I’m proud to admit that I’m a book nerd: I belong to a book club, own too many books to fit into my small flat and read incessantly. So it’s been to my consternation that I’ve been away on assignment over the Franschhoek Literary Festival over the last couple of years, and I’ve been extremely excited about attending my first one this year.
Unlike misty, grey Cape Town, the Franschhoek Valley was bathed in beautiful autumn sunlight with a crisp breeze. The town was full of literary types sipping wine and eating artisanal pies in the market, and clutching signed copies of newly-bought books as they strolled from talk to talk.
It was hard to choose from the list of fascinating-sounding topics, but all the talks I ended up going to were brilliant. I won’t go on about all of them (you can read my twitter feed if you’re really interested) so instead here are my highlights from the weekend:
Marianne Thamm took on a trio of legendary media ‘mavericks’ in On being bolshy with Gareth Cliff (for whom I have new-found respect), Denis Beckett and Martin Welz (editor of Noseweek). The discussion meandered from politics, corruption and the state of South African society to blogging (I have to disagree with Marianne Thamm and Martin Welz on this – they have rather outdated ideas about online journalism), and the future of journalism in the online world.
In Tweeting for Africa Jenny Crwys-Williams talked to Jonathan Jansen, Gareth Cliff and Gus Silber, who collectively have around 300 000 followers (mostly Gareth Cliff’s, of course). Being an avid tweeter, I really enjoyed the talk, which covered everything from the dark side of Twitter to how the social media platform can be used for social good. It was great that a large proportion of the audience was made up by the over-70s who are underrepresented on Twitter – time for the grannies to tweet!
Michele Magwood asked writers Alexandra Fuller and McIntosh Polela how they deal with family and community dismay at the secrets they disclose in their autobiographies in Letting the cat out of the bag. The discussion veered from McIntosh’s tear-jerking stories of abuse and poverty which he overcame to study in London and have a successful career, to Alexandra’s hilarious tales of her mad family and eccentric childhood in Zambia. I can’t wait to read both their books – McIntosh’s My Father, My Monster, and Alexandra’s Cocktail hour under the tree of forgetfulness.
I left the Franschhoek Literary Festival feeling inspired and positive about South Africa’s literary culture. At least I now know that there are other book nerds like me.
Franschhoek Literary Festival info
The Franschhoek Literary Festival, which has been running for six years, has gained an international reputation as a celebration of books and writers, with a focus on promoting South African writing and reading.
All events are within a short walking distance of the Town Hall in Franschhoek (in the village centre) where the Festival Exhibition was located, with a booking office, help desk, village maps, book displays, book sales and a notice board detailing the venues for each event.
Tickets: You don’t get a ticket to the festival, instead you buy tickets for the talks you want to go to. This year it was R60 for each event, with a special offer to buy 10 tickets and get one complimentary ticket. Tickets were booked through www.webtickets.co.za. Next year book in advance – a lot of the popular talks were sold out weeks before the festival.
Franschhoek Literary Festival website: www.flf.co.za
