Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 Highlights 20–23 August

Gavin Francis & Devi Sridhar: The Cost of Health The result of a pandemic and an ageing UK population: record waiting times for treatment. Conversely, medical advances are saving and prolonging lives – albeit ever more expensively. If the NHS is broken, how can we afford the cure? Writer and GP Gavin … Alan Cumming: Unpacking a Life One of Scotland’s favourite entertainers, Alan Cumming proved his command of the written word was just as strong as his command of the stage in 2014, when he became a New York Times bestselling author. His most recent book, Baggage, takes us through his… Bernardine Evaristo with Nicola Sturgeon: The Triumph of Girl, Woman, Other Following her Booker Prize win last November, Bernardine Evaristo’s writing has won deserved and long-overdue acclaim across the globe. Girl, Woman, Other charts the intersecting lives of twelve characters, from a teenager working in a supermarket to a … Roisin Kiberd & Lauren Oyler: Online and Disconnected The generation who were ‘raised by the internet’ are fully-fledged adults now, but the web has become a strange parent: a cold, detached being that knows everything about us. Our relationship with the internet is probably one which psychoanalysts … EWWC Feature Film … Allan Little, Sheena McDonald & Gail Robinson at the Edinburgh International Book Festival Twenty years ago, broadcaster Sheena McDonald was hit by a police van, narrowly escaping death. Her recovery led one doctor to describe her as ‘a walking miracle’. In her book Rebuilding Life after Brain Injury, she recalls the accident and its afterm… Caroline Criado Perez talks to Sally Magnusson at the Edinburgh International Book Festival In conversation with Sally Magnusson, award-winning feminist campaigner and writer Caroline Criado Perez exposes the hidden systematic discrimination women face every day. Her book Invisible Women is her clarion call for change, bringing together new rese… Simon Callow (2017 Event) As an actor, he’s played Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill and Gareth in Four Weddings and a Funeral. As an author, he’s written compellingly about Oscar Wilde, Peggy Ramsay and about Being an Actor. But that’s not the half of what Simon Callow has… Vivian Gornick: A Map of American Feminism In an age of instant opinions and the daily social media rush from one outrage to another, it’s refreshing to read the words of an 85 year old writer who insists on taking her time. In fact, Taking a Long Look, Vivian Gornick’s latest essay collection… Who’s Afraid of the Working Class? In 2018, The Panic! Arts report found that working-class people are dramatically under-represented in the arts, and it is – as many have long-known – a culture dominated by the white middle class. So how do you make your own way, and bring people…