Sarah Winman’s debut novel, When God Was a Rabbit, was announced today as the winner of the 2011 Edinburgh International Book Festival’s Newton First Book Award. The Award encourages the Book Festival audience to discover the up-and-coming new novelists that are featured in the Festival Programme each year and vote for their favourite. Every one of the 47 writers who brought their debut novel, novella or short stories to Edinburgh in August was eligible for the award.

This was the second year the Book Festival has run the Award, and the first with new title sponsors, Newton Investment Management. Over 900 votes were cast both through the Book Festival website and on ballot cards submitted during the Festival in Charlotte Square Gardens in August. Every book entered in the award received at least one vote, and When God Was a Rabbit was a clear favourite with over 10% of the votes while two books shared second place - Invitation by Shehryar Fazli and The Registrar's Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages by Sophie Hardach.

When God Was a Rabbit is a story about childhood and growing up, loss of innocence, eccentricity, family ties and friendships and the unbreakable bond between a brother and a sister. Catherine Taylor reviewed the book in the Guardian as ‘Thronging with incident, wonder and outré language, Winman's first book is simultaneously cloying and sharply funny, whimsical and innovative.‘ Book Festival voters’ reviews included ‘This is one of the best novels published last year, and in my view should have won this year's Orange Prize. I defy anyone not to fall in love with the characters in this book - I laughed and cried my way through this compelling story‘, ‘The characters in this book stayed with me long after I turned the last page, it was absolutely beautiful and hilariously funny, as well as utterly tragic at times‘ and ‘Dark and charming at the same time. Excellent read.‘

Nick Barley, Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, said ‘The Newton First Book Award has been very successful in introducing the best in new writing from the UK and abroad to our Book Festival audience. I am thrilled that the prize has been met with such an enthusiastic response from readers: it is their passionate support for emerging authors that makes the Newton First Book Award special. When God Was a Rabbit is a worthy winner in a strong field, and we offer our congratulations to Sarah Winman.‘

Sarah Winman, author of When God Was a Rabbit said ‘It is fantastic to receive this award, especially as Edinburgh was such a great and memorable festival to be part of.‘

Helena Morrissey, Chief Executive Officer, Newton Investment Management, said ‘We are delighted to sponsor the Newton First Book Award at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, through which we aim to encourage and support talented writers who have potential to bring a wonderful range of imaginative and individual works into the modern literary canon. We congratulate Sarah Winman, and hope that for her, and all the finalists, this is a prologue to a vibrant and successful career.‘

The debut fiction eligible for the 2012 Newton First Book Award will be announced with the Edinburgh International Book Festival Programme in June 2012. Further details of the 2011 Newton First Book Award can be found on http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/writers/newton-first-book-award

An ambitious performed reading of Alasdair Gray’s play Fleck, featuring 18 authors and actors, was staged this evening at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.  Gray himself was joined on stage for the sell-out event in Charlotte Square Gardens by Will Self, Ian Rankin, Janice Galloway, Cora Bissett and a host of renowned Scottish writers. 

Nick Barley, Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, said ‘This is the most ambitious event we have ever staged at the Book Festival, and we are delighted that it has been so well received by participants and audiences alike. This year’s Festival has seen a wonderful array of writers from around the world. Our authors and audiences have discussed and debated the Arab Spring, the London riots, China, India, the influence of social media and the futures of Europe, Cities and even Faith. We’ve enjoyed launching brand new work from Michael Ondaatje, Dava Sobel, Tom Devine, A L Kennedy, Heather Brooke and Tam Dalyell and welcoming 47 debut authors.’

‘I am delighted to announce that to close the Book Festival this year we have just signed a publishing deal with Cargo to produce a box set (designed by McSweeney’s) of the new writing commissioned by the Book Festival over the last 12 months. Supported by the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund, we invited 50 writers from Scotland and around the world to create a new piece of writing on the theme of Elsewhere and made the texts available to read on our website. Participating authors include Michel Faber, Yiyun Lu, Jackie Kay, Michael Morpurgo, David Almond, Alberto Manguel and Roddy Doyle and the book will be available at the Book Festival next year.’

The 2011 Book Festival has featured almost 800 participants from 40 countries including Nobel Laureate Gao Xingjian, Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy as well as 5 of the 13 authors long-listed for the 2011 Man Booker Prize. Highlights of the 17 day Festival included exclusive pre-publication readings from Bettany Hughes, Fiona MacCarthy and A N Wilson, the delivery of the Donald Dewar Memorial Lecture by former Lord Advocate Dame Elish Angiolini, the unexpected appearance of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown who joined his wife Sarah on stage to discuss her book Behind the Black Door and Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond in conversation with Iain M Banks. The four guest selectors, Alan Little, Joan Bakewell, Audrey Niffenegger and Children’s Laureate Julia Donaldson, curated and chaired a series of events under the respective themes of Revolution in the 21st Century, Key Ideas of the 21st Century, Writing without Boundaries and Rhyme & Reason: How Children Learn. 

Three major literary awards were announced at the Book Festival – the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction was won by debut novelist Tatjani Soli and for Biography by theatre critic Hilary Spurling, The Edwin Morgan International Poetry Competition was won by Jane McKie and finally Creative Scotland’s Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year Award was won by Jackie Kay for Red Dust Road.

