LITERARY SUPERSTARS, BOOK SIGNINGS, AND A WASP DOWN MY DRESS
What a morning! There is a big literary festival taking place in Morges, a lakeside town not far from where I live. I’ve never had the opportunity to go before, but I was free today and had seen on the program that there were many incredible authors there signing books, including Joyce Maynard and Jonathan Coe. And since it was the most gorgeous, warm, blue and yellow, day, I drove over after breakfast, while listening to the first two chapters of Joyce Maynard’s latest book, The Bird Hotel. Also, just before leaving, In a last minute, what-the-hell-you-never-know moment, I’d grabbed a copy of my book, Just Like a Movie, and stuffed it into my bag.
I’m glad I chose to go this morning as parking was already complicated at 10.30 a.m., with people zooming around and around, looking for a space. I got lucky, and didn’t have too far to walk, which was definitely a plus considering the number of books I ended up buying!
There were hundreds of authors present, sitting behind long tables with copies of their books stacked up in front of them. Some of them seemed a little lonely and shy, others more at ease and eager to interact. I found the atmosphere exciting, inspiring and extremely friendly. I’m a shy person, so engaging with strangers doesn’t always come easily to me, especially around people I admire, but I was surprised by how completely at ease I felt.
Morges is for the most part a francophone literary festival, but there were quite a few international writers present. Being anglophone, I instinctively sought out the English authors section, where I immediately found Joyce Maynard. I waited until she had finished with the lady in front of me, and then introduced myself. I asked her lots of questions about her various books, as well as a little about herself, and we ended up chatting for longer than I expected. I bought two of her books, Count the Ways, and Under the Influence, which she signed, even drawing little pictures of me in the books while we chatted. She asked about me, so I told her that I lived here in Switzerland, briefly told her about my background and that I wrote, and then took a deep breath and asked her whether it would be ok if I gave her a copy of my book. She said she’d be delighted, and so I did, and she said she loved the cover, and then we took a photograph together, me holding her bestselling novel “Count the Ways”, and she holding my not so bestselling (yet!) novel, Just Like a Movie. What a wonderful moment! What a lovely person!
With Joyce Maynard!
I continued on my bookish discoveries and came across Sébastien Devrient, a Swiss author and film producer, who told me about writing his debut novel, IMMpact, while recovering from a knee injury sustained while climbing the south face of Annapurna. Since I’m well acquainted with injuries as well as writing, we had quite a lot in common; I told him about my terrible neck accident sustained while exploring the south face of certain yoga asanas, and his eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped and we had a bit of a giggle! Anyway, he was very friendly and interesting and clearly quite the intrepid when it comes to his film-making activities. He’s made over thirty movies, filmed in places like Nepal, Pakistan, and the Arctic circle. He’s a mountain climber, a mountain guide, he’s passionate about speleology, and his next documentary will be taking him down some tiny holes in terrifying sounding caves in…I can’t remember which country. Of course, I bought his book.
I wandered some more and soon locked eyes with a gentle looking, grey-haired man who struck me as shy, quiet and special, so I went to talk to him. His name is Santiago H. Amigorena, and he’s originally from Argentina. I don’t know what was in my cup of tea this morning, but I felt really at ease chatting with all these strangers, it was quite uncanny. Santiago introduced me to his work, and I immediately felt like a bit of a twit because he’s clearly a massive international literary superstar, has written goodness knows how many books, directed several films and written loads of screenplays for famous film directors, some of which are favourites of mine. I bought La Justice des Hommes, his latest novel which is based on a screenplay he co-wrote with Santiago Otheguy, as well as Le Premier Exil, which is autobiographical and tells of his childhood in Uruguay, and the terrors of dictatorship in South America during those years. What a soft-spoken, lovely man he is.
I then discovered Sarah Hall, author of The Wolf Border, Sudden Traveller, and Burntcoat (I bought all three) among so many others. Sarah is absolutely charming, super easy to talk to, very inspiring and mega talented. She’s won innumerable literary prizes, and I admit to having felt a bit intimidated, but that soon changed when, a little later, I passed by her again having just had a wasp fly up my dress and sting me right in the middle of my back. Desperately trying to get it out, I made a split-second decision, having to choose between asking for help from Sarah Hall or her neighbour Jonathan Coe to whom I hadn’t yet spoken. I figured Jonathan Coe might be a little taken aback if some strange lady pounced on him and asked him to look down the back of her dress to see if he could spot a wasp, so I made a beeline (haha) for Sarah, and explained what had happened. Without a moment’s hesitation she got up, rushed around her table, pulled the back neckline of my dress outwards, shoved her hand down my back and out flew the wasp. Amazing!
Delivered from the wasp and trying hard not to scratch, I thanked Sarah, and approached Jonathan Coe. He was all twinkly and lovely, and I asked him which of his books he would recommend to someone who hadn’t read anything he’d written, and we agreed on Mr Wilder and Me, and Bournville. Out of curiosity, I asked him whether he knew my uncle, Ray Connolly, who is also an English writer, journalist, and screenwriter. He thought about it for a second, then he nodded and said, “Didn’t he have Covid?” Indeed, my uncle was hospitalized in London for over six months in 2020 with Covid, many of which were spent in a coma. My uncle made a miraculous recovery, even writing a brilliant, very moving radio screenplay about his Covid experience that was produced by the BBC. It’s called Devoted and if you can find it it’s definitely worth listening to. Anyway, Jonathan and I spoke about Ray and the two screenplays that were made into the films That’ll be the Day and Stardust, which was wonderful because he was there to talk about his own books and not about my uncle.
By then it was 12.30, and book lovers were arriving in droves. The tents were packed and it was very hot, and I couldn’t possibly carry any more books anyway, so I strolled back along the quay with a smile on my face, my wasp sting having been neutralized by some lovely ladies in the Samaritans tent wielding all the right lotions and potions.
I was so excited by my extraordinary morning that I had to tell someone all about it straight away, and so I called my mother on the way home. She was thrilled to hear about Jonathan Coe knowing her brother. She’ll be able to talk about it with Ray when she travels to London with my father this coming week. My parents will be staying with my aunt and uncle for a few days, before they all drive down to Cornwall together for my daughter’s wedding next weekend.
It’s going to be a beautiful wedding!
We will be staying in Cornwall for ten days, and I won’t be short of books to read…
Have you been to many literary festivals? Which authors have you met? I’d love to know!
My romantic comedy, Just Like a Movie, is available on Amazon.