FESTIVAL BOOKS | Week Planner
WEEK PLANNER Claire Flynn and Yasmin Sulaiman pick their highlights from the Edinburgh International Book Festival programme.
SATURDAY 15
Marilynne Robinson with Lennie Goodings Having won the Orange- prize, Pulitzer-prize and National Books Critics Circle award, this American writer is finally making her debut appearance at Charlotte Square, introduced by publisher Lennie Goodings. Her literary repertoire, including Housekeeping, Gilead, Home and Lila, has garnered her a reputation as one of America’s greatest living writers. 11.45am, £10 (£8). Ali Smith The second annual H G Wells Lecture will be hosted by experimental Scottish author Ali Smith. Last month she won the Baileys Prize for fiction for How to be Both, her latest novel, which was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. See preview, page 33. 2.15pm, £10 (£8). SJ Watson His debut novel Before I Go To Sleep gained him fans in Lionel Shriver and Dennis Lehane, and was made into a movie starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth. Now the Midlands-born crime novelist present psychological thriller Second Lies. 6.45pm, £10 (£8). Kirstin Innes & Melinda Nadj Abonji These two writers have written novels that take on the issues of work and family. Innes’ Fishnet delves into the world of sex workers, while Abonji’s Fly Away, Pigeon features families torn between new beginnings abroad and missing home. 8.45pm £7 (£5). SUNDAY 16
Matt Haig 2015’s Siobhan Dowd Memorial Lecture will be delivered by the author behind The Humans and Reasons to Stay Alive. Chaired by Tony Bradman. See preview, page 29. 2.15pm, £7 (£5). Louis de Bernieres The writer behind the beloved romance novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin returns to the Edinburgh Book Festival to discuss his latest book The Dust that Falls From Dreams, set in England just before the beginning of World War One. 3.15pm, £10 (£8). Amit Chaudhuri This acclaimed Indian writer will be discussing his latest novel with Man Booker shortlisted author Neel Mukherjee. In Odysseus Abroad, a would-be poet leaves India for London, and is trying to make sense of the new city. 4pm, £10 (£8). Ben Okri Winner of the Man Booker prize for The Famished Road and accomplished poet, Okri has written his first book in eight years. The Nigerian author’s latest work, entitled The Age of Magic, follows a group of travellers heading for a mysterious Swiss mountain village, in search of the meaning of life. 6.45pm, £10 (£8). John Burnside Burnside, a writer who has used his own experiences with alcoholism and mental illness as inspiration for his books, will be talking about his new memoir I Put a Spell on You, and this month’s re-release of his debut novel The Dumb House, first released in 1997. 7.15pm, £10 (£8). Jura Unbound: Trading Stories 2015’s series of Jura Unbound events will be launched with an evening of enticing international short stories. Authors Dorthe Nors, Mary Costello, Molly Antopol, David Gate and Adriana Diaz will be performing readings from their works, and James Yorkston will be on hand to provide some folksy guitar tunes. 9pm, free drop-in.
34 THE LIST FESTIVAL 13–20 Aug 2015
DAVID MITCHELL The author of Ghostwritten, Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet talks about his works, in an event chaired by Stuart Kelly. His most recent tome, The Bone Clocks, was longlisted for the 2014 Man Booker (though cruelly passed up for the shortlist) and was labelled by horror novelist Stephen King as one of the best books of last year. In October, he’ll be releasing Slade House, a new novel that he originally began on Twitter in 2014. ■ Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 15 Aug, 8.15pm, £10 (£8).
MONDAY 17 Paul Merton Popular comic and TV panellist Merton has had his fair share of tragedy. His experiences of the death of his second wife and his own manic episode, which left him hospitalised, are documented in his memoir Only When I Laugh. 11.45am, £10 (£8). Jane Gardam and Penelope Lively with Lennie Goodings These two award-winning writers will discuss their favourite elderly heroines from their own books, including Lively’s Moon Tiger and Gardam’s Old Filth trilogy, with publisher Lennie Goodings. 5pm, £10 (£8). Helle Helle Martin Aitken has translated this critically acclaimed Danish author’s novels into English for the first time. She will be discussing her work This Should Be Written in the Present Tense, a story about the mistakes of early adulthood. 7pm, £7 (£5). To Read or Not to Read Novelists Frank Cottrell Boyce and Keith Gray join publisher Mairi Kidd to discuss how the way we work or write can be altered to support young people on an enjoyable path to reading. A Dyslexia Clinic with Barrington Stoke and Dyslexia Scotland will be held after the event. 7.30pm, £7 (£5). Iain Macwhirter Having emerged as a leading voice during the Scottish independence debate, the journalist will take the stage at Charlotte Square to discuss his new book Disunited Kingdom: How Westminster Won a Referendum but Lost Scotland and the landscape of British politics post-General Election. 8.15pm, £10 (£8). Jura Unbound: There was a Crazy Guy The singer, song-writer and multi- instrumentalist Colin MacIntyre teams up with author and musician John Darnielle
and writer Etgar Keret for a lively evening of music and storytelling. 9pm, free drop-in. TUESDAY 18
Kirsty Logan & Jón Kalman Stefánsson The List’s former Books Editor and rapid rising literary star will present her debut novel The Gracekeepers, set in a northern archipelago on a flooded earth. Icelandic author Stefánsson’s The Heart of Man, which has now been translated into English, is similarly set in the wild north. 10.15am, £10 (£8). AL Kennedy Acclaimed for novels like Paradise, named a Granta Best Young British novelist twice and recently commissioned to write Doctor Who books, this versatile author will be chatting to Stuart Kelly about her diverse career. See preview, page 33. 1.30pm, £10 (£8). Ziauddin Sardar The renowned Islam expert has retraced the history of Mecca, from a desert valley to one of the world’s most significant cities, and examines what the future holds for the place that means so much to different cultures. 2.15pm, £10 (£8). Tom Holland After being shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Rubicon, which charted the end of the Roman Empire, Holland present his new work on the first dynasty of Rome’s emperors. 3.45pm, £10 (£8). Antonia Fraser She’s spent her career studying the histories of figures like Mary Queen of Scots, Marie Antoinette and Louis XIV, but now she’s decided to document her own past in My History: A Memoir of Growing Up. 5pm, £10 (£8). Jura Unbound: Born to be Wide Wyndham Wallace, whose first book
Lee, Myself and I focuses on musician Lee Hazlewood’s comeback in 1999, is joined by TV and radio journalist Stuart Cosgrove, author of Detroit 67. 9pm, free drop-in. WEDNESDAY 19
Stuart McHardy The historian will present his latest work Scotland’s Future History, a radical reimagining of Scotland’s past, which asks if the indigenous populations were much more sophisticated than we were led to believe. 10.30am, £7 (£5). Colm Tóibín Nora Webster, the novel set in his home town took the Irish author over a decade to write, and he will be discussing the process of creating it with writer and biographer Hermione Lee. 1.30pm, £10 (£8). Shami Chakrabarti Chaired by Kate Mosse, this event will see ‘the most dangerous woman in Britain’ discuss her book On Liberty, which argues that human rights should never be violated in the name of national security. 3.15pm, £10 (£8). Will Gompertz The BBC Arts Editor’s Think Like an Artist argues that there’s a link between creativity and entrepreneurialism, citing the likes of Picasso and Warhol as examples. 6.45pm, £10 (£8). Kate Tempest After rocketing into the limelight when she was shortlisted for a Mercury prize last year, the rapper and spoken word artist has now produced a full-length poetry collection, Hold Your Own. 8.15pm, £10 (£8).
All the above events are at Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 15–31 Aug, edbookfest.co.uk