Knowing that I could only stay for a while at the site before heading to the airport to pick up Michele. I managed to catch a good chunk of "A Home Among the Gumtrees: Our Diverse Culture". Each of the speakers had an amazing story to tell. The panel agreed that "There is more that binds us than separates us" and they managed to change my view of the Memoir as a genre. I also think that I can use the idea of "Writing with the door closed and editing with the door open."
After, I made my way to the Womankind Marquee for "The Importance of Being Stella". I hadn't fully appreciated the level of controversy around The Stella Prize and was quite tickled to hear about objections from Germaine Greer. I was less surprised to hear of the patronising questions that had been posed to the winners. While it was interesting to hear the winners reading from their novels, for me Tony Birch stole the show. Funny, insightful and pragmatic, he has won a new fan in me.
With a smile on my face I headed toward the Airport. Buoyed as I was by my morning of freedom and intellectual stimulation, I thought it was perfectly reasonable to pick up a young hitchhiker. Giles and his pack - including a guitar - was a young Englishman hitching his way from Brisbane to Bellingen and holding onto a dream of Permanent Residence in Australia and a job as a teacher in a Steiner School (awww). Without incident he was dropped a few kilometres nearer to his destination and I collected my friend and together headed back to the Festival.
We grabbed a coffee from a very cute little Olive & Co caravan and made our way to hear from Benjamin and Michelle Law speaking about their book Sh*t Asian Mothers Say. Funny and relevant, I came away thinking that I might need that book for the bathroom ;-)
Then onto ML Stedman. In a show of hands it was evident that nearly everyone in the Marquee had read and loved The Light Between Oceans and after Geordie requested that no photos or recordings be made of the session Margot loosened up and treated us to a beautiful reading from her book and a wonderful insight into her writing process. I also loved the unattributed quote put forth by Geordie Williamson "men love women, women love children, children love dogs" and the observation from Margot that the act of 'mothering' is ongoing but that the act of 'fathering' is a once off.
With the Andrew Denton session being over subscribed we moved onto "The Art of Songwriting". What a treat to hear the story if the writing process of a song from Darren Ganlon and Missy Higgins and then to hear them play their respective songs. Now the question of "what is an old uptight piano going on stage in the Feros Marquee was satisfied. Laying on tge grass in the sunshine was the only place to be!
Now we headed to hear Lloyd Jones. We had read Mr Pip in our Book Club and loved it! But we were informed that he could not make if due to the death of an old friend and agent. So we went along instead to "History: A work in progress" where Clare Wright was the highlight - receiving many rounds if applause for her insightful and heartfelt observations.
Exhausted from an early start we headed back to town for a freshen up a Mexican meal and then a trip down to Lennox Head to see Jon Safran and Father Bob. It was a sell out, which was quite obvious from the time it took us to find a park. Jon was brought on first to discuss his book with the interviewer fearing that she would fave trouble controlling the two of them on stage st tge same time. A fear that was later discovered to be quite real. Jon spoke of writing his true crime book, IMO using tge word 'like' far too frequently gor someone who us no longer a teenager. Then came Fr Bob. A law into himself. Passionate, inspiring and likely to ramble off topic and request tge help if tge audience to supply words that were not readily boning to mind - it was a complete joy and over way too soon.
And so back to Byron for an Affogato and to complete this post. I'd love to insert more photos but I really need to hit the sack. Please forgive any typos. It is less than practical to be writing this post on an iPhone.
