David George Haskell: The Call of the Wild

Open your ears to choruses of frogs and birds, the thwops and whistles of whales and the chirrups of crickets as David George Haskell introduces his non-fiction rallying cry, Sounds Wild and Broken. The music made by the world’s creatures contains extraordinary information about evolution, animal behaviour and the history of the earth. But human noise has begun to drown it out. The New York Times dubs Haskell a ‘great poet-scientist… a laureate for the earth’.

Book Festival News

Full 2025 Book Festival programme is announced with key theme of Repair Full 2025 Book Festival programme is announced with key theme of Repair
Tuesday 10 June

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

Donate

Share

Watch more

Lorrie Moore: Danse Macabre Lorrie Moore: Danse Macabre Featuring an undead lover, a dying brother, and a ghost: Lorrie Moore’s I Am Homeless If This is Not My Home is a novel that bristles with life while waltzing with death. Celebrated widely for her dazzling short stories, no one writes quite like Moore;… Susie Alegre & Shami Chakrabarti: What Makes Us Human Susie Alegre & Shami Chakrabarti: What Makes Us Human In a vital conversation two authors examine threats to human rights in the 21st century from different angles. Baroness Shami Chakrabarti’s Human Rights reasserts the case for dignity and universal freedoms in the face of increasing authoritarianism… 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… Liz Lochhead (2015 Event) Liz Lochhead (2015 Event) A hugely accomplished playwright, as well as Scotland’s current Makar (National Poet), watch as Liz Lochhead discusses her new play, Thon Man Molière, her fascination with the great French comic dramatist and his oeuvre, Greek tragedy… Simon Callow (2017 Event) Simon Callow (2017 Event) As an actor, he’s played Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill and Gareth in Four Weddings and a Funeral. As an author, he’s written compellingly about Oscar Wilde, Peggy Ramsay and about Being an Actor. But that’s not the half of what Simon Callow has… Merve Emre & Daniel Mulhall: Mrs Dalloway Meets Buck Mulligan Merve Emre & Daniel Mulhall: Mrs Dalloway Meets Buck Mulligan Virginia Woolf ’s Mrs Dalloway and James Joyce’s Ulysses: two novels that defined modernist literature. Today, Merve Emre, a critic and Oxford University Professor, presents The Annotated Mrs Dalloway, painting a rapturous portrait of Woolf ’s originality… Yiyun Li: One-way Correspondence Yiyun Li: One-way Correspondence Yiyun Li is a writer who is as playful and dexterous as she is shrewdly literary, applying her sheer talent with intimacy and empathy, and playing with notions of truth and fiction. Her 2017 memoir, Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life… UNBOUND: The Golden Hour UNBOUND: The Golden Hour A hellacious hybrid of rakish words and eclectic music: Ryan Van Winkle, Joe Dunthorne, Kelly Link and roofing poet William Leftford… Stripped Comic Fair Film 2013 Stripped Comic Fair Film 2013 Stripped mini comic fair: Scotland's finest comics creators come to Charlotte Square Gardens… Georgi Gospodinov: Time is Out to Get Us Georgi Gospodinov: Time is Out to Get Us Thomas Mann argued there’s nothing ‘actual’ about time: humans don’t possess an organ that can sense it. Award-winning Bulgarian novelist Georgi Gospodinov plays with this idea in Time Shelter, beautifully translated into English by Angela Rodel. In the…