2010
An Amazing Day
8 October 2010
It has been an amazing day today. Day 2 of the festival - and I haven't even got to write about Day 1 yet. It is midnight but I can’t sleep! Buzzing with excitement.
First of all - the Lontar book launch was a great success - fabulous venue, nibbles, and turn out - all my friends came ("the fan club"/ "rent-a-crowd") but lots of others too. Got to meet Hanna Rambé, the author of Mirah of Banda, a lovely woman who was thrilled to meet me too and is very happy with my translation. I thought I was going to be nervous, but you know me, once I am up in front of the audience, the teacher in me comes out and the words flow. I was able to bring the story to life in a few words and a short reading and show how pleased I was to have been part of the effort to bring Indonesian literature to a larger audience through my joining the other Australian literary translators coming before me who are all friends and colleagues, like Vern Cork, Pam Allen, Keith Foulcher and others. Pam was there which was lovely! The proudest moment was when Josh, who had left before the very end, sent me a text message saying I was "clear and dynamic" - and later told me how proud he was and that I was the best speaker!
First of all - the Lontar book launch was a great success - fabulous venue, nibbles, and turn out - all my friends came ("the fan club"/ "rent-a-crowd") but lots of others too. Got to meet Hanna Rambé, the author of Mirah of Banda, a lovely woman who was thrilled to meet me too and is very happy with my translation. I thought I was going to be nervous, but you know me, once I am up in front of the audience, the teacher in me comes out and the words flow. I was able to bring the story to life in a few words and a short reading and show how pleased I was to have been part of the effort to bring Indonesian literature to a larger audience through my joining the other Australian literary translators coming before me who are all friends and colleagues, like Vern Cork, Pam Allen, Keith Foulcher and others. Pam was there which was lovely! The proudest moment was when Josh, who had left before the very end, sent me a text message saying I was "clear and dynamic" - and later told me how proud he was and that I was the best speaker!
John's old mentor and college Indonesian teacher, who lives in America, spoke too. My friend Iesye from Jakarta International School suddenly turned up at the festival today and came to the launch - bought two books. A lot were sold and I was busy signing along with the author. Alex and the whole family came too, as did the Open High mob, Siobhan and many more. I think John, the publisher was very happy with it all. Bought me a large glass of red afterwards. Cathy took masses of photos of me with everyone! Will be a great record of the event to show you all. I was interviewed in Indonesian on tape by a Tempo journalist (Tempo is Indonesia's equivalent of Time magazine.) Eight books were launched in the Lontar Foundation's Modern Library Series, all 20th C Indonesian classics - but only two translators, John and I, and one author were present, though two adult children of one deceased author came, (all other authors having long gone). So theirs were the two books focused on in the launch.
I had been to the session on young Indonesian writers just before that and had to speak for a few minutes on the translation issues that arose in the stories I had done for the Festival - had to leave a bit early to rush up the road to the Lontar launch. I met one of the writers I'd translated there too, but could not linger to talk much. It was a pretty low-key affair attended mostly by Indonesians.
But there is more!! Something extraordinary!
I had been browsing though the festival program at lunchtime at home (I had come back to change for the launch) and was checking out the 6pm book launch on in a different venue after mine, and could not believe what I read. (This will be fantastic news for the Pollard family!) The book to be launched is called India Dark by Australian young adult fiction writer, Kirsty Murray and based on a true story of the Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company!!! For those of you who don't know our family history, my grandmother, who lived with us until she died when I was 16, had, in the late 19th century been a child star of the Pollard's travelling children's opera company and when she grew up married the son of the founder - my grandfather, Ernest James Mozart Pollard, whom I never knew. She had travelled to China, Japan and South Africa - and maybe India too - I can’t remember.
The novel by Kirsty Murray is based on a true story of the scandal that occurred in 1910, some years after my grandmother had left the company. The children had staged a walk out on a trip in India due to abuse and neglect, and there was a court case in Madras. Of course the company was disbanded after that, though my grandmother had always told us it was because of the new laws concerning compulsory school attendance in Victoria. She never mentioned the scandal that involved my grandfather's brother and his affair with one of the teenage girls in the company and his neglect of the other child actors.
