In 2016, the Edinburgh International Book Festival explored the power of the human mind to imagine a better world. Events addressed the interlinking questions on the impact of conflict; Europe’s place in the world and Scotland’s place in Europe; the refugee crisis; the effect of migration on Scots both at home and around the globe and the role of society in our wellbeing. Over 800 novelists, poets, illustrators, historians, politicians, journalists, scientists, philosophers and playwrights f ...
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Alexander Masters (2016 Event)
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A Life on the Scrap Heap In 2001, almost 150 tattered notebooks were discovered in a skip in Cambridge. They were a small part of an intimate diary that began in 1952 and ended half a century later. It took Alexander Masters five years to uncover the identity and real history of their author. In A Life Discarded he shares the true, shocking and poi…
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My Fight for Human Rights The first Muslim woman and first Iranian to win a Nobel Peace Prize, Shirin Ebadi is a leading lawyer and activist who has campaigned fearlessly for freedom of speech and equality before the law in her country, despite being betrayed politically and personally, and forced into exile from Iran. She joins us to discuss Until…
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Charles Fernyhough (2016 Event)
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Voices in our Heads Two years ago, authors at the Book Festival took part in a major study into the multiple inner voices that make up human consciousness. Now, the leader of that project, psychologist Charles Fernyhough, has completed a major book on the subject, which he discusses with Richard Holloway. The Voices Within weaves human anecdotes wi…
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Life in the Peloton Those lucky enough to witness David Millar’s spellbinding Book Festival event in 2011 will recall the athlete’s forthright admissions about calorie counting, secret doping and quirky camaraderie on the pro cycling circuit. Now he's back with The Racer, a love letter to racing and an unparalleled insight into the career of a Scot…
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Ben Rawlence (2016 Event)
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The World’s Largest Refugee Camp Dadaab Refugee Camp in Northern Kenya has existed for 25 years. Originally created for 90,000 Somalian refugees it now contains over 350,000 people, including 10,000 third-generation inhabitants. Over a period of four years, Ben Rawlence explored this extraordinary 'temporary' city, getting close to the realities of…
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The Funniest Writer in Britain? Already a wildly popular author thanks to her memoir Love, Nina and bestselling debut novel, Man at the Helm, Nina Stibbe returns with Paradise Lodge. Set in a 1970s ramshackle old people's home, this lovingly created story of chaos, love and elderly people is told from the perspective of a 15 year old girl who works…
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Kenny MacAskill (2016 Event)
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Unlocking Lockerbie In 2009, then Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill controversially granted the release on compassionate grounds of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only man ever convicted for the Lockerbie Bombing in 1988. Now MacAskill has written his own account of the terrorist attack, the trial and the turmoil that has ensued. With forensic detail h…
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One of the Greatest Irish Writers Philip Roth has called it Edna O’Brien’s masterpiece; for John Banville it’s savage, tender and true; Claire Messud describes it as arduous and beautiful. The Little Red Chairs is the work of a truly great Irish writer at the height of her powers. A decade since she wrote her last novel, O’Brien discusses an astoni…
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John Lennon’s Bad Trip Kevin Barry’s Beatlebone recently won the £10,000 Goldsmiths Prize for ‘fiction at its most novel’. The phrase seems apt: even though this is a story built from familiar elements – an imagined John Lennon, post-Beatles in 1978, trying to pay a visit to an isle off the coast of Ireland that the real-life Lennon bought in the 6…
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Alaa Al Aswany (2016 Event)
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Egypt: A Devastating Portrait In 2002, The Yacoubian Building was an international bestseller, establishing Alaa Al Aswany as one of the Arab world’s most influential voices. Since then, Egypt has changed radically. However, Al Aswany’s new novel The Automobile Club of Egypt represents another satire on his country’s modern situation. Today he disc…
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Packie Bonner (2016 Event)
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The Goalkeeper Who Saved the Day The idea that footballers stay with one club throughout their career is almost laughable in these cash and ego-driven times. But Patrick ‘Packie’ Bonner was one such man, keeping goal for Celtic across three decades while making a global name for himself with a penalty save which took Ireland into the World Cup’s la…
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Philippe Sands (2016 Event)
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East West Street There is no lawyer quite like Philippe Sands QC. Outspoken on a range of human rights issues, from the illegality of the Iraq war to torture in the Bush administration, the Professor of Law at University College London is also a highly respected barrister who has been involved in the major human rights cases of recent times from Rw…
