Ox-Tales and the joy of being read to

Reading is mental exercise. It requires metaphorical muscles to lift the words from the page, and into the voice of the author that you hear inside your head. Apparently the more you use them, the more you read, the easier it becomes, and the more effortlessly you glean all that’s desirable in a novel.

My reading muscles are temperamental. Sometimes I’m surprised by my ability to glide over the sentences on the page, savoring all that is special about the words and the meaning, but yet effortlessly cruising through the story like a sports car cruises through country roads. Sometimes, it’s the exact opposite; the car coughs and splutters, jerks forwards, then backwards, doing violence to the story, perhaps even becoming oblivious to it.

My abilities to be read to, however, are immaculate. I’m sure of this after last night’s Ox-Tales event when four great authors read short stories to a packed QEH. It was so easy; all I had to do is listen, and off I went to the vivid places. I think hearing the words rather than reading them, freed my imagination just that little bit extra; farther was it then able to run away, with the images and feelings the stories were there to inspire.

Of course it helps that what we heard were amazing pieces of writing: short stories that were “half way to poetry”, which, in my opinion, is the perfect amount. And how else could they be more sweetly enjoyed, than by hearing them read by the writers themselves.

‘Ox Tales’ book launch – a taster

DBC Pierre

Jeanette Winterson

Diran Adebayo

Kamila Shamsie

It started with a look…

…and became a kiss

Dear All,
While we wait for your ‘OxTales’ blogs and audio to flow – perchance to flood! – in I have a small picture treat for you from my album….
We had four featured authors reading – nay, performing! -their sparkling short stories in Queen Elizabeth Hall: D.B.C. Pierre, Kamila Shamsie, Jeanette Winterson and Diran Adebayo. It was a night of lyrical, memorable cadences and rhythms and storytelling.
There was a blockbuster book singing…then afterwards the authors relaxed in our Lit Fest Green Room (see my previous Green Room posting – then you’ll know what we do there!)…some people relaxing more than others. Let’s put it this way, we have our first Green Room Kiss of the Festival (there may have been more – I missed them. I know my job is to be Rosie The Roving Reporter but I can’t rove EVERYWHERE).
(NB. Paul Blezard, the host of the ‘Ox Tales’ event is a friend of D.B.C Pierre’s – the rest I leave up to them to explain.)