Edinburgh International Book Festival is a founding partner of the Word Alliance, a network of international book festivals including The Bookworm International Literary Festival, Beijing, The International Literature Festival in Berlin, Melbourne Writers Festival, the Jaipur Literary Festival, the International Festival of Authors in Toronto and the Pen World Voices Festival of International Literature in New York. It is intended that the group will ultimately expand to include Africa and Latin America. As part of the Word Alliance touring programme, the Book Festival this year welcomed Chan Koonchung, Bi Feiyu and Wang Hui from China, Steven Amsterdam, Morris Gleitzman and Shaun Tan from Australia and Robert Coover, T C Boyle and Tobias Wolff from the USA. 

A performed reading of Alasdair Gray’s Fleck will be staged at the International Festival of Authors in Toronto later this year featuring Ian Rankin, Rodge Glass, Alan Bissett and Zoe Strachan from the Edinburgh cast as well as Denise Mina.

The second year of Unbound, the series of free evening live literature events in the Spiegeltent has been very well received. A further Unbound event, featuring Ryan Van Winkle, Ewan Morrison, Emily Ballou and Christos Tsiolkas, will be staged tomorrow (30 August) in Melbourne with the support of the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund. The funding also allowed the Festival to deliver a more ambitious Unbound programme in Charlotte Square Gardens and to film a number of performances which will be made available on the Festival’s website in the autumn.

Andrew Coulton, the Book Festival’s Administrative Director, said ‘This year’s programme was bigger than ever, with almost 2.5% more tickets available than last year – not including our free Unbound programme. Having sold nearly 73% of all seats, we are very proud that our Festival continues to draw such large audiences in a time of continuing economic uncertainty. Sales in our independent Festival bookshops were on a par with last year, an outstanding performance demonstrating that – to paraphrase Mark Twain – reports of the death of the book are greatly exaggerated. With around 190,000 visits during the Festival, even Scotland’s wettest August on record hasn’t managed to dampen spirits in Charlotte Square Gardens.’

The RBS Children’s Programme enjoyed sell out events and record signing queues for Cathy Cassidy, Robert Muchamore, Darren Shan and Julia Donaldson among others. The RBS Schools programme welcomed almost 12,000 children from primary and secondary schools across Scotland, culminating in 3,000 primary school pupils enjoying exclusive access to events in Charlotte Square Gardens for the RBS Schools Gala Day on Tuesday 30 August.

Forty seven debut authors who brought their first work of fiction to the Book Festival are eligible for the Newton First Book Award. Readers and audiences are being asked to vote for their favourite debut novel or short story collection in the programme, and the winner will be announced in October. Voting is now on-line through www.edbookfest.co.uk.

The 2012 Edinburgh International Book Festival will run from 11 to 27 August 2012 and the programme will be announced in June.

Scottish author James Robertson last night delivered a lecture to a sold out audience at the Edinburgh International Book Festival titled, ‘The Lockerbie Affair and Scottish Society’, in which he described a ‘malaise in the Scottish body politic’ and the need for Scotland as a nation to confront the difficult issues arising out of the decision to imprison and later release the Lockerbie bomber.

Robertson said, 'If we cannot feel confident that the biggest criminal trial in Scottish history achieved a just, and convincingly just, outcome, then not only do those whose loved ones were murdered go on suffering, but Scotland as a whole suffers.'

On the issue of an inquiry into the Lockerbie case, Robertson said, 'There is no prospect of the British authorities addressing the outstanding issues surrounding Lockerbie – it is not in their interests to do so. But it is in the interests of Scotland to address them. What is the point of a Scottish government if it will not, or the point of the Scottish Parliament if it cannot, engage with legitimate concerns raised over a judgment made by a Scottish court about an event that took place in Scotland? We are not talking about local planning regulations here. We are talking about the biggest criminal case in Scottish history.'

Mr Robertson then outlined six key reasons that pointed towards a conspiracy theory for the wrongful imprisonment of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, saying, 'In forming a view on the Lockerbie affair, I have always tried to keep at a distance anything that has the whiff of a conspiracy theory. The thing about conspiracy theories, though, is that they rush to fill an information vacuum. The more I look, the more I am forced to the conclusion that if there is a conspiracy around Lockerbie, it is not one concocted by those who doubt the guilt of Mr Megrahi but a conspiracy of silence in which the US, UK and Scottish Governments are all, though not from shared motives, implicated.'

Mr Robertson pointed towards a void of evidence and uncertainty about the route of the suitcase which contained the bomb and how it was ingested in to the Pan Am baggage holding area, where, 16 hours before Pan Am Flight 103 took off, a padlock was cut through giving free access to the Pan Am baggage holding area. The author also raised doubts over the whereabouts of Mr Megrahi in the days leading up to the tragedy, saying, 'it is hard not to be struck by the number of gaping chasms in the chain of evidence, and the impressive leaps across those chasms that the judgment manages to perform.'

