Well, it wasn't a disaster, my Oxfam Bookfest reading last night, in view of the fact that I clashed with the Spain-Germany football match. It certainly wasn't a crowd, but there weren't so very few that it was embarrassing or anything - there were about 10 altogether. I talked about the fact that having The Birth Machine reissued in October has made me look back over my work to see whether my preoccupations have changed or whether there has been a thread developing right from the start. Really, it seems that I have always been interested in issues of knowledge, power and language, and above all with the issues of certainty/uncertainty attached to them. So I read the oldest story in Balancing, 'Who's Singing?' (first published in the Literary Review and broadcast on Radio 3) which is very much concerned with some of the same issues as those in Too Many Magpies (which I also read a piece from) - in particular that of climate change, and in the instance of 'Who's Singing?' with the dangers of too much certainty. We discussed how I'd tackled these issues in this story in view of the fact that they weren't as acknowledged when I wrote it as they are now. Finally I read a new story, 'What Do You do If' which is newly published in Issue 4 of online Horizon Review, and is one of a series I'm writing quite consciously on the issue of uncertainty.
The audience was lovely, and contributed lots, we had a very interesting chat about all of these issues. Thank you to them all for coming, and thank you to Wendy for hosting the event.
Tonight's event in Didsbury Oxfam is Adele Geras, which I recommend, as she always creates a lovely warm evening.
