list.co.uk/festival
definitely stage public bonfires for it,’ he decrees. (Nicola Meighan) ■ 18 Aug, 8.30pm, £10 (£8).
GARY YOUNGE Exploring issues of identity across this mad world Returning to Edinburgh holds bittersweet memories for Gary Younge. He was in the city as a student in the late 80s, studying Russian and French at Heriot-Watt and was awestruck by the geography of his new surroundings. ‘Having grown up in Stevenage, where there’s not much to look at, I remember walking across the North Bridge and seeing Arthur’s Seat and thinking, “fuck, there’s a huge hill in the middle of this city.” It was kind of stunning to me.’ Less endearing a memory is being chased down Lothian Road by thugs with baseball bats in what he describes as ‘my most terrifying racist incident’.
innate gender difference is becoming increasingly widely accepted and hindered further by continuing inequalities in politics and public life. Walter welcomes the opportunity to bring the fight to Edinburgh: ‘The events for Living Dolls so far have been so lively and energising and I’m sure this will be no exception. It seems to me there is a real hunger to discuss feminism again.’
Ably assisted in the cause by Kat Banyard, author of The Equality Illusion, Walter anticipates a vigorous and vital audience exchange, as has happened at other events. ‘The arguments range from pornography to politics to parenting. I’m also
fascinated by how women and men of all ages are turning up to debate this
The genteel surroundings of Charlotte Square Gardens should ensure he returns to his current base in New York with warmer reflections of the city, once the Guardian and New Statesman journalist has conducted his two events. Younge’s solo appearance will cover Who Are We And Should it Matter in the 21st Century?, which covers issues of identity across the globe from those who insist that Barack Obama is merely America’s latest white president to the European legislators who are going to extraordinary lengths to ban items of clothing worn by a miniscule percentage of their population. ‘Identity is a complicated subject where you can end up chasing your tail but I think it is especially relevant now because of globalisation with people retreating more into their tribes.’ (Brian Donaldson) ■ 15 Aug, 3.30pm (solo event), 7pm (The End of the American Dream?), £10 (£8).
NATASHA WALTER Taking up the fight against sexism once more Following sold out events at Brighton, Dublin, the South Bank and Latitude, writer and campaigner Natasha Walter is hitting the Edinburgh International Book Festival to stress that the struggle for women’s equality is as important as ever. To some, feminism seemed to have reached a curious impasse in the wake of Germaine Greer, with a hypersexualised media and the persistence of men being from Mars and women from Venus attitudes. Her latest book, Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism, looks at how
PHILIP PULLMAN Seeing two sides to Christ’s story
You will know him by the horns, of course, and the casual air of unholy sin. For Philip Pullman is the anti-God and ‘The Most Dangerous Author in Britain’, according to the modern gospel of The Mail on Sunday. To most of us, however, he is the avuncular narrative craftsman who shines a light on morality via far-flung physics, adventure and fantasy. Best known for the His Dark Materials trilogy (winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year and the Carnegie Medal), our Norwich-born chronicler’s latest work is the timeless – if controversial – fable The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ.
While its title alone was enough to warrant threats of damnation from religious groups, the novel’s message is characteristically ambiguous. In re-conceiving the ‘most influential story ever told’, Pullman brings forth the twins Jesus (a strong man, an idealist, a great orator) and Christ (a weaker man, a realist, a scribe) in a parable that scrutinises how stories, myths and histories are made.
Pullman’s greatest works may be designated as ‘worthy of the bonfire’ in some quarters – and he’s long been a critic of organised religion – but it’s worth bearing in mind that he is a humanitarian, an activist and a carpenter (sound familiar?) who wrote about Jesus at the behest of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Pullman’s vivid storytelling instinct – honed during many years of teaching – is matched by his capacity to enrage, excite and oppose. A lively Book Festival pilgrimage is assured. (Nicola Meighan) ■ 14 Aug, 11.30am, £10 (£8).
Festival Books
For everything you need to know about all the Festivals visit www.list.co.uk/festival
theme; I have mothers coming up with the book to be signed for their daughters, and teenagers coming up too.’ In The New Statesman, Bidisha described the book as ‘a call to revolution that kicks Nuts magazine right in the nuts’. Townsfolk of Edinburgh, in all your manifestations, gird your loins. (Peggy Hughes) ■ 17 Aug (with Kat Banyard), noon, £10 (£8). TOP5 CRIME WRITERS
With its Jekyll and Hyde nature, Edinburgh is the perfect spot for the portraiturists of good and evil to congregate. Here’s a quintet of Scottish scribes to catch this week
Tony Black Gus Drury is Black’s flawed bobby and in Long Time Dead he’s rushing about trying to keep his demons in check while investigating the ritual slaughter of a student. 17 Aug, 8.30pm, £10 (£8). Gillian Galbraith. And accompanying Black on stage is the creator of the DS Alice Rice mysteries, the latest of which is No Sorrow to Die, in which a serial killer appears to dispatching the terminally ill. 17 Aug, 8.30pm, £10 (£8).
Christopher Brookmyre He may have dabbled around the genre in recent times but for some, Brookmyre is the quintessence of contemporary Scottish crime writing. 17 Aug, 8pm, £10 (£8). Quintin Jardine He may have done a little sweary word on the radio last year, but QJ is one of crime fiction’s true gents. Even when he’s bumping them off left right and centre in the Bob Skinner stories. 19 Aug, 3pm, £10 (£8).
Ian Rankin At 50, he’s arguably the youngish grandfaither of the Tartan Noir pack. Rebus may be no more, but with The Complaints, Rankin can’t leave those coppers alone. 19 Aug, 6.30pm, £10 (£8). (Brian Donaldson)
12–19 Aug 2010 THE LIST 27