By Sheena Vernon

The Folio Prize organised a two day literary festival at the British Museum over the weekend of March 21/22nd at which their shortlisted authors as well as some of their judges and Trustees joined in panel discussions. The topics they covered included conflict, desire and betrayal but the purpose was really to talk about books and writing. As with all literary festivals there were a few surprise stars: Colm Tóbín, who I always thought was a grump, was charming and erudite; Akhil Sharma, the New York based Indian, was modest and sweet-natured; then there were the well-worn troupers, like Jeanette Winterton, Suzi Feay and Val McDermid who know exactly how to talk to an audience. There were also debut novelists, like Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor from Kenya, who I expect we'll be hearing more of.

Having lived in Ireland for fifteen years I couldn't help noting a certain cliquiness among the audience, and pretentiousness among those on the stage, but this was also accompanied by a refreshingly unEnglish degree of disorganisation - most notably, free readings by the authors were being given in one part of the library at the same time as the ticket only panel discussions, rather than at the times between them.

As someone who feels that the best way to understand a writer's approach is to hear them reading their work, I ended up racing to and fro between the two events. I heard Tóbín's excerpts from 'Nora Webster', which is a masterpiece of understatement, Akhil Sharma's delightful memoirs of his father (Family life) which he said took twelve years to write, and wished I had heard Ali Smith reading from 'How to be Other' because I might have understood it then. There were a few additional Folio Prize shortlisters giving readings, who left me wondering what was outstanding about their work.

It is impossible really to give a flavour of the panel discussions because so much was said. But I liked Tóbín's observation that novels now have to be about feelings rather than plot-driven (Val McDermid, in another context, suggested that the rush to crime thrillers was a reaction to this); Mark Lawson pointed out that the Brits tend to look back and Americans forward; a lot of writers said they had always been outsiders, looking in, so much so that Jeanette Winterton opined that the act of writing was an attempt to be in control and find safety; Suzi Feay said a lot of books were let down by awful, non-endings and that 'how to' books tended to concentrate on openings and not enough on endings; finally, Alice Kennedy, talking of wit in writing, said all humour has a beat to it, it has to be musical to a degree.

I apologise for not being able to mention all 27 or so writers who took part in this festival but my congratulations go to the Folio Prize for getting them together.

Akhil Sharma was announced as the winner of The Folio Prize 2015 for Family Lifepublished by Faber. More about that can be found on the Folio Prize website.

Sheena Vernon is the author of historical novel Messiah, more information about her can be found at Top Hat Books

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