Our time at the Sydney Writers' Festival

Mt has bookings for three ticketed sessions at the Festival today and is attending these without me. Unlike Mt, I didn't pre-book for any sessions for this final day of the 2008 Festival and am happy to have a quiet day at home after our hectic attendance over the preceding three days. This gives me the chance to update my blog before Mt returns later this evening.

We attended some sessions together and split up for others. This is a quick run down of the sessions I attended.

Thursday's sessions -

#58 Chris Masters: Jonestown & the Nieman Conference. For overseas readers, the Jonestown referred to here is the title of Masters' unauthorised biography of Alan Jones a high profile personality in Australia (especially in NSW and Queensland). An entertaining session focusing mainly on Jones' alleged and real political influence and of his closeted sexuality as well as the hurdles Masters faced in producing and publishing his work.

#67 Just Words: Australian Authors Writing for Justice. Bernadette Brennan discussed the relationship between writing and justice with (her brother) Frank Brennan, Anita Heiss and Gail Jones. Only Jones focused on the triggers which led her to question ethical matters through her writing. The others seemed more interested in promoting their work than in explaining their motivations. Interesting but not too revealing of the authors.

#78 Growing Old Disgracefully. As an almost official senior citizen I was attracted to the notion of this session which turned out to be of mixed quality. Professor Ross Fitzgerald and Anne Deveson spoke amusingly about their ageing lives but Margaret Fink and Robin Williams were less successful, especially Williams whose seemingly ill prepared presentation did not really relate to the topic and could have been a bawdy speech for a buck's night.

Fitzgerald's amusing anecdotes included the time when he told his wife that he wasn't feeling very well. She looked back at him before retorting "Darling, the pyramids were built by thousands of people who didn't feel very well". I rather liked that comment.

#96 Matthew Condon in Conversation with Mary Kostakidis. This was a discussion about Condon's novel The Trout Opera which quite frankly did not sound like my sort of novel. However, Condon is an amusing speaker and I find him to be a sexy looking forty-six year old so I was happy to cast my eyes at him for a lazy hour.

Friday's sessions -

#129 Australian Classics. Jane Gleeson-White discussed their views of the classic works of Australian literature with Christos Tsiolkas, Sophie Cunningham and Georgia Blain. This was a lively and entertaining session, all four participants given the opportunity to present their contrasting views. A bonus, as I had hoped when selecting this session, is that Tsiolkas is another good looking forty-something man.

#141 Behind The Scenes. Lisa Forrest and Patrick Lindsay discussed Australia's involvement at and boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games and the missing Diggers of Fromelles. In selecting this session, I wasn't sure what the link between the two episodes was but this was explained as both being occurrences beyond the control of those who participated which in both instances left a lasting trauma. I wasn't aware that Australia suffered its greatest loss of life in a single day at Fromelles. Quite an interesting session.

#155 The Simple Life. In these times of excessive consumption, Michael Pollan and Elizabeth Farrelly discussed why we find it hard to abandon habits we know to be destructive. This was an important topic but both speakers (and the moderator) were gentle, softly spoken people who turned the session into a soporific experience for me. I kept drifting off.

#171 Thrilling Tales. Two mystery thriller writers discussed their work. Michael White and Michael Robotham were well matched speakers relating how they approached their latest novels (respectively) The Medici Secret and Shatter. It was interesting to hear about the points of similarity and contrast in their styles of research and writing. An easy listening session compared with the previous one.

Saturday's sessions -

#223 Luke Davies in Conversation. The author of Candy and The God of Speed discussed his work. I found him a very likeable individual. He came across as easygoing, without airs and graces and he spoke engagingly and frankly. Davies provided insights into Heath Ledger's participation in the film version of Candy.

#238 The Lives of Others. Biographers, Hermione Lee and Simon Sebag Montefiore discussed the art of biography illustrated by their works on Edith Wharton and Joseph Stalin. Another interesting session, the two authors sharing fascinating as well as humorous examples of their experiences researching their subjects. Montefiore related his efforts to locate the remains of Prince Potemkin, lover of Catherine the Great. He was led a merry chase through various cemeteries and countries each housing parts of the deceased Prince but none contained the remains of his organ. A pity as the myth is that Catherine the Great had a plaster cast made of his organ for use(?) whilst he was absent from the country for years at a time.

#257 The Lost Art of Oratory. Former politicians Bob Carr and Margaret Reynolds together with former speech writers Graham Freudenberg and Lucinda Holdforth discussed the potential for Australian oratory. This was an excellent session. The four speakers, so different in style, provided a glimpse into the world of speech giving that had a large audience enthralled. Their insider anecdotes enlivened the presentations.