Bookworm: Dooking for books

Published on Friday 30 October 2009 18:22

THERE'S no getting away from Halloween, even for rational, bookish types. So tonight, the Edinburgh Independent Radical Bookfair is putting on an event described as "Homecoming meets Samhaim for a Radical Shindig" with Janice Galloway, Don Paterson, Kevin WIlliamson and Babashi Fraser.

Bookworm doesn't have a clue what any of this involves, but dooking and music are promised. It's at the Out of the Blue Drill Hall tonight (free but donations welcome) from 7:30pm.

The festival also has many other intriguing events this weekend, including Dominic Moran talking about Pablo Neruda, Elisabeth Pisani critiquing the "Aids industry", Edward Hollis talking about his well-received book The Secret Lives of Buildings and (tomorrow) Chris Dolan and Daniel Grey discussing Scotland and the Spanish Civil War. For further details, see www.word-power.co.uk

AHERNS AHOY

HE helped bring peace to Northern Ireland, won three successive general elections, and presided over the largest ever expansion of the EU as European Council, but when it comes to the bestseller charts, Bertie Ahern can't begin to compete with his daughter Cecelia. Her latest novel, The Book of Tomorrow, has already sold 28,000 copies this month; her father's autobiography – also published this month – doesn't even register.

The odd thing about the Ahern family is that whereas few people ever felt they really knew Bertie – his finance minister Charlie McCreevey once said "I know 25 per cent of Bertie Ahern, and that's 24 per cent more than anyone else" – almost everyone in Ireland feels they know his two daughters. Cecelia has of course been a best-selling novelist since the publication in 2004 of PS I Love You (George Bush's wife Laura was a big fan), but Georgina has been celeb magazine fodder since she married Westlife's Nicky Byrne the previous year.

Talking about Westlife (which is not something Bookworm has ever knowingly done before), the band's manager, Louis Walsh, could learn a lot from the Aherns. Whereas books about his fellow X-Factor judges Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowell have ratcheted up massive sales this year, his own 2007 book Fast Track to Fame has sold a mere 19 copies in the whole of Britain this year.

ATHILL ENDORSEMENT

DIANA Athill (see page 1) is as English as they come but VisitScotland should sign her up immediately. Although she says she's been to almost every book festival going ("or it certainly feels like that") the ones in Melrose and Wigtown "are the two nicest book festivals I have ever been to".

"I don't understand how anyone could fail to have a great time in Scotland," she continues. "Last year I had one of the most wonderful holidays I think I have ever had. It was up near Achiltibuie. I was so lucky I had four weeks of absolutely marvellous weather. And there were no midges!"