Alastair Reid

Laura Bates (2016 Event) The founder of the influential online project Everyday Sexism, Laura Bates was in the 2014 Woman's Hour Power List Game Changers Top 10 and is becoming well known for her refusal to accept the female stereotypes peddled by a normative mainstream media… Janice Galloway Janice Galloway, one of the UK's finest writers, talks eloquently to Richard Holloway in this 2008 event about her outstanding memoir This is Not About Me, which vividly evokes Ayrshire in the 1960s… Pussy Riot's Maria Alyokhina with Yanis Varoufakis (2018 Event) 'To back down an inch is to give up a mile,' says Maria Alyokhina in Riot Days, her account of Pussy Riot’s extraordinary rise to infamy in 2012. Following an iconoclastic balaclava-clad performance in a Moscow cathedral, Alyokhina and two of her… Pat Barker (2012 event) Her books include the highly acclaimed Regeneration trilogy: Regeneration (made into a film of the same name), The Eye in the Door (winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize) and The Ghost Road (winner of the Booker Prize)… Powering the Planet (2010 Event) How do we provide fuel for the world without destroying it in the process, and can Scotland really be a key player? Part of our popular debates and environment strand in 2010, this event features a panel of experts to discuss the options… Terry Waite (2015 Event) As special envoy to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Terry Waite spent plenty of time not only in the company of Robert Runcie, but also his son James. Then, he was kidnapped in Beirut. Upon his release, Waite continued his charity work, befriended his… Alex Salmond Scotland's First Minister and the first ever Scottish National Party leader, Alex Salmond speaks of his hopes and vision for the country in this 2008 event. Chaired by Brian Taylor… Tony Benn Passionately dedicated to politics and to ordinary people, Tony Benn is a highly engaging speaker. He speaks in this 2008 event about his warm, funny, feisty diaries which record his trenchant views on the political landscape of the past seven years… John Burnside The finest contemporary Scottish writing commissioned especially by the festival. We asked four of our most highly acclaimed writers (John Burnside, Janice Galloway, A L Kennedy and Don Paterson) to create new work - poetry and prose - for this 2008 event… Salman Rushdie at the Edinburgh International Book Festival One of the most significant writers of our age, Salman Rushdie joins the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 for the worldwide launch of epic novel Quichotte…