John Burnside

Kirstin Innes (2015 Event) Winner of the Guardian’s Not the Booker prize, Kirstin Innes’ bittersweet debut, Fishnet takes us deep into the world of sex workers, tracing one woman’s obsessive quest for answers following her sister’s mysterious disappearance… Hanif Kureishi One of the most distinctive and fearless writers in Britain, Hanif Kureishi has been a major and vital presence since Buddha of Suburbia. Sex, middle-age, love, longing, race, regret and psychoanalysis are all wholly present in his latest novel, Something… John Byrne (2011 event) Painter and set designer, playwright and novelist, John Byrne is one of Scotland’s great polymaths. Best known for his plays the Slab Boys Trilogy and Tutti Frutti, Byrne has also designed record sleeves for Donovan and The Beatles… Val McDermid: Portrait of a Criminal (2020 Event) Inspired in part by the wildly popular Portrait Artist of the Year competition, the ever-inventive Val McDermid teases the mysterious connection between Still Life and the Sky Arts series in a conversation with one of its widely-admired presenters, Dame… Alan Cumming with Ian Rankin (2015 Event) Two of Scotland’s most successful creative talents hook up for this unmissable event. Alan Cumming made waves with a memoir about his tough upbringing, Not My Father's Son, the details of which… Meena Kandasamy & Helen McClory (2017 Event) Indian poet, novelist, activist and author of The Gypsy Goddess Meena Kandasamy has won many plaudits for her writing. In this event, recorded live at the 2017 Edinburgh International Book Festival, she discusses When I Hit You, a provocative examination… Laura Bates (2016 Event) The founder of the influential online project Everyday Sexism, Laura Bates was in the 2014 Woman's Hour Power List Game Changers Top 10 and is becoming well known for her refusal to accept the female stereotypes peddled by a normative mainstream media… Ibram X Kendi talks to Deray Mckesson at the Edinburgh International Book Festival We all occasionally do things that are racist, yet often fail to recognise them. Ibram X Kendi is a founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center in Washington DC. How To Be an Antiracist is his extraordinary, inspiring guidebook which… Melvyn Bragg (2011 Event) Since its publication in 1611, the King James Bible has been the world’s number one bestseller. But the book has become a story in itself. It has been the Bible of wars from the British Civil War to the American Civil War… Stella Rimington (2011 event) The former director general of MI5 has forged a new career for herself as an author of spy novels, using her inside knowledge of intelligence activities to create a credible new hero, Liz Carlyle…