Mr Robertson concluded, 'I believe that a failure to deal for so long with what are very legitimate concerns in the Lockerbie case is symptomatic of a malaise in the Scottish body politic, a failure of accountability. This malaise has been in part exposed by the re-establishment of a Parliament in Edinburgh, and indeed through that Parliament’s existence huge strides to cure it have been taken in the last dozen years. But devolution has also in part exacerbated the malaise, because sometimes political accountability falls conveniently somewhere between London and Edinburgh. It could be argued that this is a straightforward constitutional matter that will be resolved if and when Scotland becomes fully independent, but that I think would be naive and wrong-headed: about as wrong-headed as the old Unionist canard that the Scots are somehow uniquely incapable of running their own affairs, and for the same reason – because it is not a uniquely Scottish problem. The implications of the Lockerbie affair have particular application to Scotland but are relevant to all democratic societies trying to balance freedom of information and open justice with issues of confidentiality and security. What kind of trust is there to be between the governed and those who govern? Can a culture of trust be built, or should we, the governed, trust only in the natural tendency of governments, of whatever complexion, to withhold information from us?'

The writer and documentary film maker, Dominic Streatfeild, attended the Edinburgh International Book Festival today to discuss his latest work: A History of the World since 9/11. Streatfeild revealed that the 2,753 lives lost in the initial 9/11 attacks, although hugely tragic, were exacerbated by America and Britain’s “War on Terror”.

The wars, fought in the name of “democracy” in Afghanistan and Iraq have, Streatfeild claimed, merely intensified the mistrust between Middle-Eastern Islamist societies and the West. Although Streatfeild believes America made the right decision to go to war with Afghanistan, the move into Iraq, which subsequently resulted in ravaged infrastructure, heavy civilian casualties and civil war, caused irrevocable harm to the relationship between Britain and America and the Arab nations.

One tragic consequence of this severed trust has been its impact on medical care in the Middle-East. Since 1988, the World Health Organisation has strived to eliminate the Polio virus world-wide. However, there remain four nations where Polio is still an endemic: Nigeria, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, all four countries containing large Islamist populations. Streatfeild revealed that ‘shortly after 9/11 people stopped allowing the polio vaccines’ after rumours started circulating that the vaccines were in fact being used to sterilise Muslim women in order to stunt the Muslim population. As a result, the death-toll, as a direct consequence of the 9/11 attacks, has reached almost one million people; the vast majority of those being Muslim.

Streatfeild’s views were backed up by the American former CIA intelligence officer, Michael Scheuer, in a later Book Festival event, who said that America, in its endeavour to ‘clone itself’ in terms of values, policies and rights, by ‘occupying’ the Middle-East, has played straight into the hands of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, strengthening insurgency in Arab nations by confirming their fears that the West is intrinsically opposed to Islam.

Scheuer said ‘we are faced with a problem, largely of our own making’, and that ‘we are much worse off today than we were on September the 11th 2001’. Both authors were adamant that Al-Qaeda were not anti-democratic and held no grudge against the “freedoms” of the West, but that ‘this is a war against what our government have done in the Arab world’.

Author Kamila Shamsie and the Guardian’s foreign correspondent Declan Walsh discussed the current state of Pakistan today at the Book Festival in one of a series of events examining Revolution in the 21st Century, the theme for this year’s Festival.

In an event chaired by Guest Selector Allan Little, the two writers discussed a range of topics including the role of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency in harbouring Osama Bin Laden. “I wasn’t surprised when I heard that he was in Pakistan” said Shamsie, with Walsh commenting that certainly Bin Laden had “some sort of support network” inside Pakistan, and that the tribal hills of Pakistan were now Al-Qaeda’s HQ. “The ISI is Pakistan’s most important lever of power, when not shooting a gun,” said Walsh, who went on to say that the agency also acts to “implement foreign policy”

Discussing the stability of the country Shamsie joked, “We had our revolution four years ago – didn’t you notice?” but admitted that “I don’t stay up at night worrying abut an Islamic revolution” with both authors agreeing that a division in the Army would be the biggest concern, describing the institution as a ‘state within a state.’

When asked by Little if at times Pakistan had similarities with East Germany with neighbours informing to the state, Shamsie replied ‘yes’, but then went on to say that the ISI were not all knowing but did create a feeling of paranoia amongst many people.

Tomorrow at the Book Festival, leading Chinese academic Wang Hui and scholar Robert Bickers will be joined by author Chan Koonchung to debate the possibility of a political, social and technological revolution in China in the context of the Arab Spring, in an event chaired by Allan Little.

Today to audience applause at the 2011 Edinburgh International Book Festival, author Ahdaf Soueif from Egypt called for the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to be tried for his role in the Iraq war. Her fellow participant in the event, Libyian novelist Hisham Matar agreed, but said “We must be careful when we address justice symbolically as so many people are responsible.”

The authors were participating in an event chaired by BBC Correspondent and Book Festival Guest Selector Allan Little, on the theme of Revolution in the 21st Century: North Africa. Matar and Soueif discussed dictatorship and democracy, the Arab Spring uprisings, and their personal experiences, in a conversation that ranged across Libya, Syria, Palestine, Tunisia and Egypt.

Matar compared novelists to dictators, saying “Dictators are involved in narrative, just as novelists are. Novelists are interested in narrative that mirrors life, but dictators write novels that are very bad novels, novels that are intolerant of any change, they are very single minded. They enter into the most private aspects of our lives, they try to affect even the way people love each other. This is certainly the case in Libya.”

