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Horace Bent Bent’s Notes


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Bent’s Notes Horace Bent @horacebent


Horace samples the delights of Bologna, including overly long awards ceremonies with no food or drink and ear-splitting percussionists


Can you hear the drums, Luigi?


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here’s a character in Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, Dunbar, who wants to prolong his life. He does so by doing his level best to not get his bomber shot down but also, when he is not flying, culti- vating boredom: if he is bored it will seem like his life is lasting longer. Man oh man, Dunbar


Six times a day a dozen musicians with Bedouin drums do a yowlah, a traditional dance and percussion combination


The Palazzo Re Enzo An ideal venue for overly long awards ceremonies


would have loved coming along to the Palazzo Re Enzo,for the presentation of the annual BOP publishing awards, a short and punchy name for an overly long ceremony that would even make the Nibbies night seem pacy. The Italians love to speechify, don’t they? I suppose there is a tradition stretching from Cicero to Italy defender Leonardo Bonnuci’s classic “More pasta! You need to eat more pasta” philippic to England fans aſter gli Azzurri won Euro 2020. But what made the very long orations at the Palazzo worse was no food or drink could be served until the end (this would NOT happen at the Nibbies). Fine, but why set up all those glitering glasses of prosecco so near? Why place simmering pots of tortellini al brodo within metres? The Re Enzo is named for Enzio of Sardinia, the illegiti- mate son of Frederick II of Sicily who was imprisoned in the palazzo for 25 years in the mid-13th century. Enzo, mate, I felt your pain last night. Although in the end, the tortellini was worth the wait. In the morning over to Hall 29, which houses many publishers from Africa and Asia, the Comics Corner, the BolognaBooksPlus area, the Bookseller Lounge (those who actually sell books, that is, and not this august organ’s famous chill out space; actually off-limits this year as Kate Wilson is self-isolating in it)—and the Sharjah Guest of Honour stand. They bang the drum very loudly for books, do Sharjah. Literally: six times a day a dozen musicians with Bedouin drums do a yowlah, a traditional dance and percussion combination which is oſten performed at weddings and other important celebrations. It is beautiful and, with the swirling incense, hypnotic. But loud. Thrash metal festival loud. Lovely to watch if strolling by, not so lovely if you are a nearby publisher trying to sell transla- tions rights. Or if you are Isobel Gahan who was delivering a talk on BBP’s


Call Your Agent strand when the drums kicked in. The Curtis Brown-ite ploughed on, however, even incorporat- ing it to her presentation. The Sharjah backbeat continued when


Luigi Bonomi followed for his talk on agent/author/publisher relations. And it may have been the driving up-tempo, or perhaps the swirling incense (I mean, I think it was incense) that led to the superagent’s slightly tongue- in-cheek riff on how vastly overpaid editors are. Anyway, it has been too brief, Bologna. Off to Olympia!


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KATE WILSON HAS BECOME FAMILIAR WITH THE BOOKSELLER LOUNGE


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