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The joy of a man-free day Edinburgh, through women's eyes
(about 20 hours later)
I spent last week in Edinburgh, where one day began with a performance of Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour — Lee Hall’s adaptation of Alan Warner’s novel The Sopranos, directed by Vicky Featherstone. The all-female cast play Catholic schoolgirls from Oban, on the Scottish west coast, who are en route to a choir competition in the capital. They sing like angels and swear like troopers, and don’t take any shit from anybody as they make their punk-rockishly chaotic, drink-sodden way round Edinburgh – a story that, in the end, opens out into unexpected poignancy (the play will be touring Scotland and landing in Newcastle this autumn ). I spent last week in Edinburgh, where one day began with a performance of Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour — Lee Hall’s adaptation of Alan Warner’s novel The Sopranos, directed by Vicky Featherstone. The all-female cast play Catholic schoolgirls from Oban, on the Scottish west coast, who are en route to a choir competition in the capital. They sing like angels and swear like troopers, and don’t take any shit from anybody as they make their punk-rockishly chaotic, drink-sodden way round Edinburgh – a story that, in the end, opens out into unexpected poignancy (the play will be touring Scotland and landing in Newcastle this autumn).
Afterwards I landed up at the Fruitmarket Gallery and saw Phyllida Barlow’s breathtakingly muscular exhibition (on till 18 October): downstairs, paint-swiped hoardings and detritus were piled up as if discarded with unconscious grace; upstairs she had built a whole walled citadel (it seemed): a forbidding enclosure one could walk round but never penetrate, like a labyrinth without an entrance.Afterwards I landed up at the Fruitmarket Gallery and saw Phyllida Barlow’s breathtakingly muscular exhibition (on till 18 October): downstairs, paint-swiped hoardings and detritus were piled up as if discarded with unconscious grace; upstairs she had built a whole walled citadel (it seemed): a forbidding enclosure one could walk round but never penetrate, like a labyrinth without an entrance.
Later that same day I saw Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, interview the crime writer Val McDermid at the international book festival, where I also managed to tuck in an event of my own, speaking on the BBC with Kirsty Wark and Prof Jean Seaton.Later that same day I saw Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, interview the crime writer Val McDermid at the international book festival, where I also managed to tuck in an event of my own, speaking on the BBC with Kirsty Wark and Prof Jean Seaton.
Later I noticed it: everything I’d seen that day had been created and enacted by women – artists, writers, performers, politicians, musicians, broadcasters. And how often does that happen? My favourite line from Our Ladies, by the way – which I’d love to find occasion to use, as unlikely a scenario as that may seem – is this: “I’m not stuffing a cucumber sandwich up my snatch for anybody.” Seems like a reasonable motto by which to live.Later I noticed it: everything I’d seen that day had been created and enacted by women – artists, writers, performers, politicians, musicians, broadcasters. And how often does that happen? My favourite line from Our Ladies, by the way – which I’d love to find occasion to use, as unlikely a scenario as that may seem – is this: “I’m not stuffing a cucumber sandwich up my snatch for anybody.” Seems like a reasonable motto by which to live.
The anti-history boysThe anti-history boys
At the Edinburgh international book festival, I chaired four events that tried to make connections between the classical world and today. We spoke about story and fairytale with Marina Warner ; Tahrir Square with New Yorker reporter Wendell Steavenson ; tragedy with the Nigerian novelist Chigozie Obioma and the classicist Edith Hall; and ancient atheism and modern religious belief. (In the last-mentioned session, we learned from author and former diplomat Gerard Russell about the Mandaeans, a community in Iraq now deeply threatened by Isis violence, who adhere to an ancient mystery religion in which features, deliciously, a demon who is half human and half book, and who sits next to the river between the worlds, reading himself.) At the Edinburgh international book festival, I chaired four events that tried to make connections between the classical world and today. We spoke about story and fairytale with Marina Warner; Tahrir Square with New Yorker reporter Wendell Steavenson; tragedy with the Nigerian novelist Chigozie Obioma and the classicist Edith Hall; and ancient atheism and modern religious belief. (In the last-mentioned session, we learned from author and former diplomat Gerard Russell about the Mandaeans, a community in Iraq now deeply threatened by Isis violence, who adhere to an ancient mystery religion in which features, deliciously, a demon who is half human and half book, and who sits next to the river between the worlds, reading himself.)
Related: Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hamlet reveals something rotten in the state of theatre | Charlotte HigginsRelated: Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hamlet reveals something rotten in the state of theatre | Charlotte Higgins
We also had a chilling account, from John Curtis, former keeper of the Middle Eastern department of the British Museum, of a decade of devastation to archaeological sites in Iraq and Syria – from the looting of the Baghdad Museum and the pilfering by coalition troops of artefacts from ancient Babylon, to the hammering of the Aleppo souk and the current bleak situation in Palmyra. Western eyes are fixed, quite rightly, on Palmyra. But less widely reported has been Islamic State’s destruction of more than 100 mosques, shrines, churches and monasteries in northern Iraq, including the 9th-century al-Arbaeen mosque and the tomb and mosque of Jonah in Mosul. As Curtis pointed out, for those people who lived in, and worshipped at, these places, it is “an absolutely appalling blow to their identity and cultural heritage”. We also had a chilling account, from John Curtis, former keeper of the Middle Eastern department of the British Museum, of a decade of devastation to archaeological sites in Iraq and Syria – from the looting of the Baghdad Museum and the pilfering by coalition troops of artefacts from ancient Babylon, to the hammering of the Aleppo souk and the current bleak situation in Palmyra. Western eyes are fixed, quite rightly, on Palmyra. But less widely reported has been Islamic State’s destruction of more than 100 mosques, shrines, churches and monasteries in northern Iraq, including the ninth-century al‑Arbaeen mosque and the tomb and mosque of Jonah in Mosul. As Curtis pointed out, for those people who lived in, and worshipped at, these places, it is “an absolutely appalling blow to their identity and cultural heritage”.
More than a felineMore than a feline
Andrew O’Hagan, who spoke at the book festival about his latest novel, The Illuminations, has ghosted an unauthorised biography of Julian Assange He has also written a novel narrated by a dog: The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of his Friend Marilyn Monroe. It was because of these qualifications, presumably, that the fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld offered O’Hagan the job of writing the official biography of his cat, Choupette. (This creature does in fact have its own Instagram account, followed by around 69,000 people, and its own public relations consultant.) Fortunately things have not yet come to such a pass for O’Hagan that he has accepted this intriguing offer. But you never know.Andrew O’Hagan, who spoke at the book festival about his latest novel, The Illuminations, has ghosted an unauthorised biography of Julian Assange He has also written a novel narrated by a dog: The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of his Friend Marilyn Monroe. It was because of these qualifications, presumably, that the fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld offered O’Hagan the job of writing the official biography of his cat, Choupette. (This creature does in fact have its own Instagram account, followed by around 69,000 people, and its own public relations consultant.) Fortunately things have not yet come to such a pass for O’Hagan that he has accepted this intriguing offer. But you never know.
@chiggi@chiggi