Edinburgh looked particularly beautiful in the sunshine as I walked the other morning along Lauriston Place to the Book Festival, held in the Art College. People in various costumes and dress, from ultra modern to medieval, were walking along, some handing out leaflets for productions they were taking part in. Railings were plastered with posters for shows, comedy shows, musical shows, theatrical shows, all these extraordinary posters that people have put so much time into creating. They make an art exhibition in themselves. Everyone was smiling, the sun does that so successfully.
Our Fathers Fought Franco: The four authors
– Lisa Croft, Willy Maley, Jennie Renton (owner of Main Point Bookshop, Bread Street, Edinburgh) and Tam Watters
– talked about their memories of these fathers and their researches for writing this book.
Jennie's father, for example, described himself as a communist agitator on his job description. When Oswald Mosley spoke in the Usher Hall, he protested and sang
The Internationale. Jennie said her father was interested in progress, was committed to public service and believed communism would save the world.
The Communist Party organised transport to Spain. Not all the people who went to fight in the International Brigade were communists, but they were protesting about conditions for working-class people. When they got to Spain, however, they found the guns didn't work and the ammunition did not fit the guns. The arms and ammunition of the fascists were far superior to their own.
Some women, we were told, in response to a question from the audience, were very proud of the men going off to fight for freedom and democracy. There was a strong sense of solidarity and community of working classes as they existed then.
In those days, at the time of the Spanish Civil War, there was very little news and people at home did not know what was happening or how their husbands or fathers were. But there was one newsreel, that showed two of these men, who were friends and in the same battalion. They had been taken prisoner, and as prisoners of war they seemed to be well treated and well fed. Though there might have been a propaganda element, as they knew they were being filmed, the men genuinely seemed in good spirits.
Jennie told us that her father was a full-time communist till 1956. That was the year when the USSR invaded Hungary to put down the uprising against the communist dictatorship. Jennie said this broke his heart. This must have happened to many others as well. Arthur Koestler wrote about this in his memoirs, Albert Camus had his eyes opened by Stalin's atrocities back in the 1930s, when Sartre was still defending Stalin. And it happened to George Orwell too, through his own experience in Spain.
Political beliefs, idealistic beliefs, can be so deeply held that they are integral to our sense of self, and it can feel like a personal catastrophe if they are destroyed. People fought for those beliefs, gave their lives for them, believed they were fighting for a better world. Jennie put her finger on it when she said 'all war is failure'.
The nature of belief was also addressed in the talk by Sarah Krasnostein and Dina Nayeri, chaired by Roxani Krystalli.
For the refugees in Dina's book
Who Gets Believed? it is important to convince authorities to believe their stories, in order to claim asylum. It all hangs on the acceptance of others. But, Dina says, for Iranian asylum seekers, there is a way of telling stories which is to start at the beginning of the universe, that is how it is done in their culture, they are not accustomed to summaries or brevity. So it can be harder for them to be believed.
Sarah Krasnostein's book,
The Believer, is not about believing people's stories, but about the nature of other people's beliefs, how they come to hold them and adhere to them, and how these beliefs shape their actions and their lives. Her book is a mixture of psychological insight, anthropological investigation, story telling and human warmth.
The characters she writes about are a blend of fact and fiction, but she always makes sure that her characters are happy with her words before they are published. She says that sometimes she can envy their strong beliefs for the sense of belonging it gives them, the clarity and assurance of that. Then she says, well, you can have that or you can be a writer! So it's clear that she would rather have the freedom of not belonging and not adhering, because of the (relative) objectivity it gives you, the possibility of going beyond the rules and frames, of wandering and exploring. Because, don't all beliefs have rules and boundaries too, the price to pay of being a member, of belonging?
This is a subject that interests me too, and once I have read Sarah Krasnostein's book I may have more to say about it.
Outriders Europe paired two writers together, to explore places in Europe. The writers decided which places would best correspond to their writing project, which would involve descriptions and inspirations from the places they visited. In this talk, chaired by Jess Orr, themes of movement, migration, the influence of borders, and the search for family roots were present in both of the itineraries.
Cierán Hodgers and Victoria McNulty travelled first to Poland, to Gdansk and Krakow. Victoria remarked how these patterns of migration are not just in the past, but in the present too, with many refugees in Poland today, from the war in Ukraine. She wanted to trace ancestors in County Mayo, and Cierán, who is Irish, was also exploring his roots in Ireland, as well as the history of the times of famine.
Dean Atta and Kostya Tsolakis explored Athens and Cyprus. Kostya was born in Athens but has lived in London for many years. Dean has maternal ancestors in Cyprus and wanted to reconnect with them. They were both entranced with Cyprus, not surprisingly, and Kostya noted the difference between Greeks from Greece and Greek Cypriots, in terms of very different history. Dean said that his family avoided talking about the fact that the island has been divided since 1974. There was still underlying trauma from that time, he felt.
Although hospitality was not part of their research, still, all the writers were struck by the depth and extent of the hospitality that they encountered. In Cyprus, Dean and Kostya were not expected to pay for anything, and their hosts became quite cross when they did – you are the guests, they were told. In Ireland, Cierán and Victoria were invited into the houses of people who were complete strangers, and they were very impressed by the measure of generosity they encountered.
Morelle Smith is a poet and writer
