Joanne Harris @ Edinburgh Book Festival, 16 Aug
Joanne Harris didn't write The Gospel of Loki for you. In truth, it began life as a collection of stories to read to her young daughter, only later to be developed into the kind of bestselling novel that demands a prominent position in all good bookshops.
Speaking to fellow author James Runcie, Harris is keen to discuss the innocently uncommercial roots of her latest book. From childhood onward, she recalls, she was drawn to fantasy. Her parents gently steered towards Norse mythology with its sense of respectability and educational value to mask the grotesque horrors of the fantastical. Thus began a lifelong fascination with the Scandinavian sagas.
While this event is titled From Chocolat to Norse Myth, it's much less an overview of Harris' genre-hopping career, more of a dive into what inspired her to retell these age old tales, and what principally attracted her to the character of Loki himself. The idea of Loki as a truly modern personality is discussed, rooted in his detachment and alienation from the gods around him. Also key is what Harris termed the 'inexplicable' nature of Loki in the myths - he is not afforded a real voice, conveniently demonised, and so seemed ripe for reassessment. Appropriately, this leads to a discussion of Loki as a gender-fluid character in a patriarchal society, then onto Harris' penchant for writing characters that threaten the status quo.
Fans of this deeply irreverent new book will be happy to hear that there should be a sequel, and those who enjoyed both The Gospel of Loki and Neil Gaiman's American Gods should be intrigued to hear that Harris plans to set the next text in the present day.
The last impression of the evening, though, is simply that of an author having a great deal of fun. While William Blake wrote of John Milton that 'he was of the Devil's party without knowing it', this audience is in no doubt that the leather jacket-rocking Harris is very much aware that any party involving Loki would be the only one worth being at.