Here at the abbey in April 2020, at the baby’s six-month-old half-birthday party.
For some years now, Ken and Astrid have been regulars at the Wigtown Book Festival in Scotland. This year, because of Covid-19, the book festival will be virtual. As one of the virtual events, here is an excellent 30-minute podcast from Wigtown in which Astrid talks about her art and Ken talks about his books — as well as the article he wrote about their lockdown time here in the Appalachian foothills after flights back to Scotland were canceled. The interview with Astrid is in the first half, and the interview with Ken is in the second half.
Ken’s article Letter from the Heartland
4 Comments
David, thanks so much for this. It allows us an insight and update on Ken at present. I enjoyed it so much.
Hi Jo: You’re welcome! I enjoy the accents in that podcast. The interviewer is Scottish, Astrid’s accent is Irish (though she’s German), and Ken’s accent is all-American. 🙂
Peggy, the interviewer, is actually Northern Irish. I’m still figuring out all the accents here, too. So many distinct accents in the UK. I called up a company in Liverpool and I thought I was talking to a Beatle.
Ack! What a gaffe! Part of the fun of traveling in the U.K. is trying to figure out the accents. Here in the U.S., while I was living in San Francisco, I once recognized the accent of someone in a 1-800 call center in Texas. “You’re from Ashe County, North Carolina, I think?” And that was correct, to his astonishment, because I’ve known natives of Ashe County. When people are so mobile, it becomes difficult to relate their accents to particular places. In any case, it’s one of the great sports of travel in the English-speaking world.
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