So I did not linger at the Lontar launch and raced down the hill to the other venue and introduced myself to Kirsty Murray who was delighted and surprised - she had not been able to find anyone directly related to the Pollards - but had seen my great-aunt May Pollard's photo collection in the Mitchell Library as part of her research (as I had.) Kirsty told the audience about my being there and called me up when she was giving her talk! The book was launched by none other than Thomas Keneally, grand old man of Australian literature. He came up to me afterwards too! I was beside myself with excitement at the coincidence of being in Ubud when this book was being launched - and they were thrilled to have a direct descendant of the Pollards there too. Kirsty apologised in her talk if the scandal might upset me, but I assured her it was after our Nan's time - though I had always thought it was pretty "scandalous" that my grandfather who had been in charge of arrangements and education for the children on tour, knew my Nan as a child and waited till she grew up to marry her at 19 - he was ten years her senior.
What a story, eh!! Josh's friend, Janma, when I was here in August, was using Josh's computer doing a search on her family history and ours too - she had in fact come up with a little about the fact that a scandal had ended the Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company, but no details. I have of course bought the book.
I had been browsing though the festival program at lunchtime at home (I had come back to change for the launch) and was checking out the 6pm book launch on in a different venue after mine, and could not believe what I read. (This will be fantastic news for the Pollard family!) The book to be launched is called India Dark by Australian young adult fiction writer, Kirsty Murray and based on a true story of the Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company!!! For those of you who don't know our family history, my grandmother, who lived with us until she died when I was 16, had, in the late 19th century been a child star of the Pollard's travelling children's opera company and when she grew up married the son of the founder - my grandfather, Ernest James Mozart Pollard, whom I never knew. She had travelled to China, Japan and South Africa - and maybe India too - I can’t remember.
The novel by Kirsty Murray is based on a true story of the scandal that occurred in 1910, some years after my grandmother had left the company. The children had staged a walk out on a trip in India due to abuse and neglect, and there was a court case in Madras. Of course the company was disbanded after that, though my grandmother had always told us it was because of the new laws concerning compulsory school attendance in Victoria. She never mentioned the scandal that involved my grandfather's brother and his affair with one of the teenage girls in the company and his neglect of the other child actors.
So I did not linger at the Lontar launch and raced down the hill to the other venue and introduced myself to Kirsty Murray who was delighted and surprised - she had not been able to find anyone directly related to the Pollards - but had seen my great-aunt May Pollard's photo collection in the Mitchell Library as part of her research (as I had.) Kirsty told the audience about my being there and called me up when she was giving her talk! The book was launched by none other than Thomas Keneally, grand old man of Australian literature. He came up to me afterwards too! I was beside myself with excitement at the coincidence of being in Ubud when this book was being launched - and they were thrilled to have a direct descendant of the Pollards there too. Kirsty apologised in her talk if the scandal might upset me, but I assured her it was after our Nan's time - though I had always thought it was pretty "scandalous" that my grandfather who had been in charge of arrangements and education for the children on tour, knew my Nan as a child and waited till she grew up to marry her at 19 - he was ten years her senior.
What a story, eh!! Josh's friend, Janma, when I was here in August, was using Josh's computer doing a search on her family history and ours too - she had in fact come up with a little about the fact that a scandal had ended the Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company, but no details. I have of course bought the book.
It’s been go, go, go from dawn to night, listening to fabulous talks and interviews and brushing shoulders with writers galore. And famous non-writers too!!! Gareth Evans is here- he told me in the coffee queue that he came with his wife's book club. (For you who are not Aussies, he was our foreign minister all the years of the Keating Government in the 90s- and very out there - face on the telly every day!) And here too is that very PM's ex-wife, Anita Keating - maybe she belongs to the same book club as Gareth's wife!
Disappointing session with William Dalrymple, author of books on Indian history - he gave the same talk, the same words, read the same passages as he had at the Sydney Writers Festival earlier in the year! Word for word, joke for joke! We left and went to a much more fiery session - a Palestinian woman and an Israeli journalist on the same panel - both wonderful, funny, passionate - and probably good friends too, as they are always put on the same panel at festivals all over the world. Dewi Lestari, Indonesia's very modern young woman writer, was interviewed charmingly by Pam Allen, and she was sparkling and delightful - perfect English. Former pop star - her latest book is a CD of songs and a book of short stories that go with each song - Retroverso. The other very famous Indonesian writer Pam interviewed - grand old man of letters from revolutionary times in the 40s - Sitor Sitormorang, now 86, was very hard to interview. His English was perfect - had lived in Europe for decades - but no matter what question Pam asked he could not get off the topic of the seven years he spent in jail under Soeharto, despite saying he had moved on from that experience. It was very sad to watch. The previous night he had been awarded Indonesia's most prestigious literary award at the Palace Opening ceremony.
