Author Richard Ford believes President Trump occasionally says something “that’s actually not wrong” but does not see it “registered in the news”…
Virgin Money CEO Jayne-Anne Gadhia believes the UK will have a “difficult time” over the next few years but that a “strong and growing” economy is still possible following Brexit…
The 2017 Edinburgh International Book Festival ends its public programme this evening having welcomed 1,000 authors, illustrators, poets, politicians and performers from 50 countries to Charlotte Square Gardens and the new expansion onto George Street…
Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, today talked about her passion for reading in the Edinburgh International Book Festival’s new event, ReimagiNation: Irvine…
Literary critic Robert McCrum says he wishes he could have his “old life back” but at the same time recognizes the “great dividends” from suffering a near-fatal stroke in 1995…
Former Labour Deputy Leader Harriet Harman has welcomed her party’s call for the UK to remain part of the European Single Market and customs union for a transitional period…
Writer Madeleine Bunting believes biographers of George Orwell “haven’t quite understood” the impact Jura had on the writing of his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four…
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Nicola Sturgeon took to the stage at the Edinburgh International Book Festival to discuss equality in the 21st century – a conversation that ranged from literature to race to their self-identification as ‘unconventional women’…
Former Conservative Party chair Sayeeda Warsi believes Muslims have a “responsibility” to “reclaim their faith” from extremists…
When Philippe Sands completed East West Street last year, which subsequently won the Baillie Gifford Prize, he didn’t anticipate the extraordinary public reaction that this book would generate, nor could he have imagined the subsequent political events that would unfold…
Author and politician Catherine Mayer believes sexual harassment of women in the media remains “pretty much endemic”…
Historian Chris Renwick says the public should be “quite profoundly worried” about the future of the National Health Service and has predicted charges for “particular” services…
Ian Rankin delighted fans at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this evening with the news that he is writing a new novel featuring his iconic detective John Rebus, to be published in Autumn 2018…
Former Foreign Secretary David Owen believes the UK is “making a complete ass” of itself over Brexit negotiations, and that Article 50 should never have been used as it is “weighted against” Britain…
Celebrated percussionist Evelyn Glennie believes young people are acquiring “an internet-type accent” because they now see smartphones “as an extension of their limbs”…
BBC Newsnight presenter Evan Davis says he feels “frustrated” that short television interviews do not give him enough time “to properly get into things”, while he believes there is a “danger” that an adversarial approach…
American poet Eileen Myles still believes that Hillary Clinton’s failure to become President of the United States was “simply misogyny”…
Author Gary Younge says he feels “a big responsibility” to the families of children whose deaths he has recorded in a book on gun fatalities in the United States…
The Last Poets have spoken of their love for Scotland after a series of sell-out events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival…
Former Labour Cabinet minister Alan Johnson believes his party “could very well win” the next general election if it is held within the next twelve months, while he says he would be “amazed” if David Davis is not Prime Minister “by early next year”…
Novelist and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi says he now finds writing “more pleasurable” and believes he is “probably better at it” than in the 1980s when the film My Beautiful Launderette first brought him fame…
Writer Laura Albert says she misses her alter ego JT LeRoy and would “give it all” to be back talking to her therapist in the guise of her famous literary creation rather than as herself…
Political commentator Gerry Hassan says there is a “deceit” at the heart of Scottish politics about “claiming we are a social democracy”, while the Unionist-versus-Nationalist dynamic is “trench warfare, a war of attrition” that is harming public debate…
Cultural critic Margo Jefferson has likened Confederate monuments to “architectural terrorism” and says she has “no doubt” they ought to be removed…
Writer Anna Pasternak has expressed concerns that “a measure of censorship” in Russia means she might not know if the translation of her latest book is “true to the original”…
