Saturday 18 October 2014

2nd Parisot Literary Festival

The little literary festival that thinks big!
And, nothing was bigger than Poldark on the BBC in 1974, so it was a real coup to have Robin Ellis, who was the handsome lead, to do a cooking demonstration on Sunday morning, the third day of the festival. After his very interesting demonstration and fascinating talk about his acting career, when he worked with all the big names of the theatre and TV, there was a long queue of mainly women of a certain age asking for photos with him and signed copies of his two successful cookery books. Even some younger women, probably not even born back in the day, were having photos taken and I heard them saying, “it’s for my mum”. Not only is Robin’s food very simple and easy to cook, it is healthy and seasonal and avoids carbohydrates, or as he calls them “the whites”, as far as possible, mainly because he is a diabetic and has developed a healthy regime which suits him very well.
After a very good lunch at the Renaissance in Caylus, the afternoon continued with acrowded talk by Clive Ponting on the origins, causes and impacts of the First World War.Always a controversial figure since the days of the Falkland War, some of his ideas arecontentious and there was much discussion afterwards. I am looking forward to his talk on “Who killed JFK?” on November 22nd, also at Parisot Library.
My third talk of the day was by a local writer, Tracey Warr, who has now published two novels based on local Occitan history in the first instance, and incidents in France, Scandinavia and Wales in the second. It was very interesting to hear how she does her researchfound a publishing contract and how the smallest thing can give her the basis for a character or theme in a story. Almodis although a real person, looks like a statue in Albi Cathedral. I look forward to reading both her books.
The festival included both English and French writers and was very well organised. A lot of volunteers provided wonderful cakes and tea in lovely china cups, during the afternoon breaks. A room in the Mairie was stacked with 2nd hand books for sale, in both English and French which were sold by the bagful, the proceeds going towards the cost of next year’s festival.
I was only able to attend on the Sunday, but the other two days were equally well-attendedand lively. There was no fear of becoming bored, as there was such a variety of talks and workshops, from a creative writing workshop, to Arab calligraphy and illustration for the local children and of course the cooking demonstration and tasting. About half the events were in French and the others in English. It was a great success with the numbers attending up on last year and I am sure that everyone is looking forward to the next one.
Gill Catterall