Atwood Brought the Flood to London
St James' Piccadilly
Originally uploaded by efsbMargaret Atwood is in town promoting her latest sci-fi speculative novel, The Year of the Flood. Last night, Kevin and I went to St James' church, Piccadilly, and sat through a performance of selected passages from the novel which included a choir singing hymns and five actors playing characters from the story. Atwood herself sat on a chair slightly to the side, in the role of the narrator.
Our seats overlooked the ground floor but didn't face the whole stage. They weren't kidding when they said restricted-view tickets. Still, I could see when the choir took their place, and when the actors wandered in with Atwood down the main aisle, dancing gently to the introductory hymn while blue balls glowed in their cupped hands (the kind of balls you get offered by deaf mutes in Cretan cocktail bars). We also saw, a few minutes earlier, when Miranda Richardson arrived late with a friend and, failing to find a good seat, had the luck to have a press officer gently move a couple from the front pews so they could have preferential seats...
Afterwards, I lined up dutifully with many others for an autograph. I donated £10 to RSPB, one of the many not-for-profit orgs that Atwood is supporting during this book tour - they fight to preserve the habitat of wild birds, especially birds of prey which are being hunted into extinction.
When she took my book to sign, I thanked her for the evening. "I hope you were able to hear well," she asked. I replied that yes, I had heard fine the whole performance. She smiled and handed me the book back. "Best of luck with the rest of the tour," I said. "Thank you, thank you very much!" She seemed a little... taken aback by me speaking to her? Other people just handed their books, got their autograph and left. Maybe I broke protocol? Or - more likely - this is an aspect of the tour she doesn't enjoy so much (I don't see how it could ever be not weird to have a huge line of people waiting for your autograph).
And that was it - we were very quickly out in the cold rain, rushing home with a brand new hardcover novel to read tucked inside a hemp-like carrier bag with the book's title stamped on it (now destined to be my grocery store/fashion bag.)