Wigtown Book Festival diary: AI's thoughts on love and how a small town can rally emergency musicians
Local pub comes to the rescue after annual ceilidh cancelled due to bad weather
On Saturday night, Wigtown Book Festival’s annual ceilidh - a highlight of the event which has previously reportedly seen celebrities including Alan Cumming take to the dance floor - had to be cancelled due to the weather. But organisers quickly sorted an emergency folk music night at local pub The Ploughmans.
“I got an emergency call this afternoon,” one of the musicians was heard telling bar staff.
Every festival should have a team of emergency musicians. And very good they were too.
From page to screen
Damien Barr, talking to Davy Brown about his new book, The Two Roberts, a fictionalised telling of the lives of Glasgow artists Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryd - lovers and art world celebrities in the 1940s and 1950s - was asked who he would like to play the Roberts “when” the book is adapted for the screen.
He had to think carefully before giving his answer of Joe Locke, who plays Charlie Spring in the Netflix teen series Heartstopper, who he said he believed could play Robert Colquhoun.
“I think if he could get really angry, he would make a good Colquhoun,” he said. “But I’ve never seen him get really angry.”
Barr also added that his book tour has seen audience members turn up with paintings they believe could have been created by one of the Roberts. He plans to curate an exhibition of work relating to the two artists, which he hopes will ultimately tour Scotland.
“People turn up with works of art in a plastic bag that they think might have been painted by one of the Roberts,” he said. “It’s like The Antiques Roadshow.”
Mum or Ann?
Revered BBC journalist David Shukman interviewed his mother, Ann, 94, about her book, 44 Days in Prague: The Runciman Mission and the Race to Save Europe.
“Should I call you mum or Ann?” he wondered at the beginning of the event, before asking the audience. They all voted for mum.
Love in the age of AI
In A Conversation With AI About Love, Scotsman literary reviewer Stuart Kelly interviewed an AI machine about deep, existential questions, read out to the audience by actor Alison DeFrees.
Aptly named, considering this weekend’s storm, AI bot Amy gave thoughtful and considered responses to questions including “is marriage the death of love?”, “Should WB Yeats have just ‘got over’ Maude Gonne?” and “Who is the most loveable character, Hitler or Stalin?”.
However, over the course of an hour, her answers became somewhat repetitive, with multiple references to specific historical writers known for their takes on romantic love.
By the time it came to a question on which author gave the best depiction of teenage love, everyone already knew the answer.
“Dante,” the audience chorused, predicting her reply. They were right.
Perhaps the best answer, however, came at the end, when Kelly, decked in a highly romantic pink and pale blue outfit, asked Amy, “If you could love, who would you love?”
After listing her top desirable characteristics in an object of love, including “someone who asks better questions than they answer”, she replied to Kelly, “maybe someone a little like you”. Aww.
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