MUSICIANS, Hollywood A-listers, literary greats, renowned scientists and prominent politicians are all to appear at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival, it was announced yesterday.
Launching its most international programme to date, organisers have revealed that the August event will welcome 900 participants from over 55 different countries around the globe.
They include one of America’s greatest living writers, Marilynne Robinson, French rock star and mathematician Cédric Villani, Wolf Hall actor Mark Rylance, Hollywood actor Alan Cumming, Scottish songwriters Edwyn Collins and Stuart David along with one of the most formidable civil rights activists of the 20th century, the Rev Jesse Jackson.
Renowned playwright David Hare and street artist Stik will also appear.
“Scotland has always been an outward looking nation and this year the Book Festival is more international than ever before,” said Nick Barley, director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. “Charlotte Square Gardens will reflect the idea of the global village as we welcome authors from across the planet. Whether they are from Nigeria or North Korea; Colombia or China, these are writers whose stories shed light not only on the big changes in world power, but on the shifting nature of local cultures – changes that are also taking place in Scotland.”
MEGASTARS
SOME literary megastars in their own countries make the trip to Edinburgh this August including Spain’s Jaume Cabré whose Confessions has sold over one million copies, Germany director and writer Jenny Erpenbeck who has just won the 2015 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the multi-award winning Helle Helle from Denmark, South Korea’s Han Kang, Alain Mabanckou from Republic of the Congo and Salla Simukka, a young author from Finland.
Palestinian lawyer Raja Shehadeh launches Shifting Sands, a book of powerful essays on the Middle East while Philippa Gregory launches her brand new novel on Henry VIII’s last queen and Patrick Ness reveals his much-anticipated new novel.
Pat Barker, Arne Dahl, Aleksandar Hemon, Tom Holland, John Banville and Andrew Miller also launch their new books.
Elsewhere in the programme, Louis de Bernières, Joanne Harris and Etgar Keret are joined by David Mitchell, Irvine Welsh, Emily Woof, Owen Sheers, Amit Chaudhuri as well as previous winners of the Man Booker Prize Ben Okri and Howard Jacobson, Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley and historians Antony Beevor and Ferdinand Mount.
Telling their own personal stories are North Korean exile Hyeonseo Lee, comedian Paul Merton, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow who founded Mary’s Meals, Ronnie Browne from The Corries, Chinese lawyer and dissident Chen Guangcheng, former member of The Communards Reverend Richard Coles and historian Antonia Fraser.
STRIPPED
POLITICIANS feature strongly in the programme and one intriguing event sees best-selling crime writer Val McDermid discuss her new novel with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Channel 4 economics editor Paul Mason discusses capitalism and a route to a fairer society with former First Minster Alex Salmond; Caroline Lucas, the Green Party’s solitary MP, explores the Westminster system; former Prime Minister Gordon Brown examines the future of Scotland and BBC political editor Nick Robinson takes his audience through his 2015 Election Diaries.
The festivals’ popular Stripped strand of graphic novels and comics returns with a look at the birth of democracy in Greece, the politics of the Middle East, British political satire and memoirs of Poland beyond the Iron Curtain.
As well as introducing brand new writing from across the globe, the Trading Stories strand examines how stories travel, bringing together writers and translators for an exploration of language, identity and the myriad of international influences that have inspired and defined Scottish writing. Marina Warner asks how fairy stories shed light on human understanding as they travel from continent to continent, Daniel Hahn, one of the world’s foremost translators, examines the creative, linguistic and political challenges required to take stories across borders. Many of the popular reading workshops have been inspired to focus on translated classics, such as Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina.
There are five guest selectors who have curated strands in this year’s programme. Internationally renowned visual artist Gabriel Orozco, offers an Insider’s Guide to Mexico and speaks to seven formidable Mexican novelists, poets and writer.
Lennie Goodings, publisher of the Virago imprint for over 30 years, presents the theme of The Female Gaze, offering a challenge to the masculine view of the world which still pervades most of British culture. With guests including Jane Gardam, Sarah Waters and Eileen Atkins, her events discuss ageing, extremism and lost classics.
Edinburgh’s own Ian Rankin has chosen to chat to some of his favourite writers and musicians and his guests include Alan Cumming, musicians Viv Albertine, Edwyn Collins and Stuart David, co-founder of Belle and Sebastian.
Across both the adult and children’s programmes Gill Arbuthnott, author of novels for young adults and picture books for pre-schoolers, highlights the need to be science-literate with guests including French physicist Christophe Galfard and Professor Robert Winston.
Scottish author and artist Debi Gliori is the 2015 Illustrator in Residence.
The Book Festival continues to champion new talent and its annual First Book Award, now in its sixth year, features 55 debut novelists and short story writers. Renowned international authors include Melinda Nadj Abonji from Switzerland, Nigeria’s Chigozie Obioma, and Ahmet Altan from Turkey along with home-grown talent such as Melinda Salisbury, Kate Hamer, Mark Blacklock and Simon Sylvester, as well as those better known for their other careers including Colin MacIntyre, Helen Lederer, Celia Imrie and Jesse Armstrong.
In a tribute to Seamus Heaney, a full-length dramatic reading of his translation of Beowulf takes place in a co-production with the Tron Theatre Company. The renowned Shakespearean and Wolf Hall actor Mark Rylance reads from Paul Kingsnorth’s novel The Wake and in a major collaboration with La Maison de la Poésie de Montreal and the Scottish Poetry Library, three leading writers from the First Nation Innu people of Northern Canada present a performance of their poems, stories and music in French and Inuktitut. The Babble On series of Spoken Word events includes appearances from Kate Tempest and George the Poet.
Terry Waite delivers The Frederick Hood Memorial Lecture, Matt Haig delivers The Siobhan Dowd Trust Memorial Lecture and the 2015 Bailey’s prize winner Ali Smith gives The PEN/H G Wells Lecture.
In the Baillie Gifford Children’s Programme, Julian Clary and Danny Wallace present their first children’s books, Kristina Stephenson and Derek Landy each launch new series and Cressida Cowell launches the last in her How To Train Your Dragon series.
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