Alastair Reid

Helen Macdonald (2014 Event) In her powerful, emotive memoir, H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald recounts her obsessive pursuit to become a falconer. Following the shock of her father’s death and inspired by T H White’s The Goshawk, she embarked on a journey to train her own… David Mitchell (2010 event) The remarkable author of the Booker-winning Cloud Atlas sold out the Book Festival's biggest venue many weeks in advance. Talking to chair Steven Gale, he delighted festival audiences with his warmth and humour, offering a fascinating insight into how… Val McDermid: Portrait of a Criminal (2020 Event) Inspired in part by the wildly popular Portrait Artist of the Year competition, the ever-inventive Val McDermid teases the mysterious connection between Still Life and the Sky Arts series in a conversation with one of its widely-admired presenters, Dame… Denise Mina reading We Are All Waiting The popular Scottish crime-writer reading her story on the theme of Elsewhere… Jenn Ashworth and Peggy Riley (2013 event) Brought up as a Mormon, Jenn Ashworth has since become a powerful voice in British fiction. She returned to Edinburgh with her third novel, The Friday Gospels, the story… Sarah Howe & William Letford (2016 Event) We were thrilled to open the 2016 Festival with two of the most powerful young voices in British poetry. Sarah Howe's debut collection Loop of Jade won the 2016 T S Eliot Prize for Poetry and was described as ‘original, exquisite, erudite and adventurous.’… Malcolm Rifkind (2016 Event) As the longest serving minister of the 20th century, Defence Minister and Foreign Secretary in Thatcher’s government and more recently Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Malcolm Rifkind has witnessed the monumental political moments of recent times… Amy Sackville and Evie Wyld (2013 event) Her debut The Still Point was inspired by the Arctic, and Amy Sackville heads north again with her second novel, Orkney, which confirms that this startlingly original writer is… Xinran Xue - with Helen Tse Outriders: Mariana Enriquez & Kevin MacNeil (2017 event) As part of our project to explore the Americas, Scottish novelist Kevin MacNeil travelled around Argentina with journalist, novelist and short story writer Mariana Enriquez. Starting in Buenos Aires, the writers set off in search of lost voices, both…