St Andrew's Book Festival reviews: James Campbell | Mike Nicholson
As part of the St Andrew’s Book Festival’s free schools programme, James Campbell made a convincing case for off-grid environmentalism, while Mike Nicholson made museums sound like the most fascinating places on the planet for young, inquiring minds, writes David Robinson
It’s about time that London started trying to catch up to Edinburgh on the book festivals front, but the one which started there this week could be a worthy challenger - not least because it is almost entirely Scottish.
Organised by Scots in London, an umbrella group of Scottish organisations, the St Andrew’s Book Festival got under way on Monday at Scotland House on the Embankment with an Opening Gala featuring some of our finest poetic exports (Liz Lochhead, Jackie Kay, Hollie McNish) hosted by Edinburgh Makar Michael Pedersen.
Although Nuala Watt, Allan Radcliffe and Elle Machray - all shortlisted for the Saltire First Book of the Year Award to be announced tomorrow - also appeared there on Tuesday, almost every other event at the festival is held at St Columba’s Church in Knightsbridge.
St Columba’s is a spiritual bastion of Scottishness in England, home to the London Scottish regimental chapel and with heraldic shields of all the old Scottish counties on the wall around the nave. If you remember Absolutely Fabulous, it’s where Saffy got married, with Marianne Faithful playing God and a congregation positively hoaching with celebs.
On Wednesday morning, the free schools programme was in full swing, off-grid environmentalist James Campbell telling his audience how to turn from being eco-worriers to eco-warriors and how to deworm your dog by singing to its bottom.
Edinburgh’s Mike Nicholson, talking about his Museum Mystery Squad adventures, made an equally enjoyable case for museums as the most fascinating places on the planet for young, inquiring minds. Judging by the forest of hands straining upwards to answer each author’s questions, there was no shortage of them.
Later on this week, there will be a literary line-up even more star-studded than Saffy’s wedding: Judy Murray, Andrew O’Hagan, Lorraine Kelly, Gavin Esler, James Naughtie, Ann Cleves, Hugo Rifkind and Ian Rankin to name but a few. And while Saffy’s wedding was a one-off, the St Andrew’s Book Festival, with luck, won’t be.
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