It’s that time of year, and I’ve been doing my bit again at the Nairn Book and Arts Festival. This year I was off the hook as a judge for the Open Art Competition, so I could enjoy the final outcome just as a member of the public. But of course I couldn’t help making comparisons: would I have ‘passed’ all the works included this year, if I’d been a judge?

'Arbiter of Elegance - a Biography of Robert Adam' by Roderick Graham

First, some statistics. The Festival succeeded in reducing the overall number of works entered, by reducing the limit per applicant to two works, rather than three, so they got a total of some 350 entries, as opposed to the mammoth 550 we had to go through last year. Yet the exhibition is almost twice the size, and uses not only the original venue of the Court House, but the Seamen’s Mission as well. And I have to admit that, even after close inspection, there were only a handful of works that I felt wouldn’t have got our seal of approval last year.

So, fewer entries, yet many more selected artists and works, while maintaining the overall standard. Quite an achievement for just the second year of the Open. And the standard of hanging and presentation is high, with clear printed labels for every work (something many other opens shy away from, producing instead irritating printed lists and numbered works). Yes, it’s true that using screens in the Seamen’s Mission was far from ideal, but at least the screens themselves were as good as I’ve seen, and the hanging went for clever and sympathetic juxtapositions. And all the prizewinners seemed very worthy choices.

Equally gratifying, on that point, was the solo show by last year’s overall winner, Ruth Nicol. Ruth was still a mature student last year, and I presume that these new works formed her degree show. They show a real growth in confidence even from last year’s high standard, and fully justify the policy of offering such a solo show to the overall winner.

I had to miss the second half of the Festival, as I’ll be at a conference in Wales (which may lead to a future blog) so I was only free to chair two of the Festival’s literary events, but both proved to be a great pleasure. I’ve been reading Andrew O’Hagan’s articles in the London Review of Books since his first, back in 1994, but until now I’d read none of his novels. The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog and of his friend Marilyn Monroe is certainly one of the strangest books I’ve read in a long time, and I wasn’t sure how a conversation about it would go, in front of an audience. I needn’t have worried. Andrew is in both senses a ‘natural’ performer—in that he talks easily and readily, and that he comes over very directly and without pomposity. Not surprisingly, just about every copy of the novel on display had gone by the end.

My other chairing duty was a very different matter, Roderick Graham talking about the life and work of Robert Adam, subject of his latest biography Arbiter of Elegance. I had a personal interest here too. As ‘Rod’ Graham the author had had a previous life as Head of Drama for BBC Scotland, and as a humble ‘extra’ (Ricky Gervais style) I had been, quite literally, a spear carrier in Rod’s production of his own play about the last days of the Earl of Bothwell. I’ve dined out ever since on how I got to beat up a young Brian Cox with an eight foot halberd…

As with Andrew O’Hagan, my chairing duties could not have been easier. Roderick Graham spoke fluently and with only the briefest of notes, for a very entertaining forty minutes, and each question, from me or the audience, encouraged a new flow of urbane anecdotes and unlikely facts, such as: what we think of as ‘Adam’ fireplaces were really made by a Dutchman called Rysbrack. Once again copies of the book—hardback this time—were flying off the selling table.

Like so many festivals across the Highlands and Islands, the success of the Nairn Book and Arts festival is a tremendous tribute to the huge voluntary effort involved, as well as to the herculean efforts of their part-time administrator! And what a good venue the Nairn Community Centre is—flexible and welcoming. Long may the festival flourish.

© Robert Livingston, 2010