It might be 120 years later, but that transformation is now seeping into every corner of Porto. Contrary to the famous dictum about the country’s regional characteristics, “In Porto they work, in Braga they pray, in Coimbra they study and in Lisbon they play”, it seems that Porto is now downing tools in favour of picking up a book. Against this backdrop, it was no surprise that BABELL literary festival, an initiative from the Livraria Lello Foundation, was a resounding success. What was a surprise was the level of writers who came. For six days in late June, under a cloudless sky, people, including me and my daughter, gathered in squares, clutching books, to listen to Julien Barnes (highly amusing), Margaret Atwood (inspirational), Olga Tokarczuk (revealing), Dulce Maria Cardoso (impressive) and others (even Salman Rushdie gave a talk) in crowds which reached tens of thousands. There was laughter at times and at others, an audience so enraptured you could have heard a pin drop. But most of all there was a tangible feeling that books rule. Tickets were only available by buying a book which had a voucher inside it, boosting the business of the 49 bookshops, apart from Livraria Lello, who participated.