Commenting on the ongoing Libyan uprising Matar remarked: “The uprising was a holy moment, there was something sacred about this event. To see it persist and gain momentum is astonishing. The people rose because their hearts were empty not their bellies.“

Matar went on to question to what extent democratic values are the source of democracy and called for everyone to concentrate on liberty and justice. He added that democracy meant accepting everybody and agreed that the Muslim brotherhood is likely to form an influential part of the Government in Egypt but stressed he believed the group are open to other political dialogues. Soueif added: ‘But democracy is not enough, we have to have it but it doesn’t automatically deliver the kind of society that we want.’

Matar went on to say that the western view of the conflicts in the middle east are not reflected in the countries themselves, adding, “Suddenly we are able to speak about things in the middle east that really affect us, we are looking at the things that matter.“

Soueif discussed Palestine, and the hope that as a result of the Arab Spring events, the understanding of the situation in Palestine was becoming a world issue, like South Africa, and there was therefore hope for a resolution some time in the future.

The Revolution in the 21st Century strand continues over the weekend when Allan Little speaks to Kamila Shamsie & Declan Walsh on Saturday 27 August at 2.30pm on Pakistan and Robert Bickers, Wang Hui and Chan Koonchung on Sunday 28 August at 2.30pm on China. The Edinburgh International Book Festival continues until Monday 29 August, further information can be found at www.edbookfest.co.uk. 

The Edinburgh International Book Festival is the latest recipient of the mysterious book sculptures that have been left anonymously at literary sites around the city.  Over the last year, the beautifully meticulous and intricate sculptures have been left at the Filmhouse, National Library of Scotland, Scottish Poetry Library and Scottish Storytelling Centre.

The Book Festival sculpture was discovered this afternoon sitting on the signing table in the Book shop, at exactly the same time as a sculpture gifted to the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature was found in the Book Festival entrance tent.  Book Festival staff were mystified as to how they had been left without anybody noticing.

The book sculpture of a tray with a cup of tea and a cup cake is inscribed “This cup is awarded to @edbookfest” and also contains a teabag full of letters, and an unmarked book, and a label saying “This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas . . . .  & festivals.”

The sculpture gifted to the City of Literature is created from a copy of James Hogg’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner and entitled “Lost (Albeit in a good book).  The accompanying label says “This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas . . . . .”No infant has the power of deciding. . . . by what circumstances (they) shall be surrounded.”  Robert Owen”

A spokesperson for the Book Festival said “We are thrilled by the gift of this beautiful and mysterious work, and would like to say thank you to the anonymous sculptor and donor.”

Actor Greg McHugh, best known for his role as Gary Tank Commander, will be appearing at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on Tuesday 23rd August. McHugh will be reading the part of Bob Servant in an event with Neil Forsyth, author of Delete This at your Peril, The Bob Servant Emails and Bob Servant, Hero of Dundee.

Forsyth’s anti-hero of spam, Bob Servant, takes on internet fraudsters at their own game in a hilarious compendium of genuine email exchanges. From lost African millions, to Russian brides and get rich quick scams, Bob responds with some outlandish schemes of his own. Forsyth and McHugh will be joined by Kirsten McLean (Limmy’s Show) and Dave Anderson (currently starring in Federer vs Murray at the Assembly) who will be reading the parts of the email scammers.

“The recent riots in England are a very dark foreshadow of what is to come”, said Owen Jones, author of Chavs – The Demonisation of the Working Class, speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival today.

The author discussed a range of topics with the sold out audience, including growing youth unemployment in the UK, the radicalisation of young people and the lack of hope which he described as a ‘lethal combination’ for the future generation of Britain’s youth.

Jones explained that young people ‘not having a future to risk’ was a key factor in last week’s disturbances mainly in London, Manchester and Birmingham, whilst arguing that an increasingly consumerist society was producing anger and resentment amongst many people ‘who are taunted by the display of wealth’ in urban areas. Commenting on the lack of riots in Scotland, Jones pointed out that not everywhere in England had riots either, but did suggest that a strong sense of family in Scotland could be a possible explanation.

When discussing the rise of the far right in UK politics, Jones argued that “we are a much less racist society than we were 50 years ago”, noting that the rise of the BNP in Dagenham was due to anxiety and frustration about the lack of housing and who occupied it, rather than any inherent racism, suggesting that the issue had been hijacked by extremists for political gain.

Jones stated that he didn’t agree that a loss of morals in society was to blame for the recent disturbances, and that the answer to the social unrest was complex.

Ed Howker and Shiv Malik, authors of Jilted Generation: How Britain Has Bankrupted It’s Youth, will be appearing at the Book Festival tonight to discuss the future of Britain’s youth, and journalists Polly Toynbee and David Walker will be appearing at the Festival on Saturday 27 August at 3pm to discuss their recent book, The Verdict, which looks back on the last 13 years of the Labour government.

Two authors discussed the future technological advancement of India today at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, highlighting the rise of e-governance in the second most populated country in the world.

Author of Geek Nation, Angela Saini, explained how technology is being harnessed in India as a way to end corruption and cut the infamous bureaucracy of the country whilst simultaneously encouraging a huge growth in the economy.

‘India is floating in a sea of paper,’ said Saini who travelled to Lavasa in western India, to see for herself the country’s first privately planned hill city and witness the digital revolution taking hold. ‘In the UK the digitisation of the NHS medical records was not particularly successful, however in India these government schemes work very well’ she argued.

