Adam Farrer & Jon Ransom: Washed Up on the East Coast

Meet two authors who explore class and community – on both mental and geographical levels. Adam Farrer won the 2021 Northbound Book Award with Cold Fish Soup, a darkly hilarious non-fiction debut, forming a memoir out of essays about life in a downtrodden Yorkshire coastal town. Jon Ransom’s The Whale Tattoo is a haunting debut novel set in a Norfolk seaside town brimming with bottled up resentment. When a giant sperm whale washes up on the local beach and speaks to Joe Gunner, he decides to return to his fraught childhood home. These books and their authors speak to the strange powers to waters to shape lives and memory.

Book Festival News

Book Festival reveals first author events for 2024 Book Festival reveals first author events for 2024
Sunday 14 April

Enjoying this event? You can help us produce more like it.

Donate

Share

Watch more

UNBOUND: Cargo Special Delivery UNBOUND: Cargo Special Delivery Joining (parcel) forces were Radio 4 favourite Anneliese Macintosh and novelists Allan Wilson and Tracey S Rosenberg… Charlie Higson: Glamour, Gangs and Greek Islands Charlie Higson: Glamour, Gangs and Greek Islands On sun-soaked Corfu, fixer McIntyre thinks he’s got an easy job ahead of him – but he quickly finds that things are a lot shadier than they seem. Described as a ‘perfect read’ by the Guardian, Charlie Higson’s new novel, Whatever Gets You Throug… David Grossman with Elif Shafak: Duty or Love? David Grossman with Elif Shafak: Duty or Love? According to writer Juan Gabriel Vásquez, 'Nobody can see the political in the personal like David Grossman. He is an interpreter of hearts and an investigator of social forces. Every book he writes is a revelation.' Inspired by the true story told to hi… Tom Devine speaks to Allan Little at the Edinburgh International Book Festival Tom Devine speaks to Allan Little at the Edinburgh International Book Festival The Clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries helped shape the nation we know today, but historians have struggled to define what happened. Scotland’s leading historian, Sir Tom Devine, brings us The Scottish Clearances, his authoritative, readable and … Sebastian Barry: Tales from an Uncivil War Sebastian Barry: Tales from an Uncivil War In his beautiful and unforgettable novel Days Without End, Sebastian Barry continued his epic examination of the Irish experience, this time in Midwest America with the story of a recently-emigrated Thomas McNulty and his lover John Cole. Now, with the pu… UNBOUND: Literary Death Match UNBOUND: Literary Death Match Four writers used words as weapons in a fight to the literary death. Host Todd Zuniga returned to Edinburgh from New York for the 160th anniversary… Danny Wallace (2012) Danny Wallace (2012) Well where do we start? From reviewing videogames for Sega Power, judging Edinburgh’s Perrier Comedy Awards… Jack Monroe: On Self-Care and Social Change Jack Monroe: On Self-Care and Social Change To call Jack Monroe a cookbook writer would be to undersell her by several degrees of magnitude. From being a struggling single mother on a microbudget, she has built a career helping those who society has left behind. Fresh from pressuring supermarkets t… DeRay Mckesson at the Edinburgh International Book Festival DeRay Mckesson at the Edinburgh International Book Festival In 2014 DeRay Mckesson quit his job and moved to Ferguson, Missouri to protest against the police shooting of Michael Brown Jr, an unarmed African-American teenager. He spent the next 400 days on the streets as an activist and helped bring the Black Lives… Kei Miller: Silence is Violence Kei Miller: Silence is Violence A few years ago, when asked what he sees when he looks at a map, Kei Miller answered ‘I see the things that aren’t there... maps are always interesting to me for what’s left out…’. These gaps and omissions were a key part of the celebrated poet …