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Nine More Curious Incidents First he found literary acclaim with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, then he struck gold with a National Theatre play based on the bestselling book. Now, Mark Haddon turns his hand to short fiction, and today he discusses his gripping collection of nine stories, The Pier Falls, which range from the col…
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Middle-Aged Misery Mid-life crises arrive at different times for different people. For journalist and broadcaster Miranda Sawyer, hers made its presence felt at the age of 44. Out of Time is Sawyer’s investigation of this most challenging of life moments, in which she describes not just her own experiences, but recounts the stories of many others w…
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Mervyn King (2016 Event)
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Making Banking Better Nearly a decade after the Great Recession of 2007-09, banking may have become one of the world’s less popular professions, but has the financial system itself actually changed much? If not, what corrections to banking and financial practice do we need? Former Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King discusses his insightful…
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Janet Ellis & Lorna Gibb (2106 Event)
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Dangerous Heroines Two debut novels whose lead characters will entrance, unnerve and delight. Evoking the blood, filth and beauty of Georgian London, Janet Ellis’ The Butcher’s Hook introduces us to young Anne Jaccob who embarks on a passionate love affair with shocking consequences. In A Ghost’s Story, Lorna Gibb tells the story of Katie King's li…
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Michel Faber (2016 Event)
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Strange to be Doing This Without Her The acclaimed author of Under the Skin and The Book of Strange New Things reads from a collection of deeply moving poems entitled Undying. In tender, bittersweet verse, Michel Faber grieves for his wife Eva who died in 2014 after a six year battle with cancer. His fearless poems present brutally honest meditatio…
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Jonathan Safran Foer (2016 Event)
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Extremely Talented and Incredibly Close The bestselling US author of Everything is Illuminated launches his first novel in 11 years. Jonathan Safran Foer’s Here I Am is the story of a fracturing New York family, set against the backdrop of a much wider catastrophe as an earthquake engulfs the Middle East, sparking a pan-Arab invasion of Israel. Cle…
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A Road Trip Through America With the publication of Dirt Road, Scotland’s only Booker Prize winner joins a Scottish publisher for the first time in decades. This brilliantly accessible road movie of a novel arrives with Canongate’s typical panache, alongside a film adaptation of the book. We proudly welcome James Kelman, the writer described by Ami…
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Mark Billingham with Val McDermid (2016 Event)
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Deceptively Brilliant Fiction With over three million copies of his books sold to date, Mark Billingham’s career as a novelist has been a slam-dunk success. And he’s back for more this summer with Die of Shame, his smartest, most unusual thriller to date. When six people meet each week to discuss addiction, they share their most shameful secrets. S…
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Cecilia Ekbäck & Graeme Macrae Burnet (2016 Event)
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Mysteries Under the Northern Lights In the mid-19th century, what unites the Sami people of Lapland and a band of crofters in north-west Scotland? In the fictional worlds of Cecilia Ekbäck and Graeme Macrae Burnet, each community has witnessed a brutal triple murder. Ekbäck’s In The Month of the Midnight Sun and Macrae Burnet’s His Bloody Project a…
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Bowie: Life of a Legend Last year, the jubilation upon the arrival of David Bowie’s new album, Blackstar, quickly turned to shock and grief with the announcement of his death. A true and rare musical icon, Bowie influenced generations of artists. Paul Morley, musician, critic and one of the team who curated the massively successful V&A exhibition, …
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A Love Letter to 1980s Cinema For many, the 80s was a decade that taste didn’t just forget, but totally bypassed. Guardian and Vogue columnist Hadley Freeman does not subscribe to that one bit and is so passionate about 80s American movies that she’s written a book about them. Life Moves Pretty Fast features the classics (Ghostbusters, Back to the …
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Cara Ellison and Simon Parkin (2016 Event)
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Is Video Gaming Killing Us? For years video games have been part of daily life and now two keen players have written insiders’ accounts that explore their effects. Cara Ellison (a ‘cyberpunk hair-dyed Attenborough’) spent a weird year observing game creators to gather experiences for Embed with Games. World-leading video game pundit Simon Parkin pr…
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Gregor Fisher & Melanie Reid (2016 Event)
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Tough Childhood of a Comedy Hero Gregor Fisher may be best known as Rab C Nesbitt, the funniest string-vested street philosopher in all of Govan, but his own life story is far from amusing. His upbringing was a tale of secrets, deception, tragedy, rejection and death, and only now has he felt able to share it, in The Boy from Nowhere. Fisher is joi…
