Barry Hutchison reading The Unclaimed Girl Author of the Invisible Fiends horror series for children, Barry Hutchison here reads his story on the theme of Elsewhere… Henning Mankell The Swedish literary all-rounder chats about his varied writing career after his sold-out 2009 Book Festival event. Find out how living half the year in Africa and the other half in Sweden has affected his outlook on life… Pussy Riot's Maria Alyokhina with Yanis Varoufakis (2018 Event) 'To back down an inch is to give up a mile,' says Maria Alyokhina in Riot Days, her account of Pussy Riot’s extraordinary rise to infamy in 2012. Following an iconoclastic balaclava-clad performance in a Moscow cathedral, Alyokhina and two of her collab… Charly Cox, Theresa Lola & Tayi Tibble at the Edinburgh International Book Festival ‘It’s official. We’ve fallen (back) in love with poetry’ the Metro declared earlier this year, reporting a 12% increase in poetry book sales in 2018. Underpinning the boom are bold new voices exploring issues from politics to mental health on page… Ma Jian (2013 event) Ma Jian’s criticisms of China’s government led to it placing a blanket ban on all his future books in 1987. He participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, and now… Jason Donald reading Puerta Galera Listen to acclaimed author of Choke Chain read his story Puerta Galera, part of a series of podcasts… David France (2018 Event) How to Survive a Plague is David France’s history of the fight against AIDS, the disease caused by HIV that has killed over 35 million people worldwide. Described as ‘subtle and searing', it won the Baillie Gifford Prize in 2017. In 2018, … David Vann reading Bain de Soleil Young award-winning US author David Vann reads his story on the theme of Elsewhere… Helen Macdonald (2014 Event) In her powerful, emotive memoir, H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald recounts her obsessive pursuit to become a falconer. Following the shock of her father’s death and inspired by T H White’s The Goshawk, she embarked on a journey to train her own … Alexander Masters Alexander Masters' biography of homeless Stuart Shorter, Stuart: A Life Backwards, has been hailed by critics as startling, remarkable, rare, haunting and uplifting. In this utterly absorbing event from 2006, he asks how a life can follow such a troubled …