Spooky Tweets

Mt and I had a grand day and evening at the Writers Festival.

It was a gorgeous morning as we pulled into Circular Quay railway station around 9.20am from where we strolled around to the Hickson Road festival venues which is where we are focussing most our attention. By my count there are at least twelve areas in the precinct staging festival events, mostly simultaneously. With events programmed at 60 and 90 minute intervals there is plenty to choose from. There are also events at other locations around greater Sydney and in the nearby Blue Mountains.

View from the Circular Quay railway platform as we disembarked the train

We called into the Sydney Dance Company cafe for morning tea before our first booked sessions and unexpectedly came across a live broadcast on Radio National's Book Program with Dame Stella Rimington, ex head of Britain's MI5. We stayed on for interviews with authors Roddy Doyle and Sebastian Barry.

Dame Stella Rimington on air

My first booked session was 'It Takes Balls' in which authors Chad Harbach and Malcolm Knox discussed the literary appeal of baseball and cricket. Knox told numerous humorous anecdotes from his past and to my delight Harbach mentioned several baseball situations which I recall hearing about in BBC World Service podcasts thus completing a circle of knowledge for me.

I spent the 'lunch break' sitting in on ABC 702 Local Radio's live broadcast from the festival. James Valentine was delivering his afternoon program and this was a real delight. It was casual, relaxed and totally entertaining. Next year I must set aside a day, or at least a good part of a day, just for this event.

James Valentine, in the distance wearing a red top

My afternoon booked session was 'Modified Tweet' in which broadcaster Mark Colvin and journalist and commentator Catherine Deveny discussed their prolific use of Twitter and its impact on language.

Later, we wandered around the Hickson Road venues soaking up atmosphere and autumn sun.

Crowds outside the Philharmonia venue

Queues on Pier 4 for events in Sydney Dance Company venues

We had two evening sessions booked, both scheduled for the Sydney Town Hall. The earlier session was 'Can't Be That Hard' a recent quote from our Prime Minister when she asked the media to stop printing 'crap'. The participants were journalists George Megalogenis, Peter Hartcher and Annabel Crabb, Malcom Turnbull MP and press whiz kid and Press Officer for ousted Prime Minister Rudd, Lachlan Harris.

Audience waiting for 'Cant Be That Hard'

The second session was 'You Must Have Something to Hide' about drawing the line between the public and private with ex MI5 head, Dame Stella Rimington, former CIA operative Glenn Carle, ex High Court Justice Michael Kirby, blogger Jeff Jarvis and journalist/investigator Heather Brooke.

Both sessions were stimulating.

Mt and I were pretty well exhausted when we boarded the train home at 10pm.