Five minutes with... Natalie Haynes

Festival Manager Charles Haynes caught up with his namesake, comedian and author Natalie Haynes, for a chat about all things classical, and what we can look forward to at the festival...



Comedian and author

Natalie Haynes

 Charles: One of your events at Cheltenham this year is in the style of the Radio 4 programme 'I've Never Seen Star Wars' called 'I've Never Read…'. You're a classicist at heart, so which classical author do you think goes unread and why?

Natalie: I think plenty of Classical authors go unread, even by me. Can't pretend I've ever ploughed through Statius for more than about a page. But authors I wish people read more of: ancient comedians. Especially Juvenal, who wrote satires (or, more probably 'scurrae' - rants) during the reign of the emperor Domitian. Juvenal is the earliest stand-up comedian we know of - read his satires (the Penguin translation is very good) and you can see all the techniques stand-ups still use today - rule of three, bathos, alliteration, hyperbole, litotes, the lot. He is, I should warn you sexist, racist, homophobic and generally a dreadful person. But try to forgive him these sins, as he is immensely, scabrously funny, and pre-dates political correctness by about 1900 years, so deserves a little latitude. He is also so vile about dinner parties, rich people, the banes of city living and more that he feels painfully current.

Charles: Do you think that Juvenal has informed your own modern sense of humour?
Natalie: Oh sure. I owe it all to Juvenal. Actually, that might be true, even if I am more socially liberal than Juvenal. But Juvenal has the perfect comedian's perspective: he is always an outsider, watching society function (not always in a way he appreciates), and criticising it. He is observational, like most stand-up now, with a tendency to go for exaggeration to drive the laugh from the observation. He also uses a tactic I loved to use when I was doing stand-up - setting up a situation which seems funny, and then suddenly turning serious. He does a brilliant one on the perils of poor housing in Rome - he talks about how the tenant at the top is protected from the weather only by roof tiles. Then he starts worrying about fires, and how they always begin at the ground level, and the lower-dwelling (richer) tenants are getting their stuff out of the building before the guy at the top even knows he's in danger. Suddenly, says Juvenal, you're on fire, but tu nescis - you don't know it. It's a really shocking jolt - I never get tired of seeing comedians mix humour and seriousness.

Charles: If Juvenal was around today, what kind of event do you think he'd be doing at Cheltenham this year?
Natalie: Juvenal at Cheltenham? Are you trying to get sacked? Well, ok, if you insist. Juvenal would have no fun at Cheltenham. Very tricky to work out who he could hang out with without getting into trouble. His first satire is all about how it is harder not to write satire given how awful everything is. And the very worst thing he can think of? Poets reciting their work at him. So let's count him out of a performance poetry event. And then there's his relationship with other (non-poet) writers. Juvenal puts his words into a friend's mouth in one satire. His friend explains that one reason why he's so unpopular in Rome is that he can't ever bring himself to be nice about his patron's awful books. 'I never learnt how to lie,' says Umbricius. 'If a book is bad, I can't praise it and ask for a copy.' Definitely ill-prepared for dealing with other neurotic writers…

Charles: If you could go back to Ancient Rome , what do you think you'd be doing?

Natalie: If I could go back in time to Ancient Rome, I hope against hope that I am rich there. Being poor at pretty much any point in history really sucks, I'd like to be a wayward daughter of a senator, I think (exactly the kind of woman Juvenal hates so much in Satire 6, actually, for being over-educated, low-moraled and dreadful). I imagine I would read lots of Euripides and Aristophanes and Plato, having been taught to read Greek by some handsome tutor, and scandalise the neighbours. I would skip the Games (don't fancy all those gladiator battles and wild animal hunts), and I would holiday in Baiae. I might also solve the odd crime, since that always looks fun in historical novels.

Charles: Ultimately, which do you think is stronger, tragedy or comedy?

Natalie: Tragedy is stronger. I love comedy, made my living at it for a decade (and still can't resist a cheap gag now), but my heart is with tragedy. I think there's a reason why Greek tragedy is performed so often even now, 2500 years after it was written. It's because it speaks to universal truths about people. Comedy is often dependent on a working knowledge of the butts of jokes for them to be funny (imagine trying to explain a joke about David Cameron, say, to someone who didn't know who was the Prime Minister of the UK. Or, harder still, who didn't care). Comedy like Juvenal, which is a furious lament about the state of the world he lived in, travels through time a little better (he could be Tony Hancock speaking sometimes, or indeed Bill Hicks). But tragedy needs no context - we all understand why Oedipus' story is a terrible one.

