UK serves up an appetizing menu for city's mammoth book fair

The United Kingdom, FIL’s guest of honor this year, will share its cultural heritage and diversity by bringing to Guadalajara a delegation consisting of more than 150 writers, academics, artists and representatives of publishing houses.

Star names include Irvine Welsh, author of “Trainspotting”; Philippa Gregory, author of such successes as “The Other Boleyn Girl” and “The White Queen”; and Sir Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate from 1999-2009. 

Sir Andrew Motion.

Alongside them will be Claire McGowan, the detective novelist; the graphic novelist Karrie Fransman; and poets Helen Mort and Inua Ellams. Journalists, biographers and critics will be a fundamental part of the literary program: Iain Sinclair, whose work on psycho-geography makes us question our relationship with place and space; Alexandra Heminsley, who reminds us about the importance of fitness; Jon Ronson, author of “The Psychopath Test” and Owen Jones, “Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class,” make us reflect on themes such as insanity and stereotypes. The illustrators and authors Sally Gardner and Ed Vere, together with Gareth P. Jones, and the much-loved Anne Fine (“The Diary of a Killer Cat,” “Crummy Mummy”) and Kevin Brooks (“Lucas,” “Candy,” “iBoy”) will make children’s imagination soar through workshops and book readings.

The U.K.’s pavilion will be a space of convergence and dynamism and unlike anything previously seen at the FIL, say its creators, the architectural firm Carmody Groarke, winners of the Architectural Review Emerging Architecture Award. A facsimile copy of the 1215 Magna Carta, one of the foundational texts of international law and pillars of modern democracies, will be on display in an unusual two-tier pavilion. 

A distinguished delegation drawn from all the regions of the United Kingdom will head the FIL academic program, focusing particularly on history, social sciences and educational research. Among the participants will be professors Alan Knight and Paul Garner, who have produced highly-respected studies on the history of Mexico. The British Council will also present a provocative study on the importance of the English language for Mexico. 

Children will find plenty of surprises in the FIL Niños program, which will feature the participation of four-time Oscar-winning British studio Aardman Animations, in the form of kids’ favorite Shaun the Sheep and his little cousin Timmy.

The University of Guadalajara’s Cineforo will show a spellbinding selection of recent independent British cinema. And for nine consecutive nights the stage of Foro FIL (in the Expo explanade) will welcome the most cutting-edge and electrifying expressions of contemporary  British music and dance (see page 28 for details). 

Meanwhile, the Museum of Arts (MUSA) will show a collection of prints by David Hockney, one of the U.K.’s most important living artists. The Cabañas Cultural Institute will host an exhibition of the varied works of David Shrigley, a conceptual artist who has established himself as one of the leading figures in contemporary British art.