The Tabernacle took a literary turn yesterday. Alan Yentob, armed with a BBC film crew, was interviewing Kate Mosse in the conservatory during the afternoon prior to a special, one off, 5 X 15 Unbound, in the auditorium.
I managed to have a chat with Alan during a break, on the theme of the evenings event; the future of the book. The word Kindle featured quite prominently. I suggested that Kindle may indeed be the way forward until we hit the post I.T. winter. It occurred to me that one day storytelling will return to it's natural medium; spoken narrative. Curious how we seem to have forgotten that books, certainly books
available to the general public, are quite a recent arrival.
5 X 15 Unbound: Here's the idea: you will be treated to an evening of riotous literary entertainment as 10 authors go head-to-head pitching ideas for books they would really like to write.
Authors include the international bestselling novelist Kate Mosse, Booker shortlisted comic novelist Tibor Fischer and creator of cult 90s TV show This Life, Amy Jenkins. Robert Llewellyn (Red Dwarf, Scrapheap Challenge, Carpool) will be presenting his utopian fantasy, News from Gardenia. Graham Smith will offer up We Can Be Heroes - a lavishly illustrated insider's account of London's club scene in the early 80s.
Vitali Vitaliev, the Russian Bill Bryson, presentsCattivo Recordo, a journey through italy in search of a bad meal. Keith Kahn-Harris, a sociologist and expert on Jewish heavy metal shares Big Fish, Small Ponds, his attempt to find obscure heroes (like the best waterskier in Luxembourg). George Chopping, former Sainsbury's 'shelf replenishment technician' now performance poet unleashes Shelf-stacker Blues. Elliot Rose (aka awarding winner novelist Will Davis) reads fromDemonica, his chilling tale of a woman who loses her face (and also performs an aerial trapeze display piece). And sensational Oxford band Little Fish unveil The New Official Little Fish Paper Club Handbook, a guide to starting modern rock band and perform their new single. After they've all delivered their pitches we'll be gathering everyone's (silent) pledges.
The auditorium was packed, with a peppering of literary names and the odd rock star in attendance. It was a light hearted affair and made a change from the usual 5 x 15 format.
Chef Mark Richardson Knocked up a fish pie for the event which I can assure you was splendid.
The next 5 X 15, back in it's usual guise will be on Monday September 19th with AS Byatt, Misha Glenny, Simon Baron Cohen, Lucy Worsley and Alexander Masters
Alan Yentob's telly thing will be shown in November on the BBC.
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