MWF - the first weekend Part Two

A combination of a hectic round of extra curricular activities and a dose of the dreaded lurgy which has laid me low for the best part of a week, has meant that my reports on MWF are just a tad later than expected. And as I took no notes, the time lag and the consumption of considerable amounts of alcohol (medicinal purposes only, of course!) means that details have become a little hazy. But here goes anyway.

The Sunday of the first weekend saw us going to two sessions, only one of which was on crime fiction.

'The Moral of the Story' had Barry Maitland in conversation with Peter Mares. Along with a more broad ranging discussion on aspects of crime fiction, Barry read from and discussed his new stand-alone novel, Bright Air.

This session was recorded for Radio National's Book Show and the podcast is available at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2008/2343718.htm. I don't know if it will be available forever, but it's still there now.

'The Honest Trader', a non crime event, discussed moral responsibility in the global marketplace. The speakers were Duncan Green, Head of Research at Oxfam GB; Kenneth Davidson, a senior business columnist with The Age, and Heikki Patomäki from RMIT and also a Professor of International Relations at the University of Helsinki, Finland.