posted on 10 Apr 2016

Jane Ray and Kevin Crossley-Holland @ Oxford Literary Festival

On Saturday 9th April we went along to see Jane Ray and Kevin Crossley-Holland talking about their latest collaboration, Heartsong. We were intrigued by the setting - Exeter College chapel - and by the fact that it had a musical accompaniment in the form of flautist, Flavia Hirte.

The setting was extraordinary but I'm still not entirely convinced that the chapel was the best place for this event - accoustically it was magnificent but the seating is grotesquely uncomfortable and required the audience to sit craning their heads at an odd angle. Fortuneately, both Jane and Kevin were fascinating and the music sublime and this made the physical discomfort less of a factor.

The story behind the original ideas and how the two authors worked together was genuinely revealing and while they clearly have a great respect for each other's talents, it  was obviously quite a task to bring the book to publication. Kevin was gallant enough to acknowledge that the genesis of the idea had more to do with Jane who had been inspired by a trip to Venice when she had happened on the backstory  - and if you are interested in the book you can see a full review of Heartsong on this site  (http://www.letterpressproject.co.uk/inspiring-young-readers/2015-10-08/heartsong).

Sadly, it would seem they have no other immediate plans for further collaborations and they were honest enough to admit it would take a very special story to make them feel that they could top this effort. However, probably the biggest surprise of the afternoon was listening to a really beautiful choral rendition of Vivaldi which turned out to be by Jane herself - extraordinary! Illustrator, writer and singer - it makes you sick!

At the end they signed books for the audience and spent time and effort talking to everyone - and without grumbling at all about the fact that we turned up with a case full of editions for them to sign.

A splendid afternoon.

Terry Potter

April 2016