Books on Tyne

23 November 2024

On Saturday 23rd November I braved what Storm Bert had to throw at Newcastle to head to a couple of events at the Books on Tyne Newcastle Book Festival at City Library. It had a full and varied programme across eight days also hosted at the Lit & Phil (from which I’ll report next week).

My first panel and the opening session involved a recording of the

Books Unpacked

podcast with James Routledge and Sarah Davy and their guests the children’s authors David Almond and Julia Green. They had all braved adverse conditions to arrive and start really not that late and to a sadly smaller audience than was booked, such is the draw when an event is free and the snow is heavy. It was their first time recording in front of a live audience and it was an enjoyable discussion.

Books, Unpacked aims to talk through all aspects of the life cycle of a book and it was interesting to hear the perspectives of two writers who mostly publish fiction for young people, ranging from picture books for the very wee, and right up through to young adult. Green and Almond covered 20-year overnight successes, collaborating with illustrators and small presses, switching publishers, and ways to support local bookshops and fostering good relationships across the industry. I was fascinated by their answers to the question of age classification, that they write the story they need to write and leave that up to publishers who have the readers in mind and know the market. They spoke of the space for experimentation in children’s literature and ways to creatively tackle difficult subjects such as death and disability, which of course young people live with as much as anyone else. I recommend giving them a listen to find out more.

In the afternoon I went to the Polari panel hosted by the platform’s founder Paul Burston with guests Andrew McMillan, William Hussey and V.G. Lee. Polari is a literary salon for LGBTQ+ writers and the event was part of a roadshow showcasing nominees, former winners and judges for the Polari Prize.

Lee read from her latest short story collection Oh You Pretty Thing a piece that channels her own experience of marrying very young after an early life of not really being noticed only to much later find where her heart really lay.

Burston read from his memoir that works through his experience of the AIDs crisis in the UK We Can Be Heroes when he was enjoying the gay scene in London in the 190s only for the world to come crashing down as his friends began dying. He noted in his extract the support from the lesbian community - the demographic least likely to be affected - and questioned if gay men would have done the same if it had been the other way around, and admitted they likely wouldn’t.

Hussey (published in the US as Harker) told us his fascinating background coming from a centuries-long line of travelling carnies - a close-knit and usually prejudiced community. His detective Scott Jericho is unabashedly gay from page 1, and shows the powers of deduction inherent in folk who make it their business to be observant.

Poet Andrew McMillan then shared an excerpt from Pity, his first novel, inspired by his own experience of growing up gay in a mining village in Yorkshire. It explores the relations amongst three generations of the same family, some of whom remember and still stuffer from the miners’ strike of 1984 and the disaster of a collapsed roof.

More additions to the ever-growing to-be-read pile it is then. Till next time.