The explosion of common service centres, an electronic one stop shop similar to an ATM, in Rajasthan has meant that time spent paying utility bills has been greatly reduced, ‘I could pay five bills in two minutes, I couldn’t do that here’, said Saini.

Indian writer Siddhartha Deb, author of The Beautiful and the Damned: Life in the New India, also welcomed the advancement of e-governance as a way of cutting widespread low-level corruption in his home country. ‘If we pay for things electronically then there is less chance of somebody taking a bribe,’ explained Deb who advocates the expansion of the mobile phone e-commerce in a country with low broadband penetration but over 500 million cell phone connections.

The event, which was sponsored by the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, was sold out and is part of the India: Growing Pains strand of the Book Festival which looks at the rise of one of the world’s 21st century heavyweights as a producer, consumer and investor.

The future of Scotland was debated at the Edinburgh International Book Festival last night in a sold out event in the Spiegeltent.

Chair Magnus Linklater was joined by former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell, Scottish Education Secretary Mike Russell MSP and historian Neal Ascherson to debate the end of the Union.

Mike Russell opened the discussion by stating that Scottish people had ‘lost their fear’ of independence and argued that the question was no longer could Scotland be independent, but rather, should the country be independent. Russell argued that the Union was a ‘sentimental historical construct’, and that Scotland ‘should compare itself, not to England, but to the rest of the world.’

An alternative viewpoint was given by Menzies Campbell who put forward the case for radical constitutional reform, not only of devolution but also of the House of Lords and electoral reform. ‘Gladstone, Asquith and Campbell’ was how the second speaker saw the future trajectory of ideas for Home Rule for the Scottish nation, which provoked Russell to accuse Campbell of ‘Jurassic Park Unionism’. Campbell argued that, ‘It is no longer just the West Lothian question, but also the West Belfast and West Wales question.’

Journalist and historian Neil Ascherson advocated for the ‘settled will’ of the Scottish people to be heard and likened the breaking up of the Union not to a divorce but to a marriage; a big decision that should not be taken lightly as independence is a ‘one way street’. Ascherson, who is now based in London, also added that the end of the Union was not seen as a big deal south of the border with many English people unfazed by the possible break up of the United Kingdom.

Several members of the audience then spoke on the topic questioning the panel on the economic, social and political implications of independence on border control, EU membership and defence policy, before a vote was held with roughly half the audience agreeing that we are witnessing the early stages of the break-up of Britain, and the other half voting against this idea.

The final question came from Chair Magnus Linklater, Scottish Editor of The Times, who pushed Russell for the exact phrasing which will appear on the ballot paper at the referendum. Russell refused to divulge what question the nation would be asked to give their verdict on but did say that this would be known in advance once the time was right and a full and wide ranging debate on the topic had taken place in Scotland.

Modern Scottish history is to be discussed again at the Book Festival on Sunday 21 August at 8pm with Professor Tom Devine as he launches his last book in the trilogy ‘To the Ends of the Earth: Scotland's Global Diaspora, 1750-2010’.

Debut novelist Tatjani Soli and theatre critic Hilary Spurling have joined the list of acclaimed authors who have won the James Tait Black Prizes, Britain’s oldest literary awards. American author Tatjani Soli is the recipient of the fiction prize for her first novel The Lotus Eaters. Hilary Spurling, former literary editor of The Spectator claims the biography prize for her book Burying the Bones: Pearl Buck in China. They join the ranks of acclaimed previous winners such as Ian McEwan, Cormac McCarthy and A.S Byatt.

The winners of the prizes – awarded annually by the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh – were announced this evening at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The prizes are for the best work of fiction and the best biography published during the previous calendar year. They are the only major British book awards judged by scholars and students of literature.

Tatjani Soli said: “The lineage of the James Tait Black Prizes speaks for itself, and I am humbled and so proud to be part of it. This award is an undreamed of honour that I will always treasure.”

Hilary Spurling said: “I'm proud and pleased to be in the company of so many of my favourite writers, who've already won this first and most elegant of book prizes.”

Nick Barley, Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival said “We are delighted to welcome back this prestigious prize to Charlotte Square Gardens. Tatjani Soli is a worthy winner, and we were privileged to enjoy her reading at the event this evening. Hilary Spurling enthralled our audience with Burying the Bones: Pearl Buck in China at the Book Festival last year, and we are thrilled that she has been awarded the Biography prize.”

Dr James Loxley, Head of English of Literature at the University of Edinburgh said: “We're delighted to be honouring such outstanding works. The readers and judges have once again shown the acumen of the knowledgeable book lover and literary critic, which has been the hallmark of these prizes for more than ninety years."

The James Tait Black Prizes were founded in 1919 by Janet Coats, the widow of publisher James Tait Black, to commemorate her husband’s love of good books. Each year more than 300 books are read by professors of literature and postgraduate readers prior to conferment of the prizes.

The four novels competing for the £10,000 fiction prize were: The Thousand Autumns of Jacon De Zoet by David Mitchell; La Rochelle by Michael Nath; The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer; The Lotus Eaters by Tatjani Soli.

The shortlisted works for the biography section were: Fordlandia: the Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin; A Life in Pictures by Alasdair Gray; EM Forster: a new life by Wendy Moffat; Burying the Bones: Pearl Buck in China by Hilary Spurling.

