Yesterday we went to Aye Write with Heather and Ewan and went to see three authors. First we went to see Tom Holland who is a historian, he writes books about subjects such as the Roman Empire and the rise of Islam. He was a grey-haired yet youthful and enthusiastic speaker, very knowledgable and interesting; he was talking about the origins of the Koran which is of course a bit controversial to Muslims who see it as a miracle rather than Holland's view that it is a collection of ideologies from several different cultures. We then went for a very early dinner just after 4 p.m. - the reason being that the timings of our next two events meant that we would have to eat either very early or very late. Heather had booked the Piano Bar and we had a tasty meal there before our next author - Maggie O'Farrell. I think that she is a very talented author and in fact I'm pretty sure that I have read all six of her novels, including her new one that she was talking about today, "Instructions for a Heatwave" She seemed very pleasant but was not a very sparkling speaker - after all, why should she be? She is an author not a performer. This though, combined with the facts that he has not read any of her books and had a nice full tummy, meant that James slept a bit during her talk! Also, the audience was a bit on the quiet side and there were not many questions, which was a bit embarrassing - I did try to think of a question but luckily a couple of people rallied round towards the end. Our final author was Gavin Esler, a journalist and TV presenter who currently is one of the main presenters on Newsnight. He has written a book "On Leaders" and his talk was very anecdotal about all the world leaders he has met, to illustrate his theory that leaders have to have their own story and believe in it before they can lead anyone else. He was very amusing and we all enjoyed his talk which had the audience laughing. So, three very different speakers, which was great.
Off we went for a drink and had a good laugh in the pub where we noticed that we were very nearly the oldest people there! When did that happen? It seems like yesterday that I was being ejected from pubs for being too young!
Today James went hill-walking to Moffat but when he got there the rain was so bad that they had a cup of tea and came straight home again! James then took himself off to bed for a nap. Meanwhile I had received an invitation from Steven and Hilary to go to a play with them - "Black Watch". I had never heard of it but when I mentioned it to Grandma (she has a bad chest infection so I was round there making her a cup of tea), she knew all about it and said that it had very good reviews. It was cancelled on Friday night because several of the cast were ill, so it was rescheduled for this afternoon. Well, I was delighted that I went along! It was very unusual - it was a sort of history of the regiment, but that does not describe it adequately. It set mainly in Iraq in 2004 and it was sad, funny, shocking, political, and had singing and very well choreographed dancing that merged into marching.
Later on we all gathered at Grandma's house for dinner; we transported the food across in casserole dishes which went smoothly and Forrest came along too. Grandma is still very weak but is looking a bit better and managed to eat some of her tea.
And so my holidays are over. It has been a good break and I have had a ball.
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