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David reads from ‘Theft by Finding’, taking us back to 1987 as seen through his diary entries, where he finds pleasure in the repetitive language of a terrible radio drama from the 1930’s.

Sarah reads from the anecdotes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, written in his notebook between 1932-1938 when he was struggling to find inspiration. Fitzgerald’s masterpiece ‘The Great Gatsby’ was dismissed by a contemporary reviewer as ‘a glorified anecdote’ – Sarah explains that this comment has led her to examine the importance of anecdote to the novel ( especially notebook entries relating to a mysterious figure called ‘Bunny Burgess’, and to consider the status of the anecdote.  

The poet George Szirtes explains that Hungarian history lends itself to writers favouring particular kinds of anecdote, some of which present the reader with the grotesque, whilst others offer a kind of ‘reverie’. George comments that ‘some nations have history and some have anecdotes’, and reads a story by the Hungarian writer István Örkény. George also reads an anecdotal poem from his collection ‘Notes on the Inner City’ (Eyewear).

In the overlapping circles of musicians on tour, anecdotes have a special currency and  Boo is fascinated by the ways in which these stories become buffed and changed by the years. Anecdotes are also an important tool for the musician who wants to bring his or her audience together. For Boo anecdotes belong on the stage not on the page - as he says ‘If I wrote them down they might dissolve’. Boo is touring the UK this year, and his new album is ‘Swimming with Mercury’.