Past winners of the awards include figures of global literary distinction, such as DH Lawrence, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Muriel Spark, Angela Carter and Martin Amis.

Last year, Man Booker prize winner AS Byatt was recipient of the fiction prize for her much-praised novel The Children’s Book. John Carey, a familiar face and voice on arts review shows, was the recipient of the biography prize for his book William Golding: The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies. William Golding was himself a James Tait Black prizewinner in 1979.

For further information on the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes please go to: www.ed.ac.uk/james-taitblack

The prizewinners in the fourth Edwin Morgan International Poetry Competition were announced at a ceremony at the Edinburgh International Book Festival last night.

The first prize of £5,000 has been awarded to Jane McKie for her poem Leper Window, St Mary the Virgin, which was judged to be the best of an initial field of 1,200 entries from around the world.

The ceremony was held just before the first anniversary of the death, at the age of 90, of Professor Edwin Morgan, who held the post of Scotland’s first Makar, or national poet.

The competition, sponsored by the University of Strathclyde and hosted by the Book Festival, offers one of the biggest poetry prizes in the UK, with awards totalling £6,600. The winning poems were chosen by this year’s judges, poets Vicki Feaver and Kona Macphee.    

Kona Macphee said of the winning poem: “Leper Window epitomises everything I love about poetry.  It revels in the musicality of language and is magnificently concise, evoking a whole lost world in a dozen elegantly understated lines.”

Vicki Feaver said: “I think it was Coleridge who defined poetry as 'the best words in the best order.' This moving and beautifully constructed poem follows that definition perfectly.”

Dr David Kinloch, a Reader in Strathclyde's Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences and co-founder of the competition, chaired the event. He said: “It has again been a pleasure to have received so many entries of such high quality.

“It has been particularly gratifying as we prepare to mark the first anniversary of Edwin Morgan’s death. As one of the outstanding poets of the modern age, he left a formidable poetic legacy and this resonates in the entries to this year’s competition.”

Jane McKie previously won the Sundial/Scottish Arts Council Best First Book award for her debut collection, Morocco Rococo, published in 2007. She also founded Knucker Press, a small press which specialises in prose and poetry publications combining word and image. 

Other winners in the competition were:

• second prize (£1,000) Ossuary, by Lydia MacPherson
• third prize (£500)- Four Sisters: Sargent's ‘The Daughters of Edward D. Boit,’ by Jane Yeh
• runners-up (£50)- Loving Medusa, by Gillian Andrews; Remains, by Sarah Jackson
• commended poems- Gist by Paula Cunningham; Other People’s Dreams by Helen Mort; Snow Angel by Aileen Ballantyne; Ten O’Clock Horses by Sarah Jackson; Troup Head by Ian Crockatt.

Strathclyde’s Humanities and Social Sciences make up the largest Faculty in the University. The Faculty is delivering high quality education and internationally recognised research across a spectrum of disciplines including Law, Government and Public Policy, English, History, Languages, Social Work, Teacher Education and Psychological Sciences & Health. It is set to benefit from eight new posts in the coming months through a major new investment in areas of strength, in addition to a £25 million package to create a new hub for the Faculty on the University’s city-centre campus. More at: www.strath.ac.uk/humanities/

Baroness Julia Neuberger, Senior Rabbi of the West London Synagogue, today called for an official enquiry to the recent UK riots at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Neuberger stated that politicians should not take the easy option and blame social media for the recent troubles but instead investigate the situation in full to discover the underlying reasons behind the violent action and who is responsible, analysing the situation in full.

The Baroness expressed concern that authorities may restrict the usage of social media and mobile networks in incidences of trouble in the future, referring to her experiences in Ulster with the blocking of mobile phone networks in times of conflict. Although Neuberger did comment that even if the networks were restricted or blocked she believes that people would find a method of communication regardless.

Former first lady Sarah Brown surprised readers at the Edinburgh International Book Festival tonight by asking husband and former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown MP to join her on stage.

Mrs Brown had been scheduled to appear at the Book Festival since June, but the presence of her husband was not known beforehand to the sold out audience in Charlotte Square Gardens.

The couple shared stories of their life behind the black door of number ten with Festival Director Nick Barley, with Mrs Brown admitting that at times living in the public eye had made her feel like she was, “one step away from your greatest mistake”.

Mrs Brown reflected on the “peculiarly British” way of living and working in the same building, much like a shop, but joked that the short commute did have its advantages.

After joining his wife on stage Mr Brown said he had learnt three things since leaving office last year, namely that one or two people with vision can make a difference, that building a “national purpose” is crucial and that he remained committed to fighting global poverty stating, “Global problems need global solutions".

Mrs Brown noted that she never confused her role as the wife of the Prime Minister with one of a political advisor, saying that her views were just as equal as any other citizen, and admitted that there was a strict divide between personal and political advice.

Reflecting on the recent phone hacking scandal, Mr Brown said that for many years, “journalists have been marching with members of the criminal underworld”, and accused some newspapers of unfairly challenging the motives of politicians and not focussing enough on their actions. He later added that the “public are much wiser than newspapers".

