books review

Joan Bakewell

Edinburgh International Book Festival/Fine Fiction

One of the running themes of this year’s book festival has been the lack of political activism in Britain. Despite youth unemployment, the likes of Tariq Ali to Joan Bakewell have questioned our apathy. Being at least 15 years younger than most of the audience at Bakewell’s reading, perhaps I should have stuck up for my fellow youth, but instead I agreed with her. In our defence, Bakewell pointed out that under Tony Blair’s leadership rights to protest had been severely limited. Boy does she have it in for him! Sometimes on the mark, at others a little out of touch (she thinks smoking is the last taboo), Bakewell’s fallible, but she’s also irrepressible, promoting her first novel at 76.

RBS Main Theatre, 27 Aug, 3.00pm

published: Sep-2009

ThreeWeeks Rating Key

1/5: Bad     2/5: Mediocre     3/5: Good     4/5: Very Good     5/5: Excellent

Pot-luck Google Topics