David McKie @ Edinburgh International Book Festival

HOW TO CREATE LOCAL UTOPIAS

With Gregory Claeys

McKie’s Bright Particular Stars examines twenty six glorious British eccentrics who had a major impact on unlikely locations from the Cotswolds to Kilwinning.

Event details:

 Tuesday 23^rd August 

4.00pm-5.00pm

Peppers Theatre

To buy tickets click here

‘[Bright Particular Stars] is a fascinating gallery of people who deserve to be better remembered.’ Sunday Times

‘A splendid book’ Clive Aslet, Country Life

Gideon Rachman @ Edinburgh International Book Festival

POLITICS, POWER AND PROSPERITY AFTER THE GOOD TIMES

In Zero-Sum World, the chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times assesses how the major Western powers are being sorely tested by China muscling in on their patch. How the US and EU react to this new economic challenge, as well as what they do to tackle climate change, war, nuclear proliferation and division between countries where previously there had been a harmonious co-operation, will help mould all our futures.

Event details:

Friday 26^th August 

5.00pm-6.00pm

ScottishPower Studio Theatre

To buy tickets click here

Praise for Zero-Sum World:

‘Admirable’ Total Politics

‘Rachman’s article is sharp and snappy’ Guardian

Christopher Hope @ Edinburgh International Book Festival

WHEN COUNTRIES ARE TORN APART BY BELIEF

With Patrick McCabe

Christopher Hope’s novel Shooting Angels goes right to the broken heart of his home country, South Africa, as a man returns to the city after decades in hiding, to find out what happened to the woman he loved on that terrible night so long ago. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1992, Hope makes clear in his latest novel that the ‘new South Africa’ still bears many painful memories.

Event details:

Sunday 28^th August

8.30pm-9.30pm

Peppers Theatre

To buy tickets click here

A.D Miller @ Edinburgh International Book Festival

WHAT IS GOING ON IN RUSSIA?

With Andy Kurkov

A D Miller was the Economist’s Moscow correspondent for three years and Snowdrops is a riveting psychological drama that asks whether Moscow is corrupt, or whether a young English visitor is merely asking to be corrupted. Snowdrops has recently been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the CWA Gold Dagger Award, with shortlists for both awards to be announced in the coming weeks.

Event details:  

Friday 26^th August

8.30pm-9.30pm

RBS Corner Theatre

To buy tickets click here

Praise for Snowdrops:

‘Tightly written.... Miller’s complex, gripping debut novel is undoubtedly the real thing.’ John Harding, Daily Mail

‘Sophisticated and many-layered’ The Spectator

David Miller @ Edinburgh International Book Festival

TIGHT AND TAUT TALES OF INTER-WAR EUROPE

With Dan Vyleta

It’s August 1924 and John Conrad arrives at his parents’ home on the outskirts of Canterbury. But as guests converge, John's father (the rather famous Joseph) dies. Miller’s taut and understated debut Today is an investigation of bereavement, family and Englishness.

Event details:  

Wednesday 17^th August

8.30pm-9.30pm

RBS Corner Theatre

To buy tickets click here

Praise for Today:

‘Curious and compelling’ The Times

‘Compelling’ The Guardian

Joanne Limburg @ Edinburgh International Book Festival

A POSITIVE SPIN ON DEBILITATING AFFLICTION

Poet Joanne Limburg worries about global disasters, mainly because she thinks they may somehow be her fault. She also hates crossing the road, has a mortal dread of losing her shoes and began to dread sitting at her desk to write for fear that her chair would catch fire. In The Woman Who Thought Too Much, this OCD-inflicted writer faces up to her demons and transcribes a painful but ultimately hopeful tract about her troubled and anxious soul.
The Woman Who Thought Too Much has recently been shortlisted for the Mind Book of the Year Award (winner still tba).

Event details:
Wednesday 17^th August

5.00pm-6.00pm
ScottishPower Studio Theatre

To buy tickets click here. 

Praise for The Woman Who Thought Too Much:

‘A candid and often funny memoir’ Stylist Magazine

‘Her candid narrative evokes both pity and admiration’ Metro

Francisco Goldman @ Edinburgh International Book Festival

A NOVELIST’S RESPONSE TO A TRAGEDY

In 2005 the acclaimed novelist Francisco Goldman married a young Mexican writer, Aura Estrada. Less than two years later, she was dead, her neck broken while body surfing. Goldman blamed himself for Aura's death, but instead of taking his own life he confronted his grief by writing a novel, Say Her Name. A story of boundless love and unspeakable loss, it is also profoundly restorative: by recounting Aura's life, he has recreated a love affair that will never die.

Event details:  

Monday 15th August 3.30pm-4.30pm

ScottishPower Studio Theatre

To buy tickets click here.

‘[Say Her Name is] a beautiful and often unbearably sad memoir of grief and memory’ The Observer