Explaining how she wrote the book, Behind the Black Door, in a very short period of time, Mrs Brown said that she did share sections of the book with her husband before it was published, but when asked by a member of the public if he had vetoed any of the content she replied, “Not one bit”.

Mrs Brown’s appearance at the Book Festival was the second visit by a former first lady in recent years after Cherie Blair discussed her autobiography at the Festival in 2009.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival launched a new web app this weekend enabling audiences to browse the programme, find out more about authors appearing at the Festival and book tickets – all from their mobile phone.

The new mobile site which is available at http://m.edbookfest.co.uk allows users to find out more about authors, the books they will be speaking about at the Festival as well as their back catalogue, and also search related articles from The Guardian, the Book Festival’s media partner. Customers can book tickets to the events, check whether the books are available from the Book Festival’s own on site bookshops and buy e-books. 

James Newbery, an independent developer based in Edinburgh, conceived and built a prototype for the site in 24 hours at Culture Hack Scotland in May. His efforts won him the “Most Useful” award and a subsequent commission to work with the Book Festival team and develop a fully functional application. The site makes extensive use of open source technologies, and the Book Festival have in turn made the source code of their own application freely available to other developers. The hope is that the project will provide a useful building block for similar applications from other festivals and cultural events in Edinburgh and further afield.

Andrew Coulton, Administrative Director, said “This is a major new innovation for the Book Festival, and by designing it as a web app - usable on any smartphone - we are making it as accessible as possible for our audiences. It’s great to see such concrete results from the Edinburgh Festivals Innovation Lab and Culture Hack Scotland already making a real difference to the Book Festival experience for our customers. It’s a brilliant example of what open innovation can achieve, and we look forward to seeing how others build on the work we’ve begun.”

The Edinburgh International Book Festival opened on Saturday morning with an event celebrating the life and work of Alasdair Gray. Over 25,000 visitors enjoyed the events, bookshops and cafes in Charlotte Square Gardens over the weekend, and the Book Festival is set for a busy fortnight to come.  Ticket sales have been strong, on a par with 2011, and sell out events over the first weekend included Simon Stephenson, Bettany Hughes, Sarah Brown, Darian Leader and Caitlin Moran.  Tickets are still available for a wide range of events including Sebastian Barry, Ben Okri, Sapphire, Carol Ann Duffy, Steve Backshall and Kristin Hersh.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival runs until Monday 29 August.  Full details of the programme, and tickets, can be found at www.edbookfest.co.uk – or of course on the new mobile web app on http://m.edbookfest.co.uk.

The PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature in New York has joined the six other international Literary Festivals which make up the ground-breaking Word Alliance, which was formed at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2010.  The Word Alliance is a collaboration between literary festivals which aims to present the best authors to international audiences at events right across the world.  

The Edinburgh International Book Festival is the inaugural chair of the Word Alliance and in the last 12 months Scottish authors have attended events in Berlin, Jaipur, Toronto, New York and Beijing as part of the touring programme devised by the participating Festivals.  

Nick Barley, Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival said, “We are delighted to welcome New York to the Word Alliance.  As a result of this collaboration, and with the support of the Scottish Government and Creative Scotland, we have not only sent Scottish authors to participate in the leading Literary Festivals around the world, but also are looking forward to welcoming authors from all the participating countries to Charlotte Square Gardens this month.”

Laszlo Jakab Orsos, Director of PEN World Voices Festival New York, said “The idea of the Word Alliance is very inspiring for all of us, curators, festival directors in the Alliance. It gives way to broader and more complex projects which ultimately will emphasize the living and stimulating - if not controversial - nature of literature.”

In addition to the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Word Alliance network includes The Bookworm International Literary Festival, Beijing, The International Literature Festival in Berlin, Melbourne Writers Festival, the Jaipur Literary Festival, the International Festival of Authors in Toronto and now the Pen World Voices Festival of International Literature.  It is intended that the group will ultimately expand to include Africa and Latin America.

The development of the network, and the inaugural touring programme, is supported by Creative Scotland and the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund.

Andrew Dixon, Chief Executive, Creative Scotland, said, “Scottish literature is, and has always been, outward looking and the exchange of stories, ideas and experiences is deeply rooted within our culture.  The news that New York will join this network of leading festivals offers intriguing possibilities for collaboration and alliances that bring the written word to life, showcasing Scottish talent to their peers and new readers on a new and exciting stage.’

The Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop, said: “New York’s addition to the Word Alliance - a unique collaboration of leading international literary festivals - is an exciting development, which offers even more opportunities to promote Scottish writing worldwide. This innovative network, supported by our Expo fund, has been instrumental in allowing Scotland’s talented authors to be showcased at literary festivals around the globe and in attracting many more leading writers to Scotland.”

Irvine Welsh, who attended the Pen World Voices Festival in New York as well as the Jaipur Literary Festival, said “Both festivals were highly positive experiences for me. As always, most significant are the intangibles - writers are like everybody else, they need to feel they belong to a broader community of fellow writers and readers, or it all becomes meaningless.”

The Edinburgh International Book Festival runs from 13 to 29 August and welcomes almost 800 authors from 40 different countries who will be participating in over 750 events. Full details of the programme and tickets can be found on www.edbookfest.co.uk.

Five of the authors on the long list for the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, which was announced yesterday, will be attending the Edinburgh International Book Festival this August.

