Again over on Gemæcce (my research blog), two posts about Early Medieval Pictish stones—or, more specifically, the animals carved on them. It can be hard to tell sometimes whether these easts are real, wholly imaginary, or just attempts to convey something they’ve never seen in real life.
Certainly some are very real, and realistic—and I’ve drawn a few examples. But as far as we know (certainly as far as I know, and I’ve searched extensively) the Picts never carved many of the animals Hild would have been familiar with. So I set out to create what I thought those beasties might have looked like if they had. One of those examples in particular gave me a lot of trouble…
As almost always happens, I forgot it was IWD until lunch time. So here’s a slightly update version of a post I did a few years ago. Enjoy!
Janes Plane live at the Ace, Brixton, 1982. Pictured, l to r, Nicola Griffith, Carol Holmes, Jane Lawrence.
Once upon a time—44 years ago, on March 8, 1982 to be exact, International Women’s Day—I and four other women debuted our band, Janes Plane. (I’ve written about that many times so won’t rehash it here but do feel free to go down the search rabbit hole). It was early March, too, eleven years later, when Ammonite, my first novel, debuted in the UK. (Which makes today Ammonite’s 33rd birthday!) And of course it was just ten days after that that I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. For me, IWD is a complicated anniversary.
But today, just because it pleases me to do so, I’ll focus on the music. Here are two Janes Plane songs. The first, “Vondel Park,” is about the summer I was 19 and me and Carol, my lover (that’s what we said back then, lover, not partner or girlfriend) went to Amsterdam, got stranded with no money, starved in a campground for about a week, then finally got some cash and spent it immediately on, first, a Big Mac and fries, and, second, a chunk of red lebanese hash, which we smoked in Vondel Park in the sunshine while hippies played their guitars. I spent four lovely hours hallucinating herds of wild horses running with a 50′-tall Bertie Bassett (a figure made of Liquorice Allsorts—a liquorice sweet/candy). Here’s the song, accompanied by a video created from various TV clips of the band edited together by Lou, our bassist.
And here’s “Bare Hands.” I don’t know what the song meant to the rest of the band, but my lyrics are about Hull, a grimy, desperate city in East Yorkshire (so bad you could address a letter to ‘Crap Town’ and it would get there), where I moved after I left Leeds in early summer, 1979 (right before we went to Amsterdam). I lived there with Carol for ten years and always knew it could be a better place, if only people would believe enough to try. I left long before that happened—but it did. So, to me, this is a song about hope.
I think IWD, too, is all about hope. So turn up the sound and drift and dream…
I’ve just done my last local She is Here-focused book event.1 It was small, and lovely, a very community affair in Edmonds with cookies and soda and lots of conversation, and a great introduction by Leila Norako, a medievalist at UW. Sadly I don’t have pictures—but then I remembered I do have pictures of the Ravenna event that I haven’t posted, and in fact haven’t had time to write about.
Ravenna was a great event—just right. Third Place Ravenna is a small store, which struck me as a perfect venue for this book.2She is Here is not like any of my other books—it contains my first published poetry, for instance; my first published artwork; and a very candid interview. For those reasons I wanted something intimate for this book—not the great echoing space of Elliott Bay or the even greater-capacity Third Place Lake Forest Park (where I’ve done my last few events).
The events folks were initially concerned that the store wouldn’t be big enough but eventually they came round to my way of thinking (thanks Spencer, thanks Bailey!). As it was, it turned out perfectly. Bailey rearranged the store so that the reading was a sort of 270-degree, reading-in-the-(almost)-round affair, with several blocks of chairs. (This meant I had to swivel my head a lot when talking, to make sure everyone felt included, but, hey, that’s a small price to pay.) And in the end every seat was filled and only a handful of people had to stand. I tried to find the best photo to show everyone, but even so, you can’t see two of the blocks of folks on the other sides of bookshelves—but I drew some helpful arrows so you can imagine:
Listeners invisiblebehind shelving…
Most of the photos (thanks, Bailey) seem to be me talking—but I assure you Kelley talked too and asked lots ofo ifty questions—as did the audience. Here are a few more pix:
Eyes rightEyes centreEyes left…
As you can see from all the coats and hats it was a cold night—I was truly delighted that so many people made the effort. The Q&A session ran a little long, and then the signing line was long, so I’m sorry that the booksellers were kept late. But also, y’know, not sorry because it was such a splendid evening.
And then we all went to the pub and carried on until they kicked us out. Oh, well. Even the best nights must come to an end…
I have an event coming up at Charlie’s Queer Books, but that’s focused not on me but on my conversation partner, Olivia Waite, for her new book, Nobody’s Baby. And I’ll be reading from and talking about SiH at ICFA later this month. Thee are also more interviews and reviews to come… ︎
Plus, of course, they have the pub downstairs that sells Guinness. Plus plus, it is a beautifully accessible store. I recommend it highly. ︎
Sorry about the earlier non-post post. I was experimenting with something and then, well, a certain four-footed beastie who shall remain nameless but is George’s brother decided to help by trompling across the keyboard at the Very Best Time Eva.
March is Women’s History Month, and Under the Rainbow, in conjunction with Edmonds Library and Edmonds Bookshop, are sponsoring a special storytelling event with, well, me. Here are the details.
Event: Under the Rainbow: Nicola Griffith. Doors open 6:00 PM, programme 6:30 – 7:30 PM Pacific. Edmonds Library, 650 Main St, Edmonds, WA 98020
Co-sponsored by Under the Rainbow, this will be an hour of reading and conversation all about many parts of my life and writing but—given that it’s Women’s History Month—a fair amount focused on why seeing women and especially queer women in historical fiction is so important
I’ll do a couple of sort reading but mainly be in conversation with my favourite interlocutor, the ever-fabulous Kelley Eskridge!
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