Many British people say they love New York – but if you are familiar with either of these two cities, it is likely that the contrast between them will make the lesser known attractive – which is not to say that Edinburgh is anything other than a city of great charm and beauty, and a very fine place in which to live.

Marie Howe also has poems which make the everyday special, sometimes through a religious connection. She has a series of poems in which the Virgin Mary reflects on many  things from the Annunciation onwards.

These are two collections of poems which appear easy to assimilate at first reading, but which have depths that will be revealed by further consideration.

TC

Paul Durcan is a deservedly popular poet who was greeted enthusiastically this morning. He began by reading the first poem in his new collection. Praise in which I Live and Move and have my Being, a poem called On Glimpsing a Woman in Hodges Figgis Bookshop in Dublin. This details Durcan observing a woman writing in books, and discovering that she is signing them as author. He is taken with her audacity and with her living in the moment, and she causes him to think of many of his own small decisions and of mortality. Many of his characteristics as a poet are here – the apparent simplicity, the wit, the sense of a serious undercurrent and of human limitations, all in a memorable style which is crafted to seem throwaway.

At a time when many of us have just been watching Olympic strivings, his The Boy from Belarus, with the boy seen hammer-throwing on a screen, fits with and heightens the common experience of many of us. Durcan takes us into his experiences in many locations, including the last breakfast in Paris – beware the woman here!  There are tributes to friends such as Michael Longley, reflections on the wonder of nursing, and intimations of the ultimate vulnerability of all human bodies.

This is a collection to be savoured for wit, life-enhancing vitality, sad echoes and art that hides art.

TC

Gabriel Josipovici is a leading academic critic and fiction writer, though not as well known as perhaps he should be. His seminal The World and the Book was an influence on many, including myself. His new novel, Infinity: the Story of a Moment, is told through the voice of the manservant of a famous composer. By this method we learn much about the thoughts, desires and peccadilloes of both people, and perhaps wonder how accurate a picture of the composer we are getting. This is an intriguing way of getting insights into two worlds at the same time. Music, of course, only exists in the moment; but then, what doesn’t?

Christoph Simon is a rising star of Swiss literature, and  Zbinden’s Progress is his fourth novel, but the first to be translated into English, subtly and effectively by Donal McLaughlin. Simon mentioned that he did his national service in the forces, but that many people did alternatives, such as a caring option. This novel is spoken to a new carer in an old people’s home by an 87 year old widower who has always loved walking. It is, Christoph Simon says, as though he has inhabited the caring option he did not take, and it shows us a person who seems to know all his fellow residents very well, and to recall his marries life well, but how far is his memory accurate?

Both of these novels are relatively quiet in tone, both focus on one voice and its outpourings, and both offer much pleasure and insight.

TC