Thursday 14 August 18:30 - 19:30
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- Captioned
Heather Parry and Nell Stevens bring darkly humorous, gothic narratives to the fore in their new books, Carrion Crow and The Original…
Thursday 14 August 18:45 - 19:45
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- Watch online
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Harvey returns to the Festival to reflect on her year since winning one of literature’s highest honours and what it means to write life in space with the sensibility of a nature writer…
Thursday 14 August 19:15 - 20:15
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Join us for a dazzling celebration of Unco, a new LGBT+ Scots lexicon. Harry Josephine Giles and Malin Lewis present a unique spoken word and music performance, blending old and new language and sounds to explore queer identities and histories…
Thursday 14 August 19:30 - 20:30
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Today, Partha Dasgupta discusses his groundbreaking book On Natural Capital, advocating for why nature should be given the same economic value as the resources we extract from it…
Thursday 14 August 20:00 - 21:30
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In this exclusive Book Festival event, Torrey Peters – PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author of Detransition, Baby and the kaleidoscopic Stag Dance – co-curates performances from some of the most exciting trans writers and artists around…
Thursday 14 August 20:15 - 21:15
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Described by The Scotsman as ‘a master of the page-turning, heart-gripping, plot-driven tale’, Doug Johnstone is also remarkably prolific…
Thursday 14 August 20:30 - 21:30
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Chris Brookmyre’s offbeat brand of Scottish crime has been selling by the millions since his debut in 1996. He joins us now with his 30th novel, The Cracked Mirror, a deeply unusual detective caper that splices the tweedy with the hardboiled…
Friday 15 August 10:00 - 11:00
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Join Mairi Kidd and Lesley McDowell for a romp through 19th century Scotland as they discuss the craft of compelling character studies and inventing voices for women lost to time…
Friday 15 August 10:15 - 11:15
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Reeta Chakrabarti will be familiar to anyone who has watched BBC news, but now she has made the leap from journalist and chief newsreader to novelist…
Friday 15 August 10:30 - 11:30
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Start your day with the facts. High quality, thorough, and trustworthy journalism has never been more important in helping us understand the world as it really is, so in our First Edition events you can join leading journalists from across the media (and…
Friday 15 August 11:45 - 12:45
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Calling all language lovers and word nerds for this conversation on the art of translation and life as a literary translator…
Friday 15 August 11:45 - 12:45
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The mighty Alexander McCall Smith brings us all of his latest works including Bertie’s Theory of Ice Cream (the latest in his beloved 44 Scotland Street series) and In the Time of Five Pumpkins (in the perennially adored No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency…
Friday 15 August 12:00 - 13:00
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This is an event for people who want to fight back against the unhappy narratives around them, with an author whose life and work emphasises taking action in difficult circumstances…
Friday 15 August 12:00 - 13:00
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Join writers Shani Akilah and Jeda Pearl as they celebrate the enduring legacy of Andrea Levy…
Friday 15 August 12:15 - 13:15
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Join 2025 judge Sana Goyal and the International Booker Prize’s administrator Fiammetta Rocco as they speak to the winners of this year’s prize about their work and the art of translation…
Friday 15 August 13:30 - 14:30
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Bursting onto the literary scene with her skilful debut, After You’d Gone, Maggie O’Farrell has remained an inimitable creative force ever since. Today’s event celebrates her 25th anniversary as a beloved writer with a lively reflection on her writing…
Friday 15 August 13:30 - 14:30
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Three writers grappling with the toxic rhetoric humans apply to one another explore how the boundaries of humanity are set to exclude certain communities…
Suitable for age 6 - 9
Friday 15 August 13:30 - 14:30
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Storytelling superstars Sarah McIntyre and Philip Reeve return to the Festival to introduce you to a tiny mouse named Pedro…
Friday 15 August 14:15 - 15:15
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- BSL interpreted
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Join the bestselling writing duo Chris Brookmyre and Dr Marisa Haetzman (aka Ambrose Parry) as they unpack our city’s dark past with Peggy Hughes…
Friday 15 August 14:45 - 15:45
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Join this insightful conversation with specialists in the field including Ben Alderson-Day and journalist Jenny Kleeman…
Full 2025 Book Festival programme is announced with key theme of Repair 