Author Thordis Elva says the “monster myth” of rape perpetrators needs to be “dismantled” in order to make “meaningful progress” on sexual consent…
Historian David Olusoga has said that the omission of Britain’s history of slavery from school curriculums goes beyond neglect and into the realms of dishonesty and deliberate untruth…
Novelist Zadie Smith has revealed she is to publish a collection of her short stories, having grown “more confident” about writing them…
Author and activist Juno Dawson believes trans issues are viewed in the way lesbian and gay rights were in the 1990s, and that “discourse will shift” in twenty years’ time…
Turkey’s President Erdoğan wants to be recognized in history “as bigger than Atatürk”, according to the political scientist Tahir Abbas…
Trade Minister Mark Price says there is “real good will” around the world to “find a way to continue trading” with the UK after it leaves the European Union in two years’ time…
Scottish novelist James Kelman has hit out at those in “control” of Scottish culture, claiming they “don’t really understand what the Scottish intellectual tradition is”…
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has admitted she finds the word nationalism “difficult”, and that if she “could turn the clock back” she would give the party she leads a different name…
Former European Commissioner Chris Patten thinks “reality is waiting around the corner to mug us” when it comes to Brexit, which he described as “the most awful thing that’s happened in British politics in my lifetime”…
Entrepreneur Richard Reed says he fears Brexit will “lead to ten years of faff” and that voters should have a chance to reject the outcome in two years’ time…
Leading German journalist Souad Mekhennet has warned against complacency in attempts to combat radicalization in Europe, saying that much of the debate was still “missing” its underlying causes…
Veteran broadcaster Allan Little has warned that “tremendous cynicism” about journalism risks “throwing out something very valuable”…
Humour is an “important and vital way to cope with grief”, believes the Man Booker International Prize-winning Israeli author David Grossman…
Britain “has mismanaged itself out of existence”, says the writer Andrew O’Hagan, and Scotland is now “free to succeed or to fail in its own terms”…
Boston novelist Jennifer Haigh says she feels like her country is “on fire” and that “we have not yet seen the worst reaction” to the removal of Confederate statues…
Judy Murray says she thinks it is “gobsmacking” that more has not been done to capitalise on the success of her tennis-player sons over the past decade…
The late Princess Diana helped “shift a dial” on making people more tolerant of human difficulties, according to the psychotherapist Julia Samuel…
Zindzi Mandela, the youngest daughter of Nelson and Winnie Mandela, was 15 years old the first time she met her father in prison…
At today’s Edinburgh International Book Festival event, Alexander McCall Smith will offer a sneak preview of the musical based on his best-selling book, The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency…
Sociologist Richard Sennett believes the UK is on the cusp of a “revolutionary” movement as a consequence of the “catastrophe” that is Brexit…
A novel exploring an unlikely relationship between two actors and a biography that opens a window on the world of fine art have tonight (Monday, 14 August) won Britain’s oldest literary awards…
Irish novelist Sebastian Barry says he hopes his writing will “release” people from the “stupidity” of prejudice against homosexuality and instead help them recognise its “radiance”…
Novelist Will Self has hit out at critics who believe his De’Ath trilogy is “too difficult”, claiming he had lost readers as a result…
Crime novelist James Runcie “might” revisit his Grantchester Mysteries series to cover the Thatcher era…
The Dutch historian Rutger Bregman has warned that the proportion of what he calls “bullshit jobs” could keep on rising if the definition of “work” is not updated…
A German journalist has spoken of the “awful time” she had recording the experience of a Yazidi teenager enslaved by ISIS in Iraq…
Overwhelming social media is contributing to a “sense of pessimism and horror” that risks undermining genuine global progress, according to the Swedish historian Johan Norberg…
Organisers of the Edinburgh International Book Festival today announced two new events for Autumn 2017 as part of the Festival’s Booked! programme…
Organisers of the Edinburgh International Book Festival are asking for people to share their special memories of Edinburgh’s Festivals to help create a piece of collective writing celebrating the 70th anniversary of Edinburgh becoming a Festival City…
Jenny Niven in The List ‘Hot 100’ 
