Birmingham Literature Festival 2015

Having missed out on the Man Booker event last year, I checked months in advance for the BLF dates this year to avoid any clashes. I'd kept the whole 11 days free, bar two immovable day events and of course, I missed the one relevant workshop for me; Rough Diamonds about writing personal stories. Non-fiction writers like myself appear to be rare-breed among festival goers it seems! There seemed to be very few daytime events this year too.So here's my log of this year's amazing festival.Man Booker Short List - only two of the finalists showed and one of them seemed nice(!) We didn't get the prize winner this year.*The Road to Varansi - I missed Cat Weatherill's workshop but her hour-long story told in the wondrous Edwardian Team Rooms in BMAG was a delight. As Cat was looking back on her ten-week solo trip across India I had a taste for chai and samosas but alas, it was clearly too clichéd a snack choice for reminiscing about India. Instead, we had that most Indian of drinks, gin, as one of the special options! I settled onto my two-seater chesterfield sofa with an expected luke-warm Americano and a cosy knit enthralled by the story.Baltic Breakfast - a surprise sell-out and I nearly missed it despite having paid for a separate ticket for the bf!^ The food was followed by readings from poets and novelists from Latvia and Lithuania, reading in their own language and English. I wasn't expecting to enjoy the light breakfast and mentally planned to go and grab a second breakfast afterwards. However, it was mostly to my taste but unfortunately cold. It would have been good if the normally great Opus Café staff had informed the diners what each dish was and encouraged everyone to eat buffet style rather than waiting for their plate to fill up. It was lovely to hear the readings in the writers own language so  the event has promise I would certainly go again if all the food arrived hot and the readers were all given an equal and maximum of  5-7 minutes of reading time.Meera Syal & Tanika Gupta - the always insightful Meera Syal along with the playwright who has adapted the Anita and Me novel for the stage was an excellent combo. I did laugh when both ladies complained the host hadn't let the audience ask more questions! (the conversation was being recorded for radio and the presenter liked the sound of his own voice a tad too much).*Martin Rawson : 35,000 Years of Visual Satire - a good Saturday evening of an education in both satire alongside rare enjoyment of a PowerPoint presentation - if only they were all like this. With the bonus of seeing cartoons I'd never see as a non-Guardian reader.Sathnam Sanghera - Writing Begets Writing - This could have been two events as there was a short interview with the London-based Sunday Times writer and author followed by competition winning readings from the Hearth Centre. The competition took inspiration from the fact that the writer's latest novel is based on the Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett. I would have loved to hear more from both on two separate events, although it was lovely to see the professional writer giving prizes to some wonderful fledgling writers.For me into was interesting to be reminded of some Indian culturisms that even I had forgotten about. Margarine tubs do indeed must make excellent storage options in luggage when travelling.  Also interesting to hear that we don't have many Indian memoirs as we are all private people . True. But mine will be out very early next year! And to think this was a bonus for me as the Black Country Bus Tour I wanted to go on was sold out!Inspired by Ghandi - wonderfully, these stories were being told in the library foyer an other locations so anyone could just stop, listen and applaud. There was also 'Tannoy Poetry' in the library throughout the festival, a fact I was oblivious to as I had gotten to the page beyond the programme dates and times on the event calenar! I can never be described as a fan of poetry myself but perhaps place this kind of information should be at the start next time?!Brecht & Steffen: Love in a Time of Exile and War - A surprise hit for me. Tissues were needed when hearing about the love story that sent a couple travelling around the world fleeing Hitler's regime during WW2 told through two actors, a pianist and two narrators. I'd see it again.The Writing of Protest - 'a lively debate about the role language and story plays in effecting social and political change' quickly became feminists talking about sexism. For someone of my generation, it's shameful that the same conversations are valid decades after they began. It would however, also have been good to hear stories and debate about other protests and inequality around the world and maybe learn about books on the theme.Cooked Up - Another foodie event, this time we had an hour of stories about cooking before supper. The stories and conversations were good but then staring at the menu for another 20 minutes before we could order was pure punishment on our stomachs! The food was great at Opus (and hot) although I'd assumed it would be communal again so we can meet different people. It would have been great to have the long shared tables like those at the Baltic breakfast and people could have just gone to the bar to buy any individual drinks if they wanted something other than the supplied water.RFL Lecture: Stella Duffy - what started as 'not a lecture', turned very much into a shouty lecture.Allan Ahlberg - I had no idea who the incredibly humble Mr Ahlberg was but a delightful, low-key conversation ensued. I'm pleased there were so many young people who had clearly grown up on his children's stories in the audience. Not to mention parents and teachers - what a fan base!The Other Half - If I had to choose one highlight, this is it! My decision to go was based on the promise of country music and I had no idea about Mark Bellingham - possibly as crime not a genre I'm in tune with. But he narrated a story which I immediately recognised as set in Memphis from my travels and I knew we were set up for a great event with My Darling Clementine providing live, original country music. And they threw in some covers for good measure to open and close the show with. A dynamite combination.Tracey Thorn & Ben Watt - an interesting discussion around moving from song-writers to authors. Having not come across any of their books, I only realise during the talk that they are autobiographical. Is it a case of famous people who write non-fiction are welcomed with open arms at literature festivals but unknowns have to come up with fiction?Writer Networking Morning - this is not what I expected! As much as I detest traditional networking, I thought that's  this would be (despite running two business events a month - to me they're about making friends rather than chatting business!) The networking event turned out to be a formal, seated hour or so of hearing from three writers, then opening to questions at which point the time I had for this event was up and I had to go! The talk was all about getting published the old-fashioned way anyhow so irrelevant to me as I'd decided a long time ago that I'm going to self-publish. I would have loved to chat to some of the writers in the audience about this though!I'm glad I decided to arrive at the start purely as I thought it would save the organises from ferrying me about as the library was not then open to the public!The Revd Richard Coles: Fathomles Riches - I don't recall hearing the Reverend before but what a warm, witty and thought-provoking chat. A terrific end to a fantastic festival!

* hadn't originally intended on going

^As a festival ticket holder, the advice is to turn up early to all events as I don't need to book them. There are pros and cons to this plan: the massive advantage is that I don't have to decide where I wanted to go and just turn up. Early. The con is having to turn up half an hour rather than five minutes before so there was a lot of careful planning of what reading/work I can do while waiting to go into the events! Although more often than not those plans didn't quote work out as inevitably I'd bump into someone I know but that's good too, the festival only happens once a year!Highlights are in pink although it was an altogether terrific festival.@RickieWrites