Clive James a highlight at Australia and NZ arts and literature festival

Stephen Rome writes from London, where he took part in the inaugural Australia and New Zealand Festival of Literature and Arts.

The four-day gathering was a success to my eye, with solid crowds at most events. Congratulations to festival director Jon Slack, who hails from Adelaide, and his team. Kudos, too, to the Australia Council for funding the festival to the tune of $100,000. The council’s director of literature, Jill Eddington, was a busy presence, participating in several panels, including one with yours truly on “lost’’ classics (I urged the audience to buy David Ireland’s three Miles Franklin winners, The Glass Canoe, The Unknown Industrial Prisoner and A Woman of the Future, all available in Britain in Text Classics editions).