John Mortimer

Charles Fernyhough and Ben Marcus (2012 event) From Gulliver’s Travels to 1984, dystopian visions have shaped literary fiction. Why do these flights of fancy influence our reality?… Anita Nair - with William Dalrymple  … Museums and Libraries (2015 Event) Museums and galleries dominate as destinations, attracting record numbers of visitors to blockbuster shows. Meanwhile libraries are facing a funding crisis and are increasingly asked to justify their existence. What can libraries learn from museums, and w… The Siobhan Dowd Trust Memorial Lecture: Matt Haig (2015 Event) Award-winning author Siobhan Dowd died in 2007, bequeathing her royalties to a trust which aims to bring the joy of reading to those who need it most. This year the Siobhan Dowd Trust Memorial Lecture was delivered by novelist Matt Haig, whose books for c… Outriders: Jennifer Haigh & Malachy Tallack (2017 Event) As part of our Outriders project to explore the Americas, Boston novelist Jennifer Haigh travelled with Scottish writer Malachy Tallack on a journey that took in the Midwestern heartlands of Donald Trump’s USA. Starting in Fargo, they visited the si… Limmy (2015 Event) Appearing at the Edinburgh International Book Festival for the first time with his first book, Daft Wee Stories, Brian Limond, aka Limmy… Conor Gearty & Douglas Murray (2017 Event) In The Strange Death of Europe, Douglas Murray travels from places where migrants land to places where they end up, talking to people who welcome them and others who don't, and finds a continent in a serious muddle. In On Fantasy Island, Conor Gearty,… Mark Millar Mark Millar candidly discusses comics, graphic novels and Hollywood with Stuart Kelly in this sold-out Book Festival event. His bestselling comic Kick-Ass is being made into a film this year; Wanted 2 is in development after the success of his blockbuster… Richard Ford A rare and long-awaited visit to the Book Festival in 2007 by one of America's greatest writers. Richard Ford's Independence Day is the only book ever to have won both the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Here he discusses his magnificent follow… Kay Ryan (2013 event) Kay Ryan is widely regarded as one of America’s great living poets. Her book The Best of It: New and Selected Poems won her the Pulitzer Prize in 2011…