The Browser: Naughtie and nice in perfect Harmony

Published on Friday 26 June 2009 17:16

Melrose is certainly the most idyllic setting for a Book Festival, even though the original owner of Harmony House was shunned by the locals because of his links to the slave trade.

And it's no dispraise to say that Melrose is like a very good radio schedule: this year boasted our own Hardeep Singh Kohli, Oxford physicist Frank Close debunking Dan Brown's views on antimatter, James Naughtie on the Obama phenomenon, Vince Cable on the credit crisis, Tom Holland on the year 1000 and Rory Bremner giving a touching tribute to his long-time collaborator, John Fortune. Although Fortune has written a novel, about a man falling in love with a tree ("I wrote the sexy stuff", he confessed), it would be wonderful to have a volume of his memoirs. Luckily, the event was recorded by BBC Radio Scotland, and will be broadcast later in the year. They also recorded the "Bookish Prize", a lighthearted quiz which pitted The Browser against Ian Rankin, with questions set by Harvard Professor of the Practice of Literary Criticism, James Wood. According to Festival director Alistair Moffat, the questions had to be dumbed-down by several degrees.

Unfortunately, James Naughtie was being the soul of discretion, so no gossip slipped out about this year's Booker Prize, the judging of which he is chairing.

Child's play

A session with debut novelists, Rosy Barnes, Anna Richards and Andrea McNicoll, actually succeeded in giving practical advice to aspiring writers, and James Robertson exclusively revealed the title of his much-anticipated new novel – And The Land Lay Still. I even managed to slip into a children's event – the Gruffalo's Birthday Party – with 400 schoolchildren from across the region. Among the audience was my six-year-old nephew, who told me that the "best bit" was when Julia Donaldson stumbled off the stage. Making accidents seem intentional must be a speciality for children's writers.

Arts policy dj vu

The Lyceum Theatre hosted an event to update the "arts community" about the progress of Creative Scotland. The most interesting piece of news was the creation of the "Odd Fellows" awards – a 1 million fund to encourage "innovative and inspirational collaboration". It bodes well for literature, given such recent projects as Janice Galloway's work with sculptor Anne Bevan, Bill Duncan's "The Haar" website or Scottish Opera's 5:15 scheme. In fact, it's curiously similar to the old "Creative Scotland" awards. A 750,000 Rural Innovation fund was announced as well – given the success of festivals in Melrose, Ullapool, Wigtown and Nairn, there could be many takers for that pot of dosh.