Bookworm

Published on Saturday 31 July 2010 17:43

BEST OF FESTS

WITH the Edinburgh International Book Festival just a fortnight away, the question might seem like heresy. All the same, when I bumped into Ian Rankin at the Harrogate Crime Festival last weekend, I couldn't resist asking him which was his favourite literary gathering in the world.

"Galle," he replied. "It's set in a former Dutch fort in Sri Lanka that's a world heritage site. They treat you like royalty." Judging by its website, plenty of other authors would concur, not least Antony Beevor, who points out that he has attended literary festivals in five continents and Galle is easily the most enjoyable.

Rankin too has plenty of other literary bashes to compare Edinburgh's with: "I'm just off to Canada," he confided. "Then after Edinburgh I'll be going to France and Italy. Sometimes I feel I'm a character in a David Lodge novel."

BANG TO RIGHTS

FOR crime writers en masse, though, Harrogate remains hard to beat. "It's all quite boozy and great fun," Mark Billingham told Bookworm. "Other writers are just envious: they know we always have a better time."

Not that his own weekend was plain sailing. At one session he chaired, forensics expert Professor Dave Barclay told him he'd have to rewrite the opening chapter of From the Dead, his new Tom Thorne novel. Car fuel tanks tend not to explode as spectacularly or as quickly as we all imagine, apparently. "Maybe you'll be able to change it," the professor wondered innocently, knowing full well that Billingham's novel is already on its way to the bookshops.

JUST THE TICKET?

For the moment, though, let's forget Galle, Harrogate and all other book festivals outwith Scotland. If you fancy a cultural weekend with Lynne Truss this August (20-22), Aldourie Castle by Loch Ness could be just the job (aldouriecastle.co.uk). No-one can say it's not intimate: there are only a dozen rooms available. But no-one can say it's not pricey too – unless an all-inclusive 1,650 per person sounds reasonable enough.

Far better value is the new Books, Borders & Bikes festival (14-15 Aug) at Traquair House, near Innerleithen, where tickets to see such writers as Aminatta Forna, Michael Mansfield and Rajah Shehadeh cost from 12 for a full day. See traquair.co.uk for a full programme.