Writing on the Wall: Pressure Points

Following the recent redefinition of Britain's social classes, who can honestly say they didn't spend a good hour filling in the BBC's recent Great British Class Survey – firstly out of curiosity, then in disbelief and with an eye on fixing the outcome?

In advance of speaking on this very subject at Liverpool's Writing on the Wall festival's regular Rebel Rant series – previously host to such shrinking violets as Germaine Greer, Joan Bakewell and Darcus Howe – Janet Street-Porter tells me: “The British are obsessed with class and where we stand in society. The BBC recently tried to redefine class, coming up with some fancy new names, but the fact remains people at the bottom in our society still find it hard to rise to the very top. It's still about who your parents were and where you went to school. Even within the middle class, we emphasise our differences, sneering at people with the wrong clothes, the wrong cars and the wrong accents. We have North/South snobbery. So we are as much to blame as the politicians for the fact that Britain is as divided as ever.”

This fighting talk is perfect for Writing on the Wall (WoW), which, in its 13th year, is all about being 'under pressure.' “The theme is really a reference to the economic situation and a reflection of how people feel experiencing job losses, benefit caps, bedroom taxes and the erosion of essential services,” says festival director Madeline Heneghan. “It could also be reference to the pressure placed on arts organisations, such as WoW, to deliver quality artistic events while funding for the arts is being continually cut.”

It's a bold theme with some bold guests, one being former fugitive drug dealer Howard Marks, who will be performing an extract from his new show, Scholar, Smuggler, Prisoner, Scribe (30 May, secret location). Says Marks: “When I was suffering the consequences of a 25-year sentence in a maximum federal penitentiary, the people of Liverpool organised a petition of thousands of names for me to serve the rest of my sentence in the UK. I shall never forget that support.”

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"I'm interested in characters who won't, or can't, squeeze into the templates they have been provided" – Rosie Garland

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“Our festival and our Rebel Rant series is designed to bring audiences together to tackle issues that are deemed to be controversial, to explore new ideas and foster understanding,” continues Heneghan. “I think our audiences expect WoW to be more engaged with relevant issues than perhaps more traditional literary festivals.”

Poet and Liverpool John Moores University lecturer Alicia Stubbersfield, reading pieces from her new collection The Yellow Table alongside Sam Willetts on 23 May at House on Bold Street, agrees. “WoW showcases writers who are trying to address the personal and political pressures of life in these times,” she says. “[Sam and I] will be reading poems that arise from real life: drug addiction, cancer, divorce – and the capacity to find love and hope in the midst of it all.”

Fiction writer Rosie Garland, launching her debut novel The Palace of Curiosities at an event complete with a Victorian circus sideshow (19 May, St George's Hall), is also drawn to life on the edge. “I've always found myself writing about outsiders,” she explains. “I'm interested in characters who won't, or can't, squeeze into the one-size-fits-all templates they have been provided, and the friction that occurs when they try. That comes from always having been an outsider myself. I want to find out what's going on in there. And celebrate it, proud in the face of the overwhelming sludge of ‘normality.'”