Writers at the Convent

On Friday I gave myself an early Valentine's Day present - I booked myself some sessions at the "Writer's at the Convent Festival" which is put on by Readers Feast, a bookshop in Melbourne city.  I'm sure my lovely husband would have done it for me if he knew about it, but as he didn't, I decided to take the initiative and do it for him!  This is an annual event, which runs from the evening of Friday 12th February this year until Sunday 14th.  From the media press release:

This year’s Reader’s Feast ◊ Writers at the Convent, Melbourne’s summer celebration of reading, writing, books and ideas will feature the now traditional diverse range of topics, including a look at when Melbourne was Australia's capital, the passion of football supporters, parenting, Jewish emancipation, parlour games, Weary Dunlop, Paris, sex, food, fire, crime and economics. Writers from the US, UK and New Zealand will join local luminaries.

I'll hear from Shannon Bennett and Elizabeth Bard on Paris, the subject of their books Shannon Bennett's Paris, and Lunch in Paris respectively.  Paris is a place I have visited twice under different circumstances, the first time with my husband as a young married couple where we did all those adult things such as sitting at an outside table in a cafe in Montmartre with a glass of beer watching the artists in the square, and dining at a small restaurant and laughing over trying to understand the menu with my limited french.  The second time with children, the the highlights were the Eiffel Tower, the merry go round at the base of the hill to the Sacre Coeur, the children's science museum, and, of course, Euro Disney.  I think I will enjoy hearing Shannon and Elizabeth's views of this legendary city.

Then, it's off to get some insights from Stephanie Dowrick as to the relevance of the poetry of a 20th century poet for 21st century readers from her book In the Comforts of Rilke".  Stephanie is probably better known for her books on self growth such as Choosing Happiness (on my "to read" pile but there's always something that gets put on top of it!).  The self growth genre is not my usual reading material, but I'm going along with an open mind.

I'll follow this up with "Destinctive Debuts" which profiles new authors for 2010, and finish with Matthew Rielly (surely you've heard of him, or if you haven't, I'm sure the teenage boys and men in your life have).  Matthew has that unique story of someone who self published his first book at 19, and then went on to become an international best selling writer.  I have to confess that my 14 year old son has read them all and is very envious that I'm actually going to see Matthew.  I decided last week that I had better read one of his books to see what it's all about and on the recommendation of my son, I'm currently nearly finished "The Seven Ancient Wonders".  Reminds me of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" with a bit a touch of Dan Brown.

For anyone interested the link to the website for the Festival is: http://www.writersattheconvent.com/