EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2016 PROGRAMME In a world of global uncertainty and shifting influence, this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival explores the power of the human mind to imagine a better world. Events address interlinking questions on the impact of conflict; Europe’s place in the world and our place in Europe; the […]
Spotting a rubbish skip outside a Paris apartment, graphic artist Barroux discovered a shoe box inside which contained a treasure indeed — the diary of a First World War French soldier. Fermenting in his studio for a period, the voice within the diary kept calling to him, eventually inspiring him to create On Les Aura!, […]
Chatting with Phil Jupitus onstage at this sellout appearance at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Ian Rankin was on fine form and in relaxed mood, with the evening feeling more like witnessing an informal conversation between friends rather than a rigid interview with a best-selling author. Rankin began by reading an excerpt from Even Dogs […]
Closing the first day of the Edinburgh International Book Festival in a sold-out main tent was literary genre-juggler and precision world-builder David Mitchell. Mitchell began with an amusing excerpt from latest novel The Bone Clocks, in which he transposed the date and location of the passage featuring literature’s aging enfant terrible Crispin Hershey to Edinburgh […]
Appearing in the opening event at the Spiegeltent on the first day of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, authors Stephen Kelman and Paul Murray braved the – for writers – unnaturally early hour and provided a fascinating hour of reading and conversation, chaired by Creative Scotland’s Jenny Niven. Kelman went first, reading from his latest […]
“I’ve always been very happy with the label ‘lesbian writer’”, says Sarah Waters, in conversation with Muriel Gray at the finale event of this year’s Edinburgh Book Festival. “In a way I’ve claimed it.” Waters is here to discuss her new novel, The Paying Guests, which she describes as a “lesbian love story that veers […]
Split into two separate events, IDP:2043 saw the creative team behind the “climate fiction” graphic novel IDP:2043 gather once more to discuss their thoughts on producing the work, commissioned by the Edinburgh Book Festival as part of last year’s Stripped programme. Chaired by Denise Mina, who also came up with the overall story concept and […]
“Some of the most important things in your life happen to you when you are very small.” Children’s Laureate Michael Morpurgo is in conversation with Daniel Hahn at the Edinburgh Book Festival, discussing the anthology of stories, songs and writing about World War One he has edited, Only Remembered. Born in 1943, Morpurgo’s early life […]
“I just wanted to be a quiet person and live a quiet life.” Enigmatic and revered novelist Haruki Murakami is – with the seldom-needed assistance of a translator – in conversation with the Guardian’s John Mullan, discussing his ambition as a young man and his similarities with some of the protagonists in his books. “It’s […]
Stuart Kelly chairs a discussion at this year’s Edinburgh Book Festival with explorers of the “landscapes of the mind”, speculative fiction authors Charlie Fletcher and Jeff VanderMeer. Fletcher reads from his latest novel The Oversight, a magical fantasy set in Victorian London. “The London of the 1840s is a playground,” says Fletcher. “I wanted to […]
