Inside information

Conny and I were at the Frankfurt Book Fair. We went around the various Nordic book publishers with brochures in hopes of tempting new exhibitors to Göteborg Book Fair. On several evenings we invited exhibitors and journalists to our hotel where we had a suite each. In conjunction with SJ Travel Agency, we had managed to arrange accommodation for many people at a newly built hotel walking distance from the Book Fair.
And more visitors came than we could have hoped for. Conny’s suite was filled with people all three nights. We had stocked up with drinks and nibbles at a shop nearby. One evening we ran into a TV team from Austria who were staying at the same hotel. We invited them in. Because the Nobel Prize in Literature was to be announced the following day, they asked me who I thought would win. Earlier on, Gunnel Enby had said to me that Josef Brodsky was one of the writers she would really like to have visit the Book Fair. His was the only name I could think of just then and so I answered that I expected him to win.
And then he did.
During the Nobel Prize ceremony, the same team visited Stockholm, and invited me to dinner. They were eager to maintain contact with me during the year - they were convinced that I had inside information.

Bertil Falck