Fringe By The Sea, Pauline McLynn – The Time Is Now.

Half dog/half womble, Nelly the ball snatcher and Sam nice but dim.

Friday it would be fair to say North Berwick was looking it’s sparkling best.  Long quiet beaches, sea like glass and the occasional wee sailing flotilla bobbing past. After a bracing walk with the beasts of Bodmin Moor – who were enjoing themselves as you can see – I  shuffled off to Fringe By The Sea speigeltent to meet up with and interview Pauline McLynn. So you imagine she from Father Ted, Shameless and Jam & Jerusalem  is a bit of a laugh?  You are not wrong. She is bloody hilarious and I have to say the perfect interviewee. I asked her one question and it was akin to light blue touch paper and

Pauline and an all in wrestler.

retire.We sat in amongst a packed audience in the Fringe By The Sea yurt – a tent made of skin – which you can see in the photo  is a fairly impressive structure.  Proven all the more by the fact my pals daughter had her 16th birthday party in it which she likened to Sodom and Gomorrah and against all odds the tent and her daughter survived. The only collateral damage was my pal Jane whose nerves were shattered after being surrounded by dozens of serious underage drinkers for hours on end. Still,  all stains boiled out and  cold compresses administered the tent and the crowd were in fine fettle. So there we sat for an hour and a half listening as Pauline regaled us with tales of her family in Ireland, her early years at Trinity College in Dublin avoiding study and embracing drama and the subsequent rollercoaster that is life as an actress, a well known 65 year old alcoholic housekeeper called Mrs Doyle and a successful author. I won’t go on, (gwan gwan) but if you are a reader – well you are or you wouldn’t be reading this – her stuff is great. Funny but it also gets you by the jugular too.   You have 9 to choose from – the latest one The Time Is Now, which is next on my list closely followed by The Woman On The Bus about a woman who appears in a town slumped on a bus and thanks to the drink she has no recollection of how or why she’s there and the ensuing carry on sounds hilarious and horribly familiar.

Ooh and The Edinburgh International Book Festival  starts today – a perfect place to hang out – so maybe see you there…….have pals arriving for 2 days intense festival going – have 6 shows to see in the next 24 hours….so if you see a woman slumped at the side of George Street guzzling cold wine at speed whilst checking her watch it will be me. The woman on the pavement. x

AlisonsDiary

Writer & broadcaster.

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