Blog North Awards, reviewed by Charlie Boorman
With previous visits in mind, I associate The Deaf Institute with fly-paper dance floors and minor tinnitus, so my initial reservations concerning the venue for The Blog North Awards may have been justified. However, the moment I walked through the Gothic front-door (sober, for once) I realised my doubts had been misplaced: it was the ideal venue. The aforementioned Gothic exterior, the boudoir-like low level lighting, the mock-rococo chandeliers, and the absurdly large disco ball hanging above the audience all seemed to mirror the insane, hotchpotch world of bloggers and blogging.
Almost the moment after I had sat down with a premium European lager (the champagne was presumably on ice), proceedings began. The first part of the evening consisted of four bloggers sharing excerpts of their material. Liverpudlian Amy Roberts – nominated in two categories – read from her blog I never knew you were such a monster, a site addressing the ridiculousness of everyday life. Punctuated by innovative insults and colourful – in all senses of the word – imagery, it was certainly a full-blooded first encounter with the world of blogging.
The second speaker’s blog is now firmly bookmarked on my web browser. Kevin Boniface – a postman from Huddersfield and winner of the Best Writing category – was its creator. Entitled The Most Difficult Thing Ever, the blog is centred on Boniface’s observations whilst on the day job. Po-faced, he offers up absurdly funny snapshots of elderly women discussing custard tarts, of the housing estate ‘where pretend owls outnumber humans two-to-one’, and of the man who feigns tripping over to avoid eye contact with him. The audience, forgiving his nervousness, were raucous in their appreciation of his unique, deadpan comedy.
As if to exemplify the diversity of the blogging community, the next two speakers were completely disparate to what had gone before. First up was Simon Moore’s Sonnet Reviews; a blog that met the incredibly small niche of reviews written in the classical fourteen line format.
The following speaker was photographer and writer Len Grant showcasing his blog Her First Year, a site that shares the experiences of amiable parents Hassan and Frances through the first year of baby Mia’s life. As he read an excerpt, Grant was accompanied on stage by the protagonists of his blog – Mia stealing both the microphone and the adoration of the audience. The blog is touching and stunningly well-written. It tracks seventeen-year-old Frances’ troubled childhood, her subsequent pregnancy and childbirth, interspersing these events with beautiful photographs along the way. Quite deservedly, Her First Year won the Best Personal Blog category.
After a brief interval, the ‘headline act’, Adam Christopher, came to give a reading from his new book Seven Wonders, a novel that removes super-heroes from the traditional comic book and places them into prose. ‘It was like a scene from a movie,’ he began. After that, I switched-off.
After his reading there was a quick Q&A session in which he came across as extremely personable and interesting – I began to think that I had judged his writing too harshly. He talked about the copyright of super-hero names: he was forced to rename one of his characters after a clash with one of the original X-Men. He also talked about the importance of social networking to him (it was on Twitter where he met his publisher and agent), and he dealt with certain questions – e.g. ‘If you were a bad robot, what would you do that would make you so bad?’ – with wit. By the end, I found myself warming to him.
The evening closed with the awards ceremony (the winners of each category are listed below.) Each winner was met with the same hysterical, whooping cheers from their fellow bloggers. It certainly seems like a warm, welcoming community. In fact, I think I might start up a blog just to nose my way into it.
Best Arts and Culture Blog: A Negative Narrative
Best City or Neighbourhood Blog: Sevenstreets
Best Food and Drink Blog: Around the World in Eighty Bakes
Best Personal Blog: Her First Year
Best Specialist Blog: The Magic Square Foundation
Best Writing Blog: The Most Difficult Thing Ever
Best Young Blogger: Tie between Every Second Song and Considerate Trespassing