Big blackout turns book fest faces red

Published on Monday 24 August 2009 01:07

ALREADY, in Edinburgh, they're calling Friday evening "the James Tait Blackout" – the night when a generator failure at the Book Festival meant that Britain's oldest literary awards were presented at an hour-long ceremony hardly anyone could either see or hear, writes David Robinson.

It had all started so well. The James Tait Black Awards, administered by Edinburgh University, were celebrating their 90th anniversary – a full half century more than that mere upstart, the Booker Prize.

A champagne reception for the shortlisted authors had taken place in an adjacent tent, packed with professors, writers and publishers. Worthy winners – leading Irish novelist and playwright Sebastian Barry and Michael Holroyd, doyen of British biographers – had already been selected. What could possibly go wrong?

Granted, the RBS Main Tent's stage was in darkness, and no mics were working, but surely that was no reason not to begin?

These things usually sort themselves out in minutes, don't they?

Not on this occasion they didn't. Not, as it turned out, for an hour and a half.

A blithe, carry-on-regardless mood darkened into embarrassment and repressed anger. Where were the back-up battery-powered spotlights, mics and amps that could have saved the day? As it turns out, there aren't any.

Edinburgh audiences are too polite to complain. Amazingly, no-one asked for their money back.

But make no mistake. Friday night at the Book Festival went beyond farce – even the very blackest.