28/02/10 - Bath Literature Festival - Day 2

I attended two events today.

The first was in the Guildhall with the incomparable Ben Crystal, whose unique take on Love, Sex and Comedy in Shakespeare had the audience enthralled. Despite a heavy cold, Ben gave a bravura performance and had a long queue at the end waiting to buy copies of his book Shakespeare on Toast.. I already had mine, bought when Ben joined us at Swanwick last summer.

Afterwards, I made my way to the Masonic Hall for a BBC Radio 4 recording of three newly commissioned ghost stories.  These were Stowmont by Sadie Jones, The Ghost Writer by Amanda Craig and The Whisper by Diana Evans We sat in candlelight as they were read, the first two by John Telfer of Archers fame, who also seemed to be suffering from a heavy cold, and the last by Syan Blake. The stories will be broadcast on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week. The styles and subject matter are very varied and my favourite is The Ghost Writer, whose newly discovered muse was, I suspect, inspired by the late Barbara Cartland.