There are events for just about every age and interest at the Book Festival, bringing readers and writers together for inspiration, entertainment and discussion. Over 900 authors appear in around 800 events, including novelists, poets, scientists, sportsmen, illustrators, comics creators, historians, musicians, biographers, Nobel and Booker prize-winners and many more besides.
A former member of the International Socialists, Peter Hitchens now leans firmly to the right. But his latest book, The Phoney Victory, may rankle with those on both sides of the political spectrum as he argues that Britain went into truncated decline...
Join Adham Saouli from the renowned School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews for a thought-provoking discussion on the political trajectory of Hezbollah. For decades, the consensus has been that establishing an Islamic state in...
All dads are embarrassing, but imagine if yours constantly farted everywhere you went! Emer Stamp will have you laughing your pants off with her very windy bear creation and this stinky half hour of storytime silliness. Emer is the writer behind the...
Britain faces a housing crisis: what can the nation’s last major building scheme teach us? Architectural historians Miles Glendinning and Stefan Muthesius analyse the high-rise revolution in Towers for the Welfare State. Stefi Orazi widens the...
Two-time Macmillan Prize winner and Edinburgh local, Morag Hood appears at the Book Festival this year in an event packed with her mischievous humour and original picture books. Brenda is a Sheep is a witty retelling of the idea of a wolf in sheep’s...
Bestselling crime writer Lin Anderson launches her second Rhona MacLeod thriller of the year. Time for the Dead sees the forensics expert seek the truth of a horrible crime on the Isle of Skye. Grenada-born novelist Jacob Ross’s Black Rain Falling...
‘My goal is to make the reader pause – even for one moment – and think about the story after they've finished reading it.’ So says the accomplished Barbadian writer, filmmaker and playwright Shakirah Bourne. Join her for a masterclass which aims...
Sir Walter Ralegh lived a life of courtly power but died in ignominy. His legacy remains contested 400 years later. Today, self-declared Ralegh groupie Anna Beer, a visiting fellow at Oxford University, introduces Patriot or Traitor: The Life and Death...
Meet two activists who dig beneath the stereotypes to real lived experience. Jemma Neville campaigned for human rights law, and in Constitution Street explores global rights issues through the stories of the residents of one road in Leith. ‘Think...
Labour seems to be permanently at war with itself. Corbyn's landslide leadership election win in 2015 has not halted the infighting, with Brexit leading breakaway MPs to form an independent group, Change UK. David Kogan, former Global Managing Director...
2019 Programme Launched: We Need New Stories 
