Record ticket sales for book festival
Glasgow's biggest literary event, the Aye Write! Bank of Scotland Book Festival, has sold a record amount of tickets going into its opening weekend.
More than 10,000 tickets have been bought for the festival, which began last night and runs to March 14, based around the Mitchell Library in the city.
The programme of the festival, in its fourth year, is full of well known literary names including Booker Prize-winner Graham Swift and the broadcaster Joan Bakewell, who will launch her first novel, the wartime romance All the Nice Girls, at the age of 75.
Last night Alan Bennett, the much-loved author and playwright, kicked off the festival with a sold-out event at the library. The writer read from his popular diaries and then answered questions from the capacity audience.
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When he was asked whether he had ever considered blogging instead of writing his diary, he answered: "I am not even sure what blogs are.
"I don't even have a computer so I read about them, but don't know how people have the time to do it.
"I have always written in pen and ink and then onto the typewriter, so my grasp of technology is very small.
"We were thinking about getting a computer but I didn't want e-mails and all that. People write to me by hand and that's good, because it does filter people out." Bennett spoke about his favourite performance of one of his Talking Heads monologues, Penelope Wilton's Nights in the Gardens of Spain, and also revealed he had never met the Queen, who he has written about successfully in his latest book, The Uncommon Reader.
He also had a few words to say about education.
Bennett attended a state school in his youth, Leeds Modern, and he said: "I am one of the few people left in England who don't believe in private education.
"I went to a state school and I think we should have evolved a system where the upper reaches of private schooling were merged within the upper reaches of state schools. You mention it and people are embarrassed, because it's old-fashioned socialism."
Authors such as Robert Fisk and AL Kennedy will also be present at the festival, which will feature more than 200 authors, writers and thinkers, including Gavin Esler, Julian Baggini and Lorraine Kelly. Ten new short stories by leading writers, including Val McDermid and Jackie Kay, have also been commissioned to celebrate Homecoming on the theme of whisky.
The festival will also celebrate the newest "city read", or mass reading project, with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World. Ticket sales have been brisk and are ahead of what they were this time last year, a spokesman for the festival, for which The Herald is media partner, said. Last year the festival sold more than 25,000 tickets. "The figures so far are the best ever, with more than 10,000 sold already," he said.
"It is an improvement on last year and if you put it in context with what else is happening in Glasgow, a good year for Celtic Connections in particular, it is great news for the city.
"So far it is very encouraging, as these are sales before the festival has even started. Many events are already sold out." The festival also includes the Aye Write! Bank of Scotland prize for Scottish Fiction, which returns for the second year.
More than 10,000 tickets have been bought for the festival, which began last night and runs to March 14, based around the Mitchell Library in the city.
The programme of the festival, in its fourth year, is full of well known literary names including Booker Prize-winner Graham Swift and the broadcaster Joan Bakewell, who will launch her first novel, the wartime romance All the Nice Girls, at the age of 75.
Last night Alan Bennett, the much-loved author and playwright, kicked off the festival with a sold-out event at the library. The writer read from his popular diaries and then answered questions from the capacity audience.
advertisement
When he was asked whether he had ever considered blogging instead of writing his diary, he answered: "I am not even sure what blogs are.
"I don't even have a computer so I read about them, but don't know how people have the time to do it.
"I have always written in pen and ink and then onto the typewriter, so my grasp of technology is very small.
"We were thinking about getting a computer but I didn't want e-mails and all that. People write to me by hand and that's good, because it does filter people out." Bennett spoke about his favourite performance of one of his Talking Heads monologues, Penelope Wilton's Nights in the Gardens of Spain, and also revealed he had never met the Queen, who he has written about successfully in his latest book, The Uncommon Reader.
He also had a few words to say about education.
Bennett attended a state school in his youth, Leeds Modern, and he said: "I am one of the few people left in England who don't believe in private education.
"I went to a state school and I think we should have evolved a system where the upper reaches of private schooling were merged within the upper reaches of state schools. You mention it and people are embarrassed, because it's old-fashioned socialism."
Authors such as Robert Fisk and AL Kennedy will also be present at the festival, which will feature more than 200 authors, writers and thinkers, including Gavin Esler, Julian Baggini and Lorraine Kelly. Ten new short stories by leading writers, including Val McDermid and Jackie Kay, have also been commissioned to celebrate Homecoming on the theme of whisky.
The festival will also celebrate the newest "city read", or mass reading project, with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World. Ticket sales have been brisk and are ahead of what they were this time last year, a spokesman for the festival, for which The Herald is media partner, said. Last year the festival sold more than 25,000 tickets. "The figures so far are the best ever, with more than 10,000 sold already," he said.
"It is an improvement on last year and if you put it in context with what else is happening in Glasgow, a good year for Celtic Connections in particular, it is great news for the city.
"So far it is very encouraging, as these are sales before the festival has even started. Many events are already sold out." The festival also includes the Aye Write! Bank of Scotland prize for Scottish Fiction, which returns for the second year.
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