J.K Rowling discussed her new book, ‘The Casual Vacancy’ at The Forum on the 8th March as part of the Bath Literature Festival.
Photo courtesy of Abi Polding.
The much loved author of the ‘Harry Potter’ series delivered a wonderful evening, bringing dry wit, humour and above all, brand new insights to her novel.
As the crowd began streaming into the theatre’s seats, the hall buzzed with excitement from audience members, most of whom were huge ‘Harry Potter’ fans, longing to see Rowling. After waiting for 15 minutes, and running ever so slightly late, Rowling was greeted by an enthusiastic chorus of cheering and applause as she took her seat.
After a brief introduction by the Artistic Director of the Festival, James Runcie, Rowling regaled the audience with detailed stories and anecdotes about her writing.
Rowling and Runcie, friends for many years, talked about how they collaborated with their ideas and discussed ‘The Casual Vacancy’ from its early years of development. Runcie’s apparent first response to the book wasn’t ‘[…] “Jesus Christ what were you thinking?” but his face said it.’ This witty comment by Rowling certainly won the audience’s approval, and throughout the night, she continued to deliver laidback, humorous responses to questions.
Runcie then asked: ‘why this book? Why “The Casual Vacancy?”’ Rowling’s response was rather interesting with her saying she never planned to try and get away from the world of ‘Harry Potter’ but that she enjoyed ‘the gear change.’ She went on to explain it was the story she ‘burningly wanted to tell’, and ‘that is the only good reason to write a book.’ Rowling told the audience how she often began with one character in mind and developed it from there.
There were so many in depth responses that surprised the audience, keeping them hooked onto every last word. Everyone in the room sat in admiration of her tales.
The theatre was full of laughter and banter between Rowling and Runcie as the talk progressed and soon the conversation opened up to the audience. Eager audience members raised their hands in desperation to ask Rowling a question. Some questions were insightful about ‘The Casual Vacancy’, and others took a lighter approach, asking questions about the beloved ‘Harry Potter’ series.
One member of the audience asked whether she got bored of writing any of her books. Rowling replied there were many times where she put the notes down and left them for months before returning to them and thinking: ‘actually this isn’t too bad’, even when writing ‘Harry Potter’. Many fans were young writers themselves and Rowling gave them great advice to just stick to what they loved and be willing to ‘kill a lot of trees’ to get the story right.
To finish the event, Rowling’s last words were: ‘Life is writing.’ She radiated her love of writing to the whole theatre, and as members of the audience went up to get their copies of ‘The Casual Vacancy’ signed, the idolising feeling for Rowling and her spectacular tales of accomplishment stuck to each one of them.
Our thanks to Emma Sheppard for this review.
