CULTURE BOOKS
Writer Sara Sheridan’s novel approach to public speaking: it’ll have you in tears
Te Mirabelle Bevan series author says you’ve got to know your audience
BY KEVIN O’SULLIVAN Y
ou often hear the expres- sion ‘tour de something’ used in the context of great novels, but not necessarily in the case of
novelists. But author Sara Sheridan is definitely a tour de something, such is her irrepressible appetite for funny, and random, chat. She is also a one-woman events machine, speaking as she does at some 80 events around the UK every year: at book festivals, bookshops, libraries and corporate gigs. But, and this is the surprise part,
she often consciously avoids speak- ing about the subject she is there to promote, i.e the book; she’d much rather talk about the historical period in which it’s set. It’s an in- teresting approach, and in an era of aggressive marketing and the direct sell, refreshing. “I think it’s a real limitation with
author events if the author ends up speaking about themselves or the book; the audience might not have heard of your work, so it’s got
Writing is an internal process and I think authors can struggle with communicating that.” Te theme of our discussion
turns to audience engagement, be- cause a successful event, no matter what it is, demands a good turn of phrase, something that can capture the imagination. “Oh, it’s just got to be inspir-
to be interesting and engaging for everyone,” says Sheridan. “So I’ll talk about the history of
the British lady, or the golden age of exploration, in the early days of empire when adventurers set off to map the Niger with just an extra pair of socks and some sandwiches.”
SHERIDAN IS A prolific writer; she’s the creator of the Mirabelle Bevan mysteries, which are just about to be launched in the Ameri- can market, as well as contempo- rary and historical fiction. She is
also impossibly busy. As well as the writing, there’s a fledgling luxury gifts business, Urban Reivers, which she is hoping to get off the ground later this year. And of course there’s the speaking engagements at events, which she clearly enjoys. Surely shy and retiring authors are not supposed to enjoy actually talk- ing to people? “A lot of writers find it really
difficult to do events but I don’t get nervous at all. I’ve seen other authors throwing up before they go and do a talk. I understand that.
ing. People don’t come just to pass the time,” says Sheridan. “And you’ve got to be funny some of the time, give an audience what they want and try and make it about them. I’ve had a room full of women accountants in tears before, because the story I told resonated deeply with their personal, lived experiences. You’ve got to do your research before you go into a room like that, work out who your audi- ence are. So I’ll work with events organisers, and say ‘tell me about your audience’. If you’re a historical novelist, you’ll be a swot anyway. But I want people to go away and think ‘that was amazing’.”
Writer and accomplished public speaker Sara Sheridan was named one of the Saltire Society’s 365 most influential Scottish women, past and present
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together to design and build their cake.” She then invites EventsBase to form a team, so I may have to squeeze in a few episodes of Bake-Off between now and then. Tis family day underpins the
organisers’ desire to translate what could be seen as a bit of a staid, stuffy subject into something much more fun and accessible. To that end the team has also invited members of the public to nominate their favourite buildings of the past 100 years. Te selections will form the basis
of Scot:Style, a roving exhibition that will tour the length and breadth of
the country, again in the hope that people will be engaged by architec- ture when it is given a bit of context. Candidly, Karen admits she is even hoping for a bit of a “spat” if any carbuncles make it onto the final shortlist, which will comprise 10 buildings for each decade between 1916 and 2015. “We’re actually hoping people
might end up saying ‘that’s outra- geous, that should never be in the running for Scotland’s top building, that’s a monstrosity’,” she says.
THE EVENT WILL culminate with a spectacular grand finale Karen mentioned at the launch of the themed year during last Septem-
10 | EVENTSBASE | MARCH 2016
ber’s joint conference with Event Scotland and the Scottish Tourism Alliance. At that point, it was a closely guarded secret but now she is happy to divulge that Dundee will be the focal point for ‘Light Night’, a free public event over the weekend of November 18-19. Karen says the event will take place in the amphitheatre of the Tay, at which point I have to confess that I didn’t know Dundee had an amphithe- atre. She is of course waxing lyrical about the city, which is perhaps a fitting location for a national event, given the imminent transformation of its waterfront and the arrival of the V&A. “It will be a spectacular perfor-
mance with projections, screenings, and entertainment celebrating the regeneration of Dundee and the waterfront, but also showcasing what’s happening across Scotland,” says Karen. “Tis is the finale so we will find a way of summing up the festival which hopefully catches the right mood for what has gone before it.”
What: The Festival of Architecture Where: Various locations, Scotland When: March to November, 2016
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