Michael Holloway from the Open Rights Group has been in touch with news of an upcoming event featuring one of my favourite writers in any genre or medium, Neil Gaiman. As you may infer from the title Neil will be speaking out on a topic which doesn’t receive a lot of press coverage – the plight of the ‘forgotten’ pirates. While fictional bandits of the sea like Jack Sparrow or real historical figures like Blackbeard have retained a strong presence in the media there are many unfortunate pirates now all but forgotten and quite neglected by both the media and society, now languishing in obscurity and poverty, pirates such as Boxhead Bert the Bristol Bucanner, a sailor from the West Country with an unfortunate birth deformation to his skull caused by over-zealous application of large coal tongs by the midwife who delivered him. Bert was the first pirate to ever plunder a ship carrying Turkish delight which fetched him a pretty penny when it went to feed the sugar-starved sweet tooth of many a landlubber back home. But today his exploits are recalled by only a few, likewise some of his once famous contemporaries such as Sadie the Saucy Strumpet of the Seas and the more unfortunately named Blackhead the Pirate (a sailor with a very, very bad complexion). Hopefully Neil will bring some of these names to life once again as he and a specially trained parrot on his shoulder discuss piracy and obscurity.
Okay, not really, but Neil tends to pick up all sorts of obscure and arcane facts as he reads and be honest, its the sort of thing it wouldn’t surprise you to hear him talk or write about, is it? Actually Neil will be giving a talk on book piracy and how it affects creators for the ORG and discussing his new Graveyard Book, over to Michael for the details:
(cover to the adult version of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean, published Bloomsbury)
“Neil Gaiman, prolific creator of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama, is known as one of the world’s top ten living post-modern writers. He is also patron of the Open Rights Group (ORG). In this, the first public appearance of his Graveyard Book UK tour, he invites fans and ORG supporters to discuss piracy from the perspective of a creator, what it means to be one of the tribe of readers, and why most people discover their favourite authors for free.
Entry to this special event is free to new supporters of ORG who join between now and the event. Existing ORG supporters will be charged a discount rate of £5 and the general public will be asked for the full price of £10. Click here to join ORG. Attendees will receive an A3 poster celebrating the publication of Neil’s atest work, The Graveyard Book, and a chance to win a signed copy of the book.”
(cover to the Children’s Edition of Neil Gaiman’s Graveyard Book, illustrated by Chris Riddell, published Bloomsbury)
The event takes place on Friday October 24th (close enough to Halloween to allow you to go out in public wearing a pirate costume, if you feel like it) from 7 to 9pm at The Crypt on the Green (which sounds like a very suitable location), St James Church, Clerkenwell, Clerkenwell Close, London and there’s a private function room in the nearby pub for afterwards too (good forward planning!) – check here for full details.The Graveyard Book is published in different versions by Bloomsbury in the UK at the end of October and includes a children’s edition illustrated by the excellent (and award-winning) Chris Riddell, probably best known for his collaboration with Paul Stewart on the Edge Chronicles, as well as contributing political cartoons to the Observer
Mon, Sep 8, 2008
Books, Comics and cartoons, Conventions and events