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The Fountain of Eternal Youth? Back in 1973, Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying introduced the beguiling Isadora Wing and her idea of ‘zipless’ no-strings-attached sex. The book became a bestselling icon of the sexual revolution. Now, Jong presents Fear of Dying, the coming-of-age story of a 60 year old woman who happens to be Isadora’s friend. Alongside …
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Does Feminism Have a Dark Side? For years he’s been regarded as one of Scotland’s best-loved and funniest crimewriters, but Chris Brookmyre’s critical reputation has also steadily grown over that same period and now he counts among the best-respected writers in his field. With Black Widow, Brookmyre bravely strides into new political territory with…
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Anthony Seldon & Peter Snowdon (2016 Event)
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Dave from Downing Street Did David Cameron’s early years in power reveal him as an ‘essay crisis’ leader, or an ambitious reformer? Enjoying unprecedented access to Cameron and his team, Anthony Seldon and Peter Snowdon have written Cameron at 10, an eye-opening authorised analysis of the former Conservative leader’s first term as PM. Why was he ne…
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Steve Sem-Sandberg & Sjon (2016 Event)
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Europe’s Literary Superstars Meet two of Europe's most talented novelists. Swedish writer Steve Sem-Sandberg’s The Chosen Ones follows his towering novel The Emperor of Lies in describing brutality and tenderness in the Nazi era – this time in a home for sick children in Vienna. Icelandic novelist Sjón’s highly anticipated Moonstone: The Boy Who Ne…
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Sarah Howe and William Letford (2016 Event)
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Roots and Roofs: New British Poetry We're thrilled to open the Festival with two of the most powerful young voices in British poetry. Sarah Howe's debut collection Loop of Jade won this year's T S Eliot Prize for Poetry and was described as ‘original, exquisite, erudite and adventurous.’ Stirling-born William Letford has been dubbed by Guardian cri…
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Memoir of an Edinburgh Man As the longest serving minister of the 20th century, Defence Minister and Foreign Secretary in Thatcher’s government and more recently Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Malcolm Rifkind has witnessed the monumental political moments of recent times. He joins us to share the highs and lows of his astonishing career, a…
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A Novel, Fully-formed A Girl is a Half-formed Thing was one of the most exciting breakthrough debut novels of recent years. Irish novelist Eimear McBride’s second book emphatically lives up to expectations and confirms her as a writer of international significance. The Lesser Bohemians tells the memorable story of a young woman who arrives in Londo…
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Global bestselling author of the Shopaholic series, Sophie Kinsella, brings you her first novel for teens. Audrey can't leave the house. That is until her brother's friend Linus comes along and starts to teach her that even when you think you have lost yourself, you can still find love. Come and hear Sophie talk about Finding Audrey, a warm, smart …
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BBC wildlife expert Chris Packham brings his first book for children, Amazing Animal Journeys, to the Book Festival. Travel around the world with Chris, exploring the journeys of the billions of animals that migrate each year, from whales and wildebeests to butterflies and bats. A fact-filled event looking at our incredible natural world.…
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A Manifesto for Empowered Women The founder of the influential online project Everyday Sexism, Laura Bates was in the 2014 Woman's Hour Power List Game Changers Top 10 and is becoming well known for her refusal to accept the female stereotypes peddled by a normative mainstream media. Incorporating Bates’ views on subjects including sex, body image,…
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Frederick Forsyth with Ian Rankin (2016 Event)
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Is this a Memoir or a Thriller? It's hardly surprising that Frederick Forsyth has wild stories to tell, given his past as an RAF pilot and investigative journalist, but the thriller writer spins such ripping yarns in his dashing autobiography, The Outsider, that a Sunday Times critic described his book as ‘one of the most exciting and enjoyable acc…
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Billy Bragg (2016 Event)
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The Milkman of Human Kindness From ‘A New England’ to ‘Levi Stubbs’ Tears’, Billy Bragg’s songs have captured the mood of modern Britain. Since politics and pop became entwined in the anti-Thatcher Red Wedge movement of the 80s, Bragg’s voice has been synonymous with left-leaning political sentiment – but his love songs chronicle a world more profo…
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A.C. Grayling 'The Legacy of a Complex Man' (2016 Event)
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Best known for sci-fi novels such as The Time Machine and The Invisible Man, H G Wells also wrote numerous non-fiction works. His wide-ranging ideas pre-dated many modern concerns, including the internet and the black civil rights movement. Yet Wells was also capable of deeply unpalatable beliefs, including his advocacy of eugenics. In today’s lect…
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