Edinburgh Book Festival Part Deux

[Donna Moore]

I went through to Edinburgh this evening to see Allan Guthrie and Stuart MacBride in an event at the Edinburgh Book Festival - and very good fun it was too. I wish I had taken notes because there were loads of funny lines, but here's flavour of the event.

The moderator, Alan Morrison, was almost not needed because Al and Stuart interacted very well together and asked each other questions, which was great, but Morrison was an excellent moderator. He described Al's books as "If Quentin Tarantino directed an episode of Jerry Springer..." So very very apt :o)

Stuart described the horrors of the editing process, likening it to giving a badger a set of dentist's tools and allowing the badger loose on your teeth while a couple of burning squirrels are nailed to your knees.

Both authors read a couple of short excerpts - they both chose well and they both read really well. Al also did a couple of very short and funny pieces as a warm up. Stuart's second piece was one which they both took part in as a performance piece (and one which, on a previous occasion, an attending journalist from The Scotsman had described as 'self-indulgent - hence Al introduced he and Stuart as The Smug Brothers!). There was audience participation too - we had to be burglar alarms...

As they were acting it out, Stuart made a mistake in the reading and said "Sorry, we didn't sleep last night," then, looking at Al, he quickly added "Not together, of course." His next comment was "We should have practised", to which Al replied "We were too busy shagging." That was sort of the tone for the evening's entertainment :o)

Stuart was asked about whether he has had any problems because of the nasty things he says about Aberdeen (paraphrasing here - that the people of Aberdeen are lovely and happy when it's sunny (not often), but that when it's raining it's like casting call for Deliverance) and mentioned that Christopher Brookmyre is far less popular because while it's one thing to come from Aberdeen and slag off the city, it's quite another to be an outsider like Brookmyre and say nasty things about it. Aberdeen is sometimes described as 'the silver city' and Brookmyre said that describing Aberdeen as silver 'is like describing a jobbie as being copper plated'.

If you ever get a chance to see this double act, go. It was great fun.

[Donna Moore]

Jools - it was great - I wish you had been there (not least cos we could have come back and had cheesecake :o)

Jim - lol - very funny. It was a great idea.

Russel - I was hoping you might have been there - would have been good to see you.

Daniel - I am taking my laptop and hoping to do the same from Bouchercon (assuming I'm not eaten by a bear.

[Daniel Hatadi]

Hey, thanks for sharing these posts, Donna. It's good to see these guys in real world situations. Really gets the voyeur in me going.

[Russel McLean]

Because of unfortunate and unexpected work-related nonense I didn't get through to Edinburgh Fest this year - - pity, because I really wanted to see this at least. Sounds fantastic.

[Jim Barker]

Stuart did the "Burglar Alarm" bit when he did a local event here recently - the funniest thing I'd seen in ages. One of the actors missed his cue - prompting the line "Obviously a silent alarm"....

The book it's from it probably my favourite book this year.

[Julie Morrigan]

Sounds like a good night, Donna. Love the pics, too!