Disappointing session with William Dalrymple, author of books on Indian history - he gave the same talk, the same words, read the same passages as he had at the Sydney Writers Festival earlier in the year! Word for word, joke for joke! We left and went to a much more fiery session - a Palestinian woman and an Israeli journalist on the same panel - both wonderful, funny, passionate - and probably good friends too, as they are always put on the same panel at festivals all over the world. Dewi Lestari, Indonesia's very modern young woman writer, was interviewed charmingly by Pam Allen, and she was sparkling and delightful - perfect English. Former pop star - her latest book is a CD of songs and a book of short stories that go with each song - Retroverso. The other very famous Indonesian writer Pam interviewed - grand old man of letters from revolutionary times in the 40s - Sitor Sitormorang, now 86, was very hard to interview. His English was perfect - had lived in Europe for decades - but no matter what question Pam asked he could not get off the topic of the seven years he spent in jail under Soeharto, despite saying he had moved on from that experience. It was very sad to watch. The previous night he had been awarded Indonesia's most prestigious literary award at the Palace Opening ceremony.
Lots more to tell, but sorry folks, we are off to have breakfast with Louis de Bernières of Captain Corelli's Mandolin fame) with the Ubud Book Club. Local ex-pat (and my Ubud trivia team leader) Kerry Prendergast is going to interview him. She did a star turn at last night's Poetry Slam too, having been last year’s winner.
End of the Festival
All over and now I can settle down and watch the rice grow again. In this pouring rain, surely it has grown another few centimetres. It has rained all day today not just during the night as it has every other day. The final festival party would have been a washout! It was held outdoors at Antonio Blanco's Museum (he was nicknamed the “Bali Dali”not due to his style of art but rather for his eccentricities) - I have avoided the event for years because the last time I went it was so awful.
I will be able to get back to seeing Jasmin regularly. Not a free minute to pop down and see her during the festival - the one "slot" I had free there was a massive downpour so I sat under cover outside the venue where coffee is sold, and had a great long talk with a regular festival panel moderator, SEA-based journalist/novelist and now international mediator, Michael Vatikiotis, only to discover after meeting him at every festival, that he has a background at SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies in London) and knows all the people I knew there in the early 70s. He is currently the negotiator between the current Thai PM and the ex-PM.
J
I will be able to get back to seeing Jasmin regularly. Not a free minute to pop down and see her during the festival - the one "slot" I had free there was a massive downpour so I sat under cover outside the venue where coffee is sold, and had a great long talk with a regular festival panel moderator, SEA-based journalist/novelist and now international mediator, Michael Vatikiotis, only to discover after meeting him at every festival, that he has a background at SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies in London) and knows all the people I knew there in the early 70s. He is currently the negotiator between the current Thai PM and the ex-PM.
J
Going backwards - we'd just come from another book launch - our Malaysian friend, Shamini Flint's latest Inspector Singh Investigates - the 4th Writers Festival where we have seen her. We are her “Australian Aunties" fan club. This time Singh is involved in the Singapore School of Villiany. Her launch speech - we have heard varieties of it in Byron Bay and Sydney already, is a half hour comedy routine that has the mob cheering and then rushing to buy all her books. I've read them already, so just enjoyed the lovely food and drinks and Shamini's flow of jokes.
Spoke a few more times to the author on the novel based on the Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company (it is on sale everywhere in Australia - under young adult fiction). My great uncle Arthur Pollard, who caused the scandal in India was I think, the youngest of the 15 children - two large families by two sisters - Great Grandfather married the second sister when his first wife died (of exhaustion?) Apparently all the Pollard Opera Company archives are kept in the Performing Arts Museum in Melbourne where Murray did a lot of her research. We had never thought to go there! But will be sure to on the next visit south! I spoke to Tom Keneally more too - he remembered my sister Jann who was his grandchildren's Baby Health Centre nurse years ago! He knew the Pollard story too as he is a friend of Kirsty's and gave the speech at her launch. I have been brushing with fame, haven't I?
Spoke a few more times to the author on the novel based on the Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company (it is on sale everywhere in Australia - under young adult fiction). My great uncle Arthur Pollard, who caused the scandal in India was I think, the youngest of the 15 children - two large families by two sisters - Great Grandfather married the second sister when his first wife died (of exhaustion?) Apparently all the Pollard Opera Company archives are kept in the Performing Arts Museum in Melbourne where Murray did a lot of her research. We had never thought to go there! But will be sure to on the next visit south! I spoke to Tom Keneally more too - he remembered my sister Jann who was his grandchildren's Baby Health Centre nurse years ago! He knew the Pollard story too as he is a friend of Kirsty's and gave the speech at her launch. I have been brushing with fame, haven't I?