Find out more about Natalie's events in Cheltenham on the festival website
Natalie's newest book, The Ancient Guide To Modern Life, published by Profile Books, is available now. Find out more on Natalie's website

Guest Blog: Anjum Anand

We're welcoming five very different, but equally fantastic, Guest Directors to the Festival this year. We asked food writer Anjum Anand, to tell us what it's like to be appointed 'head chef' of the Literature Festival and what we can expect from her series of mouth-watering events...



Guest Director Anjum Anand

I was immensely flattered when I was asked to be a guest-director for this year’s Cheltenham festival but my delight began to morph into panic and anxiety when I realised that I needed to put together my ideas for five really stimulating events that could match those of my fellow directors. I feared that where my passions lie: food, the home, health and the cultural heritage of cooking, may not be natural territories for discussion at such a prestigious literary festival. It took a while and many brainstorming sessions with anyone who was indulgent enough to listen to me throwing ideas into the air and then watch them fall into a chaotic disorganised mess. But finally, some of these thoughts formed heaps which eventually took forms and life and became the basis for the panels and discussions that have been organised at the festival.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the process of putting together these panels and bringing together individuals whom I admire to voice their own opinions about food, cooking, family heritage and food and health and am much looking forward to October. It will also be fun to have the opportunity to cook whilst being interviewed by Nikki Beddi who has to be one of the bubbliest people to be interviewed by and I always feel like I am having a fun and frank conversation with an old friend, almost forgetting others are listening. I’m also delighted to hear that, for the first time, there is going to be a Food Court at the festival showcasing local produce and I look forward to sampling a lot of that.

 

Anjum Anand

Guest Director

 

You can find out more about our Bitesize series and all of Anjum's events over at the Festival website

And plan your own mouth watering adventure in the brand new FeastFest Food Hall

And so it begins...

After months of planning, measuring and imagining the build of the brand new Festival Quarter in Montpellier Gardens has started today. The hard hats are on and it's already taking shape.

We'll be finding out lots more about the creation of the Festival Quarter over the next two weeks - but for the time being, here's a sneak preview of The Forum, our brand new 1500 seat venue, already looking distinctly tent-like...

The bare bones of The Forum are put in place

Read all about it...

The brand-spanking-new Literature Festival newspaper Inklings is out today. It's jam-packed with details about the Festival, interviews with some of our speakers, a fun children’s section, and a chance to win a luxury hotel stay.

Copies will be popping up all over town - look out for them in Waterstone's and the Tourist Information Centre for starters - but if you just can't wait to get your hands on a hard copy, you can have a virtual browse right here...

Open publication

Inklings follows hot on the heels of the Jazz Bugle back in April and the Science Enquirer in June - both huge hits with festival fans.

Happy reading!

The glamorous world of arts marketing...

Our Marketing Exec Candice Pearson took to the airwaves yesterday to talk about our Big Book Drop. The only problem was finding an interview friendly spot in our increasingly full offices...




Candice gets ready for her

big moment.. under a desk



As anyone who has read the full brochure from cover to cover knows, the Literature Festival is huge. With more then 500 events from over 600 speakers, I’m sure you can imagine how much work goes into organising this epic festival.

Festival HQ gets flooded with incredibly hardworking volunteers and desk space suddenly becomes the most valuable commodity. In fact, people are almost afraid to go out for lunch, just in case they come back and find their desk commandeered.

Fear of desk requisition aside, there’s an amazing atmosphere in the office at the moment. Books are stacked high in every available corner and everyone is focused on delivering the best Festival yet.

Anyway, this is how I came to be doing a radio interview sat under a desk… Ah, the glamorous world of arts marketing!

BBC Radio Gloucestershire called to talk about our book giveaway (see last blog), which proved incredibly popular. To hear the full interview, including details about our next book drop, in the clip below…

Big Read Book drop interview - BBC Radio Glos #cheltlitfest by Cheltenham Festivals
 
We're planning our next Big Book Drop soon, so do join us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest.
 
Candice Pearson
Marketing Executive
 
The BBC Radio Gloucestershire team will be with us on site broadcasting live from the Festival - you can keep up to date with their plans over at www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire

On your marks, get set, go!

