Christopher Hamilton

My friend Rob and I went out to see Iain Banks at the Edinburgh Book Festival last night. It was the first time either of us had seen him at the festival, and we were both excited about going after just reading his latest book, “Matter”.

We weren’t disappointed.

Last year we went to see William Gibson, where he discussed his book, did a reading, and then took questions from the crowd. This year the format was almost exactly the same, with the exception of the reading, Iain Banks didn’t do one. Instead he sat on stage being interviewed about his books and career, and being extremely funny and charming. He talked about his dual personality in the literary world, with his mainstream fiction versus his science fiction novels. He discussed the big ideas behind his novels, and the approach he takes to them.

After about half an hour of being interviewed on stage, he took some questions from the crowd. There were the usual in depth questions about his works, which when answered gave a great insight into the way he looks at the world. There was the obligatory person who mentioned they tried to write themselves, and asked a question regarding the craft. The advice he gave here was superb. I’d heard some of it before, but there were a few gems where I turned to Rob and we’d both have that “That makes so much sense, why hadn’t I thought of that before?” look on our faces. That alone is worth going to see authors at the book festival. Those pieces of information that they’ve gained from their experience is almost always invaluable. There were a few funny questions that had hugely entertaining answers, as well as some serious points behind them.

One thing I paid great attention to was when he discussed the difference between writing novels and writing screenplays. Especially when he talked about how it is usually more difficult for authors to write screenplays, than it is for screenwriters to write novels. With novel writing there is much more control, and exposition. It takes a certain mentality to give up some of that control, and to also think in such visual terms.

It really was a highly entertaining evening, and I’m pretty sure I’ll go back to see him next year, after reading more of his work. Now I’m of to look at the Book Festival Web Site to see if I can find a ticket to anyone else this weekend.