Festival
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HITLIST JOHN HEGARTY The man who brought you a black sheep called Zag, Nick Kamen in a launderette, ‘Vorsprung Durch Technik’ and Flat Eric makes his Book Festival debut to tell us the secrets of the advertising industry. See online feature at edinburghfestival.list.co.uk. ■ 23 Aug, 7pm, £10 (£8).
Grant Morrison With Supergods, the Glasgow-born comics legend tells us in wildly entertaining fashion how the superhero started and where he/she can go in the future. See preview, page 29. 20 Aug, 9.30pm, £10 (£8).
Darren Shan How do you write great teenage horror without leaving permanent scars? The author of books such as Vampire Mountain will reveal all. See preview, page 29. 20 Aug, 1.30pm, £4.50; 21 Aug, 10.30am, £7 Julie Myerson After creating a fuss with a book partly about her son’s fall from grace, Myserson has given us Then, a nightmarish vision of apocalyptic meltdown. See preview, page 30. 21 Aug, noon, £10 (£8).
Bella Bathurst The author of The Lighthouse Stevensons gets on her bike with The Bicycle Book, a multi-faceted and very enjoyable look at all things cycle-related. See preview, page 29. 22 Aug, 2.30pm, £10 (£8).
Sapphire Sixteen years ago, Sapphire write the story of Precious in Push. Now she’s back with the tale of her son, Abdul, in The Kid. Bidisha is in town to chat to the author, poet, performer and teacher. See feature, page 28. 22 Aug, 8pm, £10 (£8).
Jon Ronson Can you spot a psychopath? The journalist and author of Them and The Men Who Stare at Goats follows a medical checklist to explore the craziness in all of us. See feature, page 26. 24 Aug, 4.30pm, £10 (£8).
Jo Nesbø The Norwegian writer has taken his place in the impressive roll call of quality Scandic crime scribes and is in Edinburgh to chat about his investigator, Harry Hole, and latest adventure The Leopard. See preview, page 30. 24 Aug, 3pm, £10 (£8).
EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL 13–29 AUGUST All events in Charlotte Square Gardens Q A&
In his debut novel, SUNJEEV SAHOTA introduces us to Imtiaz Raina, a loving father, son and husband who is preparing to die for his cause. The book is an open letter to his family as he aims to make them understand why. Here he takes on our Q&A Give us five words to describe Ours are the Streets? Fathers. Sons. Responsibilities. Belonging. Home. Which author should be more famous than they are now and why? I don’t know how famous or not she is, but I don’t think I hear that much in the UK about the Canadian writer Lynn Coady. I think she’s brilliant: sharp, generous, serious, with an eye for the absurd, and very, very funny. What do you love about book festivals? I don’t know! Edinburgh will be the first book festival I’ve attended. I imagine I’ll love just spending as much time as possible listening to people talking about the books they love. Which dead author do you wish was still alive today and why? John McGahern, because I can never seem to read enough about the ways in which families and individuals interact, both with each other and the wider society, but mostly because I love everything he’s written and wish there was more. What was the last book you read? The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright. I love her sentences, the way she docks on a word: an iPod opens up in an ear ‘a whole cathedral of sound’, while a drunk sits there ‘benignly absent, or horribly possessed by some slow creature, who rolled, between the distance between you, whatever sentence he could shape in his head.’ (Interview by Brian Donaldson) ■ 23 Aug (with Naomi Wood), 3.30pm, £7 (£5).
18–25 Aug 2011 THE LIST 25
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