The Festival is only weeks away - so as a special treat to whet your literary appetites, we've just released 50 copies of Joseph Heller's classic Catch-22 into central Cheltenham! 

Polly and Candice get ready

for the drop...



It's all part of the Bonne Maman Big Read and our mission to get as many people as possible reading this amazing book. We took to the streets this morning and have hidden the books all around town - some are really obvious, some are a little more obscure. So if you find a copy take it home, read it, love it and share it with friends.

All we ask is that you let us know where you found it, and maybe keep us up to date with your reading. You can let us know by commenting on this blog, or joining us over on Facebook or Twitter ...

To help you with your quest to catch Catch-22 here are a few shots of the books out on the town....


 
Happy hunting book fans!
 
Amy Hulyer
Press & PR Manager
 
You can find out all about the Bonne Maman Big Read over on the Cheltenham Festivals website

25 days to go: The anticipation grows...

As the anticipation grows here at Festival HQ, Festival Co-ordinator Nicola Tuxworth tells us why putting on the lit fest really is a full time job...


Walking through Montpellier Gardens last week the wind was rattling the trees and dislodging the first leaves of the Autumn. I realised with a lurch in the pit of my stomach that the template for the wonderful new Festival Quarter site is being pegged out in white tape, and that we really are into the final countdown.



The office is overflowing
with piles of books....



Here at Lit Fest HQ the days and weeks seem to be rushing inexorably on to the great moment when we assemble excitedly (and rather apprehensively) for the first 8.30am briefing of the Festival on Friday 7th October. There will be almost 100 people in the room, the core team, the event managers, the production staff and over 60 wonderful volunteers, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and raring to go, who sign up to work nine fourteen hour days unpaid, and without whom the Festival simply wouldn’t happen.

In the meantime, the nerve-wracking period of signing off the brochure and seeing the tickets go on sale has given way to a vast amount of administrative heavy lifting as all the detailed planning that can only happen once the programme is finalised is put into place.

 

Piles of beautiful, pristine books are arriving from publishers daily, often hot off the press, and sometimes still in proof form. In every corner of the office bookshelves are stacked three rows deep with these treasures, begging to be opened and perused if only any of us had the time! Isabella, from of our indispensable team of three interns is charged with the mammoth task of ensuring that each book gets to the person who needs it for his or her event.

Now that our able and experienced chairpeople have all been signed up, they are busy working with participants to shape “their” events in the most stimulating and thought-provoking way for our knowledgeable Cheltenham audiences. It is a privilege to be copied in on this email traffic, and witness animated (even heated) digital debate on the all-time greatest literary deathbed scenes, the most influential Edwardians or what part of Virgil’s Aeneid would be the most fun to translate on stage.

Signed contracts are pouring back into the office, along with the technical requirements, travel arrangements, ticket requests and accommodation needs of over 600 participants. All of this information needs to be entered onto our amazing Artifax software system, which will generate the Festival daysheets - the essential who, when, where and what of the Festival hour-by-hour.

Often the contracts are accompanied by hand-written notes from authors kindly praising the programme or wishing us all good luck. A very distinguished author writes in immaculate copperplate to politely request a hotel room as near as possible to the Festival site. A food historian emails to request access to a freezer and a large amount of ice. A well-known broadcaster phones to find out if he can bring his dog to the Festival.

One participant has simply scrawled CAN’T WAIT! in exuberant black felt pen across the top of her contract. And in truth, neither can we. See you there!

Nicola Tuxworth
Festival Co-ordinator

Who will take the Man Booker biscuit?

The literary world is buzzing with speculation following today's announcement of the Man Booker 2011 shortlist. Here at Festival HQ, the team are already debating the relative merits of each work - and bets (in the shape of home-baked biscuits) are being feverishly placed. Festival Manager Christin Stein gets under the covers of the six titles making the shortlist.

The debate is on:

the six titles making the

Man Booker 2011 shortlist

The Booker is always good for a shocker – for me out with the old, in with the new seems to be what this year’s shortlist is all about…

My favourite cover vote is with The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt, with its wonderfully dark, black and red design. Not to forget the story’s very intriguing premise of two brothers hired as killers during the Gold Rush on the American West coast – sounds like something the Coen brothers could put on film and a book I certainly can’t wait to get stuck in.

