Wow, what a night, March 12, 2009! The Hong Kong Literary Festival is in full swing this week - a huge week-long event here, featuring authors, poets from all over the world - including Markus Zusak (The Book Thief), and Margaret Atwood! We were asked to provide the venue for the event featuring herself and Mr. Charles Foran, another Canadian author and columnist in conversation about the environment. After 4 months of planning, we welcomed over 300 guests for an hour-long 'event' onstage, and then a cocktail reception and book signing in our theatre lobby to follow. Wonderful night!
Ms. Atwood arrived at the school for a tour at 11am - with Charles Foran,
the other author - really nice guy! She looked pretty old and frail,
actually - jet-lagged, her husband was supposed to have joined her, but
caught a lung virus and couldn't travel, so she did the trip herself.
She's 67, and looked 10 years older.
But, when she arrived at the front entrance to the school - we were all
there in our best big and tucker - it was fun to see everyone so nervous
and excited- even our big wigs. The Gr3 choir was ready, and as she came
in, they started to sing Oh Canada, in french and english, and then
finished with a chinese song. Pretty cool - major cute factor. She was
charmed. (Actually it felt a bit like the Queen Mum). We got our pictures
all taken with her in front of a large totem in the lobby, and then she
went on a tour of the school. I chatted with her a bit about her husband
Graeme Gibson, an author and big wildlife advocate, and the snowy weather
in Canada, and then off she went.
That night, she came in a taxi, and went right into the Green Room -
onstage I had organized a whole set to look like a comfortable den, and
they spoke about all sorts of issues, mostly environmental - both her
parents were environmentalists, and her last book, Payback. I read it
actually, it's very good. She hinted that she has just finished her next
book, but couldn't talk about it.... but that it was continuing her
environmentalist theme. She talked about the struggle to get a book out -
how there are 'battles' along the way. The first battle (with her editors
and copy editors) was about the title, then the cover artwork, then the
typeface, and lastly, and she was so funny about it, the battle of the
comas and colons... Kind of a neat insight into the world of publishing.
Then 7 of the 32 students from the Enviro Club, the Writer's Craft club,
etc. got a chance to ask her some questions, and that was great - they
were all so nervous to speak to her. The questions were mostly about her
books, her involvement with P.E.N., her views on women depicted in
Shakespeare (that was really interesting, as she said - Shakespeare was
writing during Queen Elizabeth's time, and so almost all of his female
characters were interesting, and strong, and that if men treated them
badly in one of his stories, they generally 'paid for it later') She was
very interesting.
After that, she came upstairs to the lobby, which we had all decked out,
caterers and waiters, our students playing jazz on the balcony, it looked
gorgeous. She signed autographs for 2 hours, and then took off in a taxi
at 10pm last night. I got home at 10:15, and was asleep by 10:30.... I
was a bit of a drill sergeant last night - with 12 student ushers, and
cleaning and maintenance staff, security guards, and box office - really
fun.
She was funny, hugely smart - and commanded the rapt attention of all 350
who were there. Very gracious to sign books for 2 hours (instead of the
original 30 minutes) - the line up didn't end. Quite a thrill for all of us involved!
