Article on London Author Fair 2014

A quick write-up here by me, at Triskele Books’ blog, of the London Author Fair, where much fun and intelligent discourse was had:

http://triskelebooks.blogspot.ch/2014/03/london-author-fair-2014.html

And being a bit less of an Essex girl than me, Dan Holloway’s write-up of the same event at http://authorselectric.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/london-author-fair-by-dan-holloway.html
focuses less on the Campari and bar-snacks aspect of things than mine did, but rather on weightier matters. He’s rightly positive about a fine event that was an important component of the current emergence of UK authors into greater industry centrality. He’s also, however, clear-eyed regarding the danger that if this re-emergence isn’t steered well throughout upcoming months, then it will all too easily grow into a form shaped by the natural inclinations of mainstream commercial media alone—i.e. ignoring the rich and wonderful variety of writing that falls not into the categories of commercial fiction within clear familiar genres, but instead into categories of literary fiction, ground-breaking literary/experimental fiction, or fiction that straddles categories. Those natural market forces of mainstream media coverage are not villainous in themselves; but as he warns, their restricted focus on the commercial sales aspect of the landscape tends to lead to a real and unnecessary cultural impoverishment, if allowed to take over the whole party and hog all the party snacks.