At the other end of the geographical scale, Mother Russia definitely is ready for the literary spotlight. I just read the thrilling Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith, who will share the platform at the Festival with the now Booker shortlisted author A D Miller. Needless to say that his Snowdrops is at the top of my reading pile!

To take a literary journey through the 19th century I think Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch is a great read, as young Jaffy Brown finds himself aboard a ship to the Dutch East Indies from London. An epic novel in every way, and I found it particularly enthralling to read while on the road.

In the category of intriguing characters, Esi Edugyan, Canadian author of Half Blood Blues, for me created the frontrunner – naming him Hieronymous Falk and making him a jazz trumpeter is too good a combination to dismiss. I can’t wait to make his acquaintance on the page.

A few months back I was delighted to read advance copies of Sarah Winman’s wonderful When God Was a Rabbit and Stephen Kelman’s mesmerizing Pigeon English – and it is great that they will be joining the Festival to discuss their books. Celebrating a debut novel, as the Booker judges chose to do for Stephen Kelman, is incredibly encouraging to see, especially for all the UK writing talent out there.

Personally I was very pleased with the inclusion of The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. I remember seeing him in an event at the Festival a few years back and he was just magnificent. If the bookies are right his Booker luck might turn this year and he could walk away with the prize on the night…

Luckily enough Festival goers will have the chance to see a selection of the short listed authors discuss their work with Man Booker Prize Literary Director Ion Trewin in an event on Saturday 15 October – just three days before the final winning announcement with plenty of excitement still in the air!

For now it’s congratulations to the short listed authors – and no matter who will be lucky on the night, I think the true winner will be fiction. Readers will enjoy the debate of controversial choices, grave omissions, clear frontrunners, and most importantly some cracking good writing.

Christin Stein

Festival Manager

Join Ion Trewin and some of the shortlisted authors live at the Festival to discuss and debate the prize in our special Man Booker Prize Shortlist Event

And find out more about all the titles and authors on the Man Booker Prize website

Ode to Autumn

With the Literature Festival just weeks away, our PR Manager Amy Hulyer tells us why it's the perfect time of year for a literary celebration.

Our Festival flags basking
in Autumnal sun

The kitchen here at Festival HQ is overflowing with goodies from colleagues returning from exotic summer holidays, a brand new school year has begun, and I have just tripped over the first conker of the season on the way out for lunch. All of this can mean only one thing – we’re on the cusp of Autumn.

Now, I know I’m in the minority here, but I absolutely LOVE Autumn. It’s the season of brand new pencil cases and crisp leaves underfoot, of snuggly jumpers and knee high boots, of warm golden light and cosy nights in. It’s always been my favourite time of the year, and these days I have one even bigger reason to love it – it means the Literature Festival can’t be far away.

As the season changes signs of the festival are suddenly everywhere. After months of embargoed programmes and whispered confirmations of the latest names to join the line-up, our full programme has now been released into the world and our festival speakers are popping up everywhere. In the last few days alone Jonathan Ross, Jarvis Cocker, Alistair Darling, David Walliams and Larry Lamb have all been making the headlines, and the first tantalising glimpses of Downton Abbey and Strictly Come Dancing are creeping onto our screens.

In just five weeks time the festival will be in full swing. The writers’ room will be buzzing, the Carte Noire coffee will be free-flowing, and I dread to think how many Bonne Maman delicacies I will have already devoured. The next few weeks will be full of terrifying and thrilling moments in equal measure but I absolutely can't wait. The crisp days of October remain the highlight of my year.

Now, where's my coat...

Amy Hulyer
Press and PR Manager

On the Radio... again!

Back in August, Helen from our Marketing team made her way to Manchester to spend a day in the recording studios where she made the finishing touches to our very first Literature Festival radio adverts.

The adverts are now running on Classic FM and Heart... or click below for a sneak preview.

2011 Literature Festival Radio advert by Cheltenham Festivals

On the Radio...

Earlier in the week our Chief Executive Donna Renney took over the BBC Radio Gloucestershire studios for an hour long feature about all things festival with presenter Chris Baxter.

You can catch the full interview on the BBC iPlayer now - just click the image on the left, and listen from 1hour 30minutes in. 

If you have any questions for Donna and the rest of the team here at Festival HQ, just add a comment to this blog.

Happy listening!

You can listen live and find out lots more about the brilliant work of BBC Radio Gloucestershire over at the BBC Gloucestershire site.