Appetites for premium-price events peak at literary festival as readers jostle to see their favourite authors perform
Crime novelist Val McDermid has spoken at 29 of the 30 annual Edinburgh international book festivals. Photograph: Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert/Getty Images
This August roughly 200,000 members of the public will stream through the entrance of the Edinburgh international book festival, hungry for debate, ideas and a sight of their favourite authors.
But this year authors from American humorist David Sedaris and crime novelist Val McDermid to the national poet of Scotland, Liz Lochhead, are appearing all over the wider festival fringe, holding their own against comedians, cabaret acts and circus: proof, if any were needed, of the rise and rise as the author-as-performer in contemporary British culture.
McDermid has spoken at 29 of the 30 annual Edinburgh international book festivals. This year, though, was also her fringe debut, appearing in the 800-seat ballroom of the city's grand Assembly Rooms, a venue that is also fielding stand-ups such as Janeane Garofalo and Ardal O'Hanlon.
She was paid "over twice as much" as her £150 book-festival fee, to deliver a slickly rehearsed talk on subjects from the detective story's role in sublimating our violent desires – "Who hasn't wanted to kill their news editor?" she recalled of her years as a reporter – to reinventing the Bible as a crime novel.
"It was a different audience and a different atmosphere – certainly people there whom I'd never seen at the book festival," she said. "I regard it as my audition for The News Quiz."
Despite its higher fees and grander venue (the Assembly Rooms ballroom has 200 more seats than the biggest book festival tent), the director of the Edinburgh international book festival, Nick Barley, said he felt relaxed about the rise of fringe rivals. "It is a tribute to the power of the literary festival. People are realising how great these events can be and what the appetite is," he said.
Certainly, there is enough appetite for Sedaris, the author of Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls, to charge £23 per ticket (compared with the top price of £10 at the book festival) for a week's worth of shows at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
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But this year authors from American humorist David Sedaris and crime novelist Val McDermid to the national poet of Scotland, Liz Lochhead, are appearing all over the wider festival fringe, holding their own against comedians, cabaret acts and circus: proof, if any were needed, of the rise and rise as the author-as-performer in contemporary British culture.
McDermid has spoken at 29 of the 30 annual Edinburgh international book festivals. This year, though, was also her fringe debut, appearing in the 800-seat ballroom of the city's grand Assembly Rooms, a venue that is also fielding stand-ups such as Janeane Garofalo and Ardal O'Hanlon.
She was paid "over twice as much" as her £150 book-festival fee, to deliver a slickly rehearsed talk on subjects from the detective story's role in sublimating our violent desires – "Who hasn't wanted to kill their news editor?" she recalled of her years as a reporter – to reinventing the Bible as a crime novel.
"It was a different audience and a different atmosphere – certainly people there whom I'd never seen at the book festival," she said. "I regard it as my audition for The News Quiz."
Despite its higher fees and grander venue (the Assembly Rooms ballroom has 200 more seats than the biggest book festival tent), the director of the Edinburgh international book festival, Nick Barley, said he felt relaxed about the rise of fringe rivals. "It is a tribute to the power of the literary festival. People are realising how great these events can be and what the appetite is," he said.
Certainly, there is enough appetite for Sedaris, the author of Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls, to charge £23 per ticket (compared with the top price of £10 at the book festival) for a week's worth of shows at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
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