One of the highlights of the TLC conference last year was the Canon Tales session. What, I hear you ask, are the Canon Tales. Set up by Doug Wallace and Jon Slack in, I believe, 2006, it is essentially an innovative literary project where figures in the world of books pick twenty images that showcase their own personal take on creativity in publishing. The tricky part is that they only have 21 seconds per image, thus creating a high-speed 7 minute snapshot.
This year Canon Tales came back with seven strong contenders. I say contenders like they are going in to battle, which could be an interesting development... a publishing rap-off anyone? Ok, getting carried away.
Although pretty shoddy quality, you can get an idea of the whole set-up by watching Canongate's Jamie Byng Canon Tale at the London Book Fair a few years ago:
I don't sadly have any footage of those who contributed to the Canon Tales session at the TLC conference this year but everyone put in a strong effort:
YA Literary Agent Hannah Shepard charted her relationship with books from Nancy Drew and Point Horror through to her life as a bookseller and then agent.
Biographer Maggie Ferguson delivered a touching talk on her relationship with George Mackay Brown and later Michael Morpurgo.
X-Men's Mike Carey was the intellectual talk of the session - looking at the way words and pictures have worked together over the centuries, from fine art to political cartoons, from comics to the Chinese alphabet.
Daniel Cooper took us through his life in the world of books from working for Amazon in Seattle to his own personal escapades with writing and publishing via Kindle.
Author Katy Darby took us through the evolution of her life as both a writer and founder of the live literature event - Liar's League - which now has branches in New York and Japan.
Editor at Granta, Max Porter, managed to get through his talk with 90% of his images displayed upside down - so huge kudos to him, even more so because his first book at Granta was Booker-winning The Luminaries... some people are sickeningly talented.
Gemma Seltzer of the Arts Council gave an inspiring talk on her adventures with new ways of presenting stories, from innovative blogging to Japanese book binding, from dancing in libraries to James Bridle's physical and online weathervane project where people 'get on board' and 'shipped' out to sail the seven seas.
Novelist, Kamila Shamsie wrapped things up with her publishing story from the beaches of Karachi to the campus of an American university to being published and winning awards at the age of just 24.
In short, if you see a Canon Tales event going on - go along.
Biographer Maggie Ferguson delivered a touching talk on her relationship with George Mackay Brown and later Michael Morpurgo.
X-Men's Mike Carey was the intellectual talk of the session - looking at the way words and pictures have worked together over the centuries, from fine art to political cartoons, from comics to the Chinese alphabet.
Daniel Cooper took us through his life in the world of books from working for Amazon in Seattle to his own personal escapades with writing and publishing via Kindle.
Author Katy Darby took us through the evolution of her life as both a writer and founder of the live literature event - Liar's League - which now has branches in New York and Japan.
Editor at Granta, Max Porter, managed to get through his talk with 90% of his images displayed upside down - so huge kudos to him, even more so because his first book at Granta was Booker-winning The Luminaries... some people are sickeningly talented.
Gemma Seltzer of the Arts Council gave an inspiring talk on her adventures with new ways of presenting stories, from innovative blogging to Japanese book binding, from dancing in libraries to James Bridle's physical and online weathervane project where people 'get on board' and 'shipped' out to sail the seven seas.
Novelist, Kamila Shamsie wrapped things up with her publishing story from the beaches of Karachi to the campus of an American university to being published and winning awards at the age of just 24.
In short, if you see a Canon Tales event going on - go along.
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