How We Kept The Conversation Going in 2020

Tim Winton talks to John Williams at the Edinburgh International Book Festival Only dreamers or the desperate would cross the vast saltland deserts of Western Australia. So which is Jaxie Clacton, the lonely boy at the heart of Tim Winton’s brutal, tender novel The Shepherd’s Hut? It’s a masterful work by one of the world’s … Interview - John Burnside & Jon Kalmar Stefansson (2015) Bringing myths and fables together from Scotland and Iceland, we caught up with writers John Burnside and Jón Kalman Stefánsson before their joint event in Charlotte Square Gardens. Afterwards we asked fans what they thought about the event.… Trevor Royle speaks with Magnus Linklater at the Edinburgh International Book Festival While Scotland has been free of major military conflict since the 1940s, it could have been different had the Cold War escalated. In Facing the Bear, broadcaster, author and former associate editor of the Sunday Herald, Trevor Royle discusses how integral… Interview - Charlie and Robbie (2014) Dream team comics creators Charlie Adlard and Robbie Morrison have made their contribution to the Great War centenary with their frank graphic novel White Death. This is a quick interview with the pair before they took to the stage at Edinburgh Internatio… Highlights of the 2014 Edinburgh International Book Festival Just a few of the highlights of the 2014 Book Festival - what a wonderful year we had!… This Separated Isle: State of the Union Before the pandemic made a seismic impact across the world, things were already shifting here in the UK: the divide exposed by Brexit, the Hostile Environment policy and rising levels of hate crimes revealed bitter divisions in British society and politic… Scholastique Mukasonga: Reclaiming Rwanda’s Stories The genocide of 1994 in Rwanda continues to cast a long shadow over the country – and over its European colonisers. Belgian colonists and missionaries originally favoured Rwanda’s minority Tutsi people (even devising an ‘ethnic identity card’ in 1… Allie Esiri: A Poem for Every Autumn Day, A Light in Dark Times By the end of this difficult year, we may all wish to be transported to another world. Enter the irrepressible Allie Esiri, whose bestselling poetry anthologies have long provided nourishment and comfort. Packed with an eclectic mix of beloved classi… Doireann Ní Ghríofa: A Ghost in the Throat The narrator in Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat is acutely conscious that she’s occupying a female body, and that her body is itself a kind of ‘female text’ that bears witness to her life experiences. But A Ghost in the Throat is als… Roy Hattersley at the Edinburgh International Book Festival The Labour Party was founded to give a political voice to the working classes and to end inequalities. But the challenge has changed; the gap between rich and poor has widened, and many conceive of Britain as two nations. Can the old remedies – trade un…