Alan Hollinghurst, Sebastian Barry, Carol Birch, Stephen Kelman and A D Miller will be speaking about their books at the world’s largest public celebration of the written word which takes place in Charlotte Square Gardens in the heart of historic Edinburgh from 13 to 29 August.

Nick Barley, Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, said “The five authors who will be entertaining our audience in August are representative of the variety in the 2011 Man Booker Long List – which includes previous prize winners and debut authors. We are delighted that Sebastian Barry will be launching his nominated book, On Canaan’s Side, in Edinburgh and two of the debut authors, Stephen Kelman and A D Miller, will be participating in our Newton First Book Award, together with 45 other debut novelists.”

The Newton First Book Award, which this year features 47 debut authors of novels or short stories written or translated into English, is voted for by the Book Festival audience. Details of all the eligible books can be found at www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/newton-first-book-award together with information on how to vote for your favourite.

Tickets for all of the five nominated authors can be booked through www.edbookfest.co.uk or by calling the Box Office on 0845 373 5888. The Edinburgh International Book Festival runs from Saturday 13 August to Monday 29 August and features almost 800 authors from 40 countries in 750 events for both adults and children. Full details of the programme can be found on www.edbookfest.co.uk.

An all-female shortlist for the fourth annual Edwin Morgan International Poetry Competition has been announced. Five poems are now in contention for the  competition, which offers one of the biggest poetry prizes in the UK, with awards totalling £6,550.

The competition, sponsored by the University of Strathclyde and hosted by the Edinburgh International Book Festival, was established in 2008 with the support of the late Professor Edwin Morgan, Scotland’s ‘Makar’ or national poet. This year’s competition is the first to be held since his death in 2010, aged 90.

1,200 poems have been submitted for this year’s competition by around 900 poets. Entries have come from countries including the USA, New Zealand and Costa Rica as well as the UK. The winner will be announced at a ceremony during the Book Festival on 17 August.

The shortlisted poems have been placed on the competition’s website, along with commentary from this year’s judges, poets Vicki Feaver and Kona Macphee. They are:

· Four Sisters: Sargent's ‘The Daughters of Edward D. Boit,’ by Jane Yeh

· Leper Window, by Jane McKie

· Loving Medusa, by Gillian Andrews

· Ossuary, by Lydia MacPherson

· Remains, by Sarah Jackson

Dr David Kinloch, a Reader in Strathclyde's Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences and co-founder of the competition, said: “Edwin Morgan produced a body of work that had few equals in modern poetry. In the competition that bears his name, we look for poetry that carries on his tradition and we have been pleased to see this in the calibre of entries we have received.

“It is a fitting tribute to his memory that the quality of entries has been so high and it gives us great confidence for the future of English language poetry.”

Nick Barley, Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, said “I am delighted that the Edinburgh International Book Festival will once again host this prestigious prize. The shortlist reflects the high quality of contemporary poetry, and the event offers us a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the life and work of the great Edwin Morgan on the first anniversary of his death.”

The Edwin Morgan International Poetry Competition offers a prize of £5,000 for the winner and further awards of £1,000, £500 and £50. The prize money is provided by the University of Strathclyde.

Literary nights are set to continue a little bit longer this August with the return of Unbound to the Edinburgh International Book Festival. After its triumphant debut last year, the festival within a festival will run between 14 and 29 August, featuring a fusion of music and spoken word and bringing together the best of local and international talent for fifteen live literature nights in the Spiegeltent in Charlotte Square Gardens.

This year’s line up includes events with mammoth US literary magazine The Paris Review, an evening with contemporary Australian authors hosted by Melbourne based publisher Sleepers, US singer-songwriter Kristin Hersh and the first visit to the Festival for Literary Death Match, the cultural phenomenon that has swept the globe and pitches teams of writers against each other with only words as their weapon.

Local Scottish talent appearing at Unbound includes The Fence Collective’s James Yorkston and The Pictish Trail, Glasgow based publishers Cargo and the Arches’ literary night Words Per Minute, Edinburgh spoken word collective Writers’ Bloc, as well as The Golden Hour. Unbound will also pay tribute to one of Edinburgh’s brightest stars, the late Paul Reekie; the Rebel Inc. author will be honoured in a special event featuring Irvine Welsh, Gordon Legge, Kevin Williamson, Vic Godard and many more of Reekie’s friends and colleagues.

Scottish comedian Des Dillon will close this year’s Unbound programme, bringing his stand-up show to the Spiegeltent for one night only.

Roland Gulliver, Programme Manager of the Edinburgh International Book Festival said, “We are thrilled to be presenting the second Unbound programme at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival. The first year was a journey of discovery, bringing something new each night to our Spiegeltent in Charlotte Square Gardens, and we were thrilled by how much fun everyone had!”

“In 2011 we are looking to build on that success, to create a programme full of energy, excitement and a little bit of the unknown, bringing back some friends from last year and presenting some new faces; to celebrate the fantastic live literature scene in Scotland; to present some special events from around the world; to bring together writers, musicians and artists together to create something different each night; and most importantly to enjoy the magic of literature and stories late into the night!”

Unbound is supported through the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund and as such is completely free and unticketed. All events start at 9pm and the full programme can be found online at www.edbookfest.co.uk and in copies of the July issue of The Skinny, the media partner of Unbound.