Alice Munro live from Canada with Margaret Atwood

Utilising Atwood’s invention of the LongPen, a machine that incorporates a video-link to the author’s location and creates legally binding replications of the author’s signature, Margaret Atwood in Edinburgh speaks to Alice Munro in her local bookshop in Ontario. The technology required for this invent astounds the audience, as the first question isn’t about her work but asking about the LongPen. Whilst the technology makes the event possible, the interactions between the two friends’ sarcastic wit (Atwood) and sharp tongue (Munro) transform a potentially stilted event into an exhilarating night.

Tonight Munro promotes her 13^th book, The View From Castle Rock, which explores her Scottish roots and the interaction between her imagined view of them and her life today. Here, real letters by her ancestors, including the Scottish author James Hogg, sit alongside imagined conversations and are deftly woven together. Munro reads with expression and laughter but spends most of the time talking with Atwood and an adoring audience filled with writers. Liz Lochhead tells Munro that her work has provided her more pleasure than any other living writer. At the signing both Ali Smith and Maggie O’Farrell scream to her ‘We love you. We love you. We love you.’

An almost de rigeur question at these events is asking for tips on getting published. Munro’s were: "Keep at it, don’t expect it to be easy, initially write in obscurity as it gives greater freedom and if it is an absolute need then you must do it."

Despite Munro not being physically present, her charisma, passion and enthusiasm left the audience enamored. Atwood was a wonderful chair; their friendship led to a flowing conversation. An absolute delight.