How We Kept The Conversation Going in 2020

Ben Okri at the Edinburgh International Book Festival ‘Storytellers sometimes see things before they have been experienced.’ This, from Ben Okri’s new chillingly dystopic novel The Freedom Artist, is a stark warning to readers. His world of truths eroded, of people shambling blindly towards calamity, is… Nick Drnaso: Drawing Inspiration If graphic novels have historically been overlooked by the literary establishment, then Nick Drnaso’s work is changing things. Sabrina was the first graphic novel to be longlisted for the Booker Prize. Now Acting Class confirms Drnaso as one of today’s… Lucy Easthope & Gavin Francis: Coming Back to Ourselves After Disaster What does recovery mean, when a person has been through something they never could have prepared for? When the Dust Settles is crisis management expert Lucy Easthope’s memoir of existing in the aftermath of disaster. In Recovery, GP and author Gavin… Colum McCann: An Infinity of Stories Once every few years, a novel comes along that genuinely opens up new ways of seeing the world. Colum McCann’s new novel Apeirogon might well be such a book. Two protagonists, Rami and Bassam – one a Palestinian, the other an Israeli – are each mourning… Sara Pascoe: Why Be Normal When You Can Be Funny? Much loved comedian, actor, TV personality, and writer Sara Pascoe has enlightened readers – and made them howl with laughter – with her reflections on femininity and sexuality in non-fiction books Animal and Sex Power Money. Now, she turns her talents to… George Monbiot - pt3 Passionate campaigner for environmental and social change, George Monbiot gives us practical, powerful solutions on a global scale of how to prevent further destruction of our planet through climate change in this 2007 event. The video of this event is… Nayrouz Qarmout talks to Esa Aldegheri at the Edinburgh International Book Festival Gaza-based writer Nayrouz Qarmout returned to the Edinburgh International Book Festival to launch the English translation of her book The Sea Cloak. In her event, filmed live, the Palestinian author talks to fellow writer Esa Aldegheri about what… James Kelman (2017 Event) James Kelman, according to Alan Warner, ‘brings alive a human consciousness like no other writer can’. That’s true of his short stories as well as his novels, and is certainly true of his latest collection (his 13th) That Was a Shiver, and Other Stories… Chitra Ramaswamy: Homelands One of three major performances this year looking at today’s Scotland. Homelands is the new work of non-fiction by Chitra Ramaswamy and tells the story of the author’s friendship with Henry Wuga, who arrived in 1939 with the Kindertransport fleeing Nazi… George Monbiot Passionate campaigner for environmental and social change, George Monbiot gives us practical, powerful solutions on a global scale of how to prevent further destruction of our planet through climate change in this 2007 event. The video of this event is…