From an angry badger and a chicken called Janet, to the story of a lost song and life on Mars in the Utah desert… here are 26 things we learned at Wordstock last Saturday. To those of you who were there too, enjoy; for those of you who weren’t, this is what you missed. See you next year.
- Nick Drake was 26 when he died.
- Alex Garland believes that if Tennessee Williams were alive today he would be writing for TV.
- Alex Garland wrote the screenplay for Never Let Me Go in three and a half days.
- The South Korean government is trying to identify the voiceprints of 15 million people.
- Daisy the bad-tempered badger is afraid of going underground.
- Life is dull without biscuits. (So true, Andy Hayes.)
- In the future, Mimic Scripts will stop us from getting bored in conference calls.
- One of the points from The Ministry of Stories’ manifesto is, ‘We believe in clouds.’
- Alex Garland was inspired to write 28 Days Later after a trip to Southern Sudan. ‘I was pissed off with people’s whining, so I thought I’d put a war on this country and then it was a zombie film.’
- ‘It doesn’t matter what you’re writing, the principles and the problems are the same,’ Alex Garland on writing novels, screenplays and games.
- ‘The poem is less concerned with memory than remaking,’ Toni Stuart.
- ‘A poem carries a city in its belly,’ Jacob Sam-La Rose.
- Nick Drake only wrote 33 songs.
- There were 132 markers all over Andy Serkis’s face during filming to help create King Kong’s face.
- Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in Lord of the Rings was given one of the rings as a gift from Peter Jackson.
- Hiraeth a Welsh noun for ‘homesickness for a home you cannot return to or that never was; a nostalgia tinged with grief.’ (Free Word postcard)
- When he was 18-years-old, Adrian Hon won a competition and spent two weeks in the Utah desert to experience simulated life on Mars. In the same year he made a TED talk.
- It’s been scientifically proven that those who love books are better looking people. (So true, Andy Hayes.)
- Alex Garland thought he would be a foreign correspondent but then discovered that while he only reads non-fiction, he dislikes writing it.
- In the film adaptation of Animal Farm there’ll be two chickens called Janet and Morag who finish each other’s sentences. All thanks to performance capture technology.
- ‘Writing pack copy is like jumping into a ball pool of words.’ Fraser Southey
- An unexpectedly good sentence: Nick Drake, like Jeremy Clarkson, is unique and therefore beyond criticism.
- Callipygian means ‘having shapely buttocks.'(Free Word postcard)
- You can buy Adrian Hon’s book about the future, here
- You can buy Michael Burdett’s book about Nick Drake here
- If you’re interested in putting together next year’s Wordstock as a curator, email Sarah hello@sarahfarley.co.uk