LIST.CO.UK/FESTIVAL
THURSDAY 18 Iain Banks
Jasper Fforde The sixth book in Fforde’s Thursday Next series features his hero actually going missing while trotting between a fictional universe and the real world. 11.30am, £10 (£8). Bear on the Stairs with Lynne Chapman We all had childhood fears (zombie in the closet, snake in the sock drawer etc) and this show aims to tackle that kind of thing as you get to create your very own ‘stair monster’. 1.30pm, £4.50. Czeslaw Milosz the Poet Leading Polish poet Adam Zagajewski and our very own John Burnside are among those discussing the work and legacy of the man who critiqued Stalinism when that was a dangerous venture. 3.30pm, £10 (£8). Iain Banks It’s the Edinburgh Book Festival so an Iain Banks appearance (with his ‘M’ or not) must be on the horizon. And this is it, as the author of Surface Detail explains how you go about plotting a wild and complex sci-fi novel. 8pm, £10 (£8). Unbound Tonight and every night during the Festival, you get a chance to see and hear some literary types and others break out from their usual generic trappings and cut loose in the Spiegeltent. Among those on tonight’s bill are Joe Dunthorne, Kelly Link and Billy Liar. 9pm, free. FRIDAY 19
Simon Garfield How do you make the history of fonts into a readable book? You get the author of works on Radio 1, wrestling and the colour mauve on the case and he gives you the absorbing Just My Type, that’s how. 2.30pm, £10 (£8). Gholam Khiabany & Annabelle Sreberny With David Cameron talking about curtailing Twitter in light of the English riots, this event will look to take a positive spin on social networks and blogging for political ends. 4pm, £10 (£8). Divided City Musical The writer of Divided City, Theresa Breslin, and the play’s director, Guy Hollands, meet up to discuss putting the story of sectarianism and racism in Glasgow onto the stage. 5pm, £4.50. Masterclass with Robert Coover A big one this as the Iowan writer of A Political Fable and Spanking the Maid discusses his approach to fiction- writing. 7pm, £10 (£8). SATURDAY 20
Robin Robertson The acclaimed poet and editor who helped to bring Irvine Welsh and Alan Warner to the world’s attention talks about his own storytelling here. 10.15am, £10 (£8). Fancy Dress Farmyard with Nick Sharratt How do you create simple pop-up design for kids books? The man who has illustrated for Julia Donaldson, Michael Rosen and Jacqueline Wilson reveals the secrets. 11am, £4.50. Edward St Aubyn Bringing his Melrose series to an end, the Booker
nominee brings us At Last, a withering critique of families and their weird conventions. 3pm, £10 (£8). Paul Muldoon Admired by Seamus Heaney (recommendation enough, that), the Northern Irish poet has now produced Maggot, a vivid collection inspired by the Yeats dictat that sex and death are the only true topics fit for serious contemplation. 7pm, £10 (£8). Helen Oyeyemi & Nat Segnit Two of our most promising scribes give us new tales of offbeat love with Oyeyemi’s Mr Fox exploring the relations between an author and his imaginary muse while Segnit’s Pub Walks in Underhill Country is ostensibly a walking guide which reveals an ill-fated affair. 8.30pm, £10 (£8). SUNDAY 21
Axel Scheffler and Friends Best known for his epoch-shaping illustrative work with Julia Donaldson, Scheffler also writes and draws his own stories, and here will give you tips for your own doodlings. 10am, £4.50. Robert Levine Rather than crouch down in a corner and weep itself to death, the traditional media industry needs to shake itself and take on the internet full-square. Sounds daft? Billboard editor Levine show us how it can be done. 12.30pm, £10 (£8). John Pilger The conscience-fuelled Australian journalist and broadcaster is never short of a subject to get passionate about and this time around he’s taking war reporters to task for their inability to tell the true stories behind many of the conflicts which have raged since WW2. 3pm, £10 (£8). AL Kennedy She may have got herself into the whole stand-up comedy game in the past few years, but the Dundee- born writer is back on literary matters with a new playful and complex tome, The Blue Book. 6.30pm, £10 (£8).
