I do love the fact that this festival is in October. The Autumnal atmosphere is a perfect setting as people prepare for Halloween and this festival nicely sets up the Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons for me. Due to this festival, the last three months of the last 6 years have had a wonderful completed feel about them… So October is the perfect month for this… But…
I have been introduced to a minor disadvantage of the festival taking place in October, it coincides with the X-Factor hotting up. Now I do not watch the X-Factor but thanks to wall-to-wall coverage, I do seem to know quite a bit about it, but this year I decided would be different. I will make myself ignorant of the show, anytime I saw an article or it came on another television show I would put my fingers in my ears, close my eyes and go, “Blah Blah Blah” until it had ended…
Now what has this to do with the Children’s Book Festival? I hear you ask with emphasised impatience… I shall tell you…
I arrived in Cork at around 1330hrs on Monday 18th October 2010. Getting a taxi from Kent station to my hotel, the taxi driver seeing my guitar asked if I was there for the Jazz (Something I was asked by all taxi drivers whilst here.) when I replied in the negative and explained why I was in Cork. Then he asked me, ‘I suppose you watch the X-Factor?’ again I replied in the negative and he took this as an indication that I wanted to know all about it. So I now know about Mary, Wagner, feuding judges and all sorts about a show I was hoping to avoid… Oh well.
I was back in Cork though, a place I’ve spoken about my fondness for before, but this time was a bit bittersweet, as my wife was unable to accompany me and Cork without my wife is like Laurel without Hardy, although she’d prefer a more romantic analogy. But I was in Cork and I was determined to make the best of my time here.
My first reading was on the following day at the Grand Parade Library in the Centre of Cork. A place I had visited many times. A class of all boys entered and I went straight into the Coat-hanger song. My first poem produced giggles from some of the boys and this did me the world of good, I’ve been feeling a bit down about my art recently thinking that it was unloved and not wanted, the sound of a child giggling immediately put paid to that idea… and also put me on cloud nine… I was feeling so good as I completed the rest of the performance and hopefully this came across. Limericks were well written and there was a continuation of the giggling throughout the session.
This set up the next session nicely. The setting for this Tory top Library, where the librarian Mary recognised me from a previous reading. The group that entered were an all girl group. This was another successful reading and performance where the children enjoyed themselves and the teacher asked what my book was called and where it can be purchased…
The following day I had two readings again, and the mix was identical the first class was boys and the second were all girls. The first session was at Mayfair Library and was again very successful. Questions were asked, Giggles were heard and there was also a request for more songs… I couldn’t comply due to time issues, but it was a nice request to hear. The second group of the day was to be found in Bishopstown library, which is convenient as this is where the taxi driver took me. The taxi driver for this leg of the journey, had been in Tory Top Library whilst I was in there and he loved my song, New Shoes Blues, this set up my mood nicely for a wonderful last session.
The last group of the day, Cork and the Festival itself, really enjoyed the session. Wonderful Limericks were written, enthusiastic questions were asked and there was clapping accompanying my songs. They had sought me out on the internet and werem familiar with my song, 'Mis-Spelt Football Team Blues'. One question asked was, ‘How long does it take to write a poem?’ and I normally answer this question by reading a poem of mine (From my new collection, Dublin’s lesser spotted creatures) which took me the duration of washing my hands to write, and then go on to explain other poems take weeks to get right, so there is no hard and fast rules. At this answer one young girl put her hand up to tell me that she once wrote a song whilst eating her dinner, but unfortunately by the time she finished the song had been forgotten. I can certainly sympathise with this, this has happened to me on many occasions, so I reiterated the importance of always having a notebook with you, although probably not at the dinner table.
So again, a successful Children’s Book Festival was had by me… Here’s hoping next year will be as good.
