Guy Gunaratne & Imran Mahmood (2018 Event) Meet two new writers whose debuts are turning heads… Billy Collins (2014 Event) Billy Collins has twice been poet laureate in the US and says he hopes his poems ‘begin in Kansas and end in Oz’. Aimless Love, his first collection of new and selected poems for 12 years, is elegant, poignant and thrillingly accessible. In th… Kristen Iversen (2013 event) Riveting and horrifying in equal measure, Kristen Iversen’s memoir of growing up next to the Rocky Flats nuclear facility near Denver, Colorado describes the secrecy… Ian Rankin Always a hot favourite at the Book Festival, bestselling crime author Ian Rankin's events are never less than entertaining. Here he chats to Magnus Linklater and reveals something about his new 2007 Inspector Rebus novel, Exit Music… Nadeem Aslam (2013 event) Described by Colm Tóibín as ‘one of the most exciting and serious writers working in Britain now’, Nadeem Aslam’s new book will undoubtedly build his reputation still further… Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins, one of the world's greatest living scientists, talks to Muriel Gray in this 2005 event about his extraordinary investigations of evolution and his passion for the wonders it contains and reveals… 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 One of Scotland's great masters of the crime genre was welcomed back to the Book Festival by capacity audiences. Great chat and some more tales from the casebooks of Dr Tony Hill and Detective Carol Jordan. A festival favourite if ever there was one!… The Literacy Revolution (2015 Event) According to UNESCO, every region of the world during the last 20 years has seen gains in literacy rates, but the situation remains highly uneven. To what extent can this improvement be attributed to the urbanisation of populations across the world and th… Andrea Levy Andrea Levy's Small Island has won the Orange, Whitbread and Commonwealth prizes. The author speaks in this 2005 event with intelligence and wit about the book and her career…