Andrew Smith: The Speech, Wolverhampton Literature Festival - review
It was standing room only at the Light House as author Andrew Smith treated visitors to readings from his book The Speech and an interesting insight into its conception and development.
The book concentrates on a 10 day period in 1968 in Wolverhampton when city MP Enoch Powell made the controversial 'Rivers of Blood' speech that shook the nation.
Though Smith's novel follows Powell through the days immediately before and after the speech it is essentially a whodunit with a murder plot intertwined with the political situation and racial tensions at that time.
But any mention of the name Enoch Powell is guaranteed to spark a heated debate and the controversy is as fresh today almost 50 years on than it was then. It was perhaps not surprising then that the Q&A session at the end quickly became a group discussion with the audience sharing their views on the speech, the political situation then and now and, of course, Brexit.
Former Wolverhampton art student Smith was, however, an engaging orator and provided a real insight into the research and work that went into writing a novel that, albeit fiction, had such a historical setting.
There were readings from the book which were warmly received equally by those of us who had read the book and those who will no doubt now be doing so.
It was a treat to hear from the author and another coup for this inaugural literary festival.
By Diane Davies
