Leading literary light marks Brexit in Huntly
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A LEADING Scottish writer visited Huntly at the turn of the month as local people marked Britain's exit from the European Union.
In a finale to Deveron Projects' series of events charting the rocky road to Brexit, author, academic and stand-up comic AL Kennedy offered her take on the country's withdrawal during the event, titled Understanding Brexit. The academic gave her perspective as a Scot, now living in England, who writes a regular column for a German national newspaper and travels frequently and widely around the world.
Posing the question "where were you when Brexit happened?" as Britain took leave of its European circle on January 31, the organisation invited people to "gather to reflect on the friendships formed as we prepare to move forward".
A series of events were organised including a tree planting and community meal, designed to "neither celebrate nor commiserate" but to simply bring the community together to mark a significant moment in Scottish, UK and European history.
The writer said: "You did a very beautiful thing today. Nobody plants a tree who doesn't have hope. A tree is about 30, 40, 50, 70, 80 years in the future. A tree is about what lives in the tree. A tree is about people who will be alive, hopefully, when we are not ... depending on coronavirus wiping us all out next Tuesday, apparently!
"It's a hopeful thing. And obviously art is a hopeful thing.
"I think at a time when there's a lot of chaos, and a lot of breaking down of things – and sometimes things have to get broken down for something new to grow up – I'd be really interested in your creative responses to things. Some of them I will talk about as I go along; one of them is kindness. I think kindness is precious as never before."
After her talk and readings the writer joined a panel as the subject was thrown open to all at The Square. A ceilidh rounded off the night.
Petra Pennington, art and community worker at Deveron Projects, said: "We've been told after the tree planting, the meal, the discussion event and the ceilidh, that it meant a lot to people who came that they had somewhere to come together on that date and feel the warm embrace of community. It's important that that happened here in Huntly, where that sense of community is strong.
"I'd like to pass on a thought from writer and comedian AL Kennedy, when she was addressing us in the audience in Huntly as we approached the moment of Brexit. She said: 'I think kindness is precious as never before'."
Dundee-born Kennedy now lives in Essex after 30 years in Glasgow. She has won various prestigious UK and international book awards, including a Lannan Award, the Costa Prize, The Heinrich Heine Preis, the Somerset Maugham Award and the John Llewellyn Rees Prize. She has twice been included on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list.
Kennedy has written nine novels, six short story collections, as well as three non-fiction and three children's books.