China Miéville The thrice-winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award drops into Charlotte Square Gardens for a discussion of his latest fantasy adventure, Embassytown. The event is chaired by Scotland on Sunday Lit Crit Stuart Kelly. 8.30pm, £10 (£8). MONDAY 22
Katharine Quarmby They say that the way old people are treated is a symbol of a civilised (or otherwise) society. But what of disabled people? In Scapegoat, this journalist and campaigner examines the origins of our seemingly endless hostility towards the disabled in Britain. 2pm, £10 (£8). André Mangeot & Miroslav Penkov Mangeot’s True North features stories about human frailty set in locations as diverse as Romania, Miami and Thailand while Penkov’s debut, East of West, is situated firmly in his homeland of Bulgaria. The pair discuss how important physical boundaries are to their work. 3.30pm, £7 (£5). Janne Teller This Danish writers drops by to discuss her novel for kids over 11, Nothing, an existential drama which has been dubbed a Lord of the Flies for the 21st century. 4.30pm, £4.50. Simon Callow One of the nation’s favourite ac-tors is in town doing his bit at the Fringe but is also dropping into CSG, where he will charm our little socks off with snippets from his memoir, My Life in Pieces, where he recalls meetings with Chaplin, Gielgud and Nureyev. 6.30pm, £10 (£8). Pauline Black Lead singer of iconic 2-Tone band The Selecter has just published Black by Design and here will shine a light on the days when she was the undisputed Queen of Ska as well as detailing the search for her birth parents. 8.30pm, £10 (£8).
Week Planner {BOOKS}
TUESDAY 23
Linda Grant In We Had it So Good, the Orange Prizewinner makes fictional hay from the choice made by some baby boomers to strive for luxury and betray the ideals of their time. 11.30am, £10 (£8). Jad Adams Veering away from simply bowing down to the man’s iconic status, Adams delivered his account of the life and death of Mohandas K Gandhi with the distanced but perceptive eye of an expert biographer. 3.30pm, £7 (£5). How to be a Hero with Steve Barlow & Steve Skidmore Is there a young lad (or lass full of derring-do) out there who doesn’t want to pit wits against Vikings, pirates and dragons? This interactive fight club will help you to take on all-comers. 5pm, £4.50. John Hegarty The modern advertising world has much to thank this man for, having set the benchmark in the 80s with epoch-making commercials for Levi’s, Audi and Boddingtons. See online interview, list.co.uk/festival. 7pm, £10 (£8). Don Paterson Dundee’s favourite son of poetry tackles the sonnets of Shakespeare in this event. 8.30pm, £10 (£8). WEDNESDAY 24
A Tribute to Sorley MacLean Lots of tributes going on at this Festival, with the centenary of the Gaelic icon being marked here with authors, poets and biographers all lining up. 2pm, £7 (£5). Susan Fletcher & Sjón Witchcraft is the topic which unites these two writers from Scotland and Iceland. 3.30pm, £7 (£5). Emily Gravett An interactive talk from the writer of picture books such as Wolf Won’t Bite and Blue Chameleon. 4pm, £4.50. Carol Ann Duffy The Poet Laureate is in town to perform poems from her next collection, The Bees, with John Sampson adding musical accompaniment. 6.30pm, £10 (£8).
THURSDAY 25
Jackie Kay The novelist, short story writer and memoirist turns to the world of poetry for her latest book, Fiere, a collection about identity and language. 3pm, £10 (£8). James Robertson with Irvine Welsh A must-see event featuring two of our nation’s top scribes as they get to grips with Scottish history. 4.30pm, £10 (£8). Chris Priestley The writer of sinister yet beautiful tomes talks about his Tales of Terror series. 6pm, £4.50. Shehryar Fazli & Kamila Shamsie For those who want a distinctively different representation of Pakistan from the one the Western media continually trots out, this is the event for you. Shamsie’s Offence explores the West’s relationship with Pakistan’s Muslims while Fazli’s debut Invitation attempts to herald a new genre, Karachi Noir. 8.30pm, £7 (£5). 18–25 Aug 2011 THE LIST 31
F E S T I V A L