2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival
22 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 10 years ago -Celebrating its 30th birthday in 2013, the Edinburgh International Book Festival brought 800 authors from around the world to Scotland’s capital city to take part in events on themes as diverse as Feminism Today, Memory and the Imagination, Making Music, Comics and Graphic Novels and Blueprints for the Future. Booker and Pulitzer prize-winners rubbed shoulders with bestsellers, debut novelists, scientists, philosopher, children’s authors and illustrators and inspirational storytellers. You can hear some of the events here in our series of free podcasts – recorded live at the Book Festival.
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Episodes
Eleanor Catton and Hannah Kent at Edinburgh International Book Festival
November 15, 2013 07:24 - 59 minutes - 25.1 MBLong description
Damian Barr at Edinburgh International Book Festival
November 08, 2013 16:01 - 53 minutes - 22.8 MBIn his effervescent memoir Maggie and Me, journalist, writer and gifted storyteller Damian Barr explains how his family, living in the shadow of Ravenscraig, learned to thrive in Scotland during Margaret Thatcher’s 1980s. In this event, recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, Barr talks honestly to Richard Holloway about his exuberant and moving life story, touching on a turbulent family life, coming out in small–town Lanarkshire, religion and the influence of Margare...
Rupert Everett at Edinburgh International Book Festival
October 08, 2013 11:12 - 56 minutes - 24.3 MBIt’s taken the entertainment world six years to recover from Rupert Everett’s first memoir Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins and now he’s back on raucously top form with Vanished Years. With it, the star of Another Country and My Best Friend’s Wedding paints vivid portraits of a career on stage and screen. Talking to the Guardian’s chief arts writer Charlotte Higgins in a sold-out event recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, Rupert Everett applies his inimitable wit...
Joe Sacco and Chris Ware at Edinburgh International Book Festival
October 05, 2013 15:34 - 55 minutes - 22.5 MBFor the first time two of the world’s best graphic novelists, Joe Sacco and Chris Ware, appeared together on stage to discuss life as a cartoonists. Sacco uses his art to capture the realities of global political upheaval; Ware creates understated fictions on suburbia. Both are united by the unique artform of graphic novels. In this event, chaired by Teddy Jamieson, they talk about the brilliance in bringing together word and image on the page. Recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh Internationa...
Tracy Chevalier at Edinburgh International Book Festival
October 02, 2013 06:29 - 53 minutes - 27.6 MBHer novel based on a famous Vermeer portrait sold a staggering 4 million copies worldwide and put Tracy Chevalier straight into the international literary premier league. Now she’s produced The Last Runaway, which has been described by Rose Tremain as ‘the best thing Chevalier’s written since Girl With A Pearl Earring’. Recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, this event sees Chevalier in conversation with Scottish journalist Jackie McGlone, describing a journey to the...
Tracey Thorn at Edinburgh International Book Festival
October 02, 2013 06:19 - 58 minutes - 25.4 MBSitting at home in 2005, Tracey Thorn realised she was no longer happy to be part of the show business feeding frenzy and decided to tell her story. And so one of the finest pop memoirs in recent times, Bedsit Disco Queen, was formulated. In it she tells of her time as one-half of Everything But The Girl and how writing the book gave her a taste for songwriting once again. She chats to Bob McDevitt in this event recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Robert Lewis at Edinburgh International Book Festival
September 30, 2013 05:16 - 56 minutes - 23.3 MBA decade ago, the death of Dr David Kelly shook the country and for a moment threatened to topple a Blair administration already reeling from dissent against the war in Iraq. The government scientist had died in woods near his Oxfordshire home amid a scandal over the leaking of reports that the case for war was flawed. In this event recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, Robert Lewis, author of Dark Actors, recounts the events surrounding an appalling human tragedy i...
Kay Ryan at Edinburgh International Book Festival
September 28, 2013 19:33 - 54 minutes - 21.9 MBKay Ryan is widely regarded as one of America’s great living poets. Her book The Best of It: New and Selected Poems won her the Pulitzer Prize in 2011, and she was the US Poet Laureate from 2008-2010. However, despite the plaudits, Ryan is no creature of the establishment: she once said ‘it’s poetry’s uselessness that excites me.’ Both Ryan’s poetry and personality are on show in this event, recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival. With Robyn Marsack, Director of the S...
Tim Burgess & Ian Rankin at Edinburgh International Book Festival
September 25, 2013 12:58 - 52 minutes - 22.6 MBTim Burgess’ rock and roll battles and the death of keyboard player Rob Collins are among the events in The Charlatans’ front man’s upbeat memoir, Telling Stories. Full of tales about his rollercoaster ride at the helm of this much-loved indie outfit, Burgess tells rock junkie and crime writing superstar Ian Rankin about musical influences, his best albums, and the importance of a good haircut. This event was recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Kristen Iversen at Edinburgh International Book Festival
September 23, 2013 10:01 - 57 minutes - 24 MBRiveting and horrifying in equal measure, Kristen Iversen’s memoir of growing up next to the Rocky Flats nuclear facility near Denver, Colorado describes the secrecy surrounding a plant which made plutonium warhead triggers for the US nuclear arsenal. Full Body Burden is a fascinating story of successive radiation leaks and cover-ups set against a coming-of-age memoir and in this event, recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, Iversen tells her story to Stuart Kelly.
Jane Gardam at Edinburgh International Book Festival
September 20, 2013 09:15 - 56 minutes - 23.3 MBShortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and twice the winner of a Whitbread Award, Jane Gardam also received a Heywood Hill Literary Prize for her distinguished literary career. But she’s not stopping yet: with Last Friends Gardam has completed her bestselling trilogy about a Hong Kong QC nicknamed Old Filth (acronym for ‘failed in London, try Hong Kong’). She joined audiences in Edinburgh to share the secrets of a lifetime of literary achievement with Literary Editor of the Guardian, Claire Arm...
Salman Rushdie at Edinburgh International Book Festival
September 20, 2013 09:11 - 58 minutes - 24 MBIn 1983, Salman Rushdie was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his novel Shame and named among Granta’s inaugural Best of Young British Novelists. Only a few years later, he was forced into hiding by an Iranian fatwa after the publication of The Satanic Verses. Rushdie survived, became a passionate champion of free speech and emerged as the single most influential British writer of our times. In this event, recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, Rushdie reflects on...
Hadley Freeman at Edinburgh International Book Festival
September 12, 2013 10:25 - 52 minutes - 22 MBGuardian journalist Hadley Freeman is known for her hugely entertaining daily columns. Now she has produced Be Awesome, a book of heart-warming but razor sharp essays about life for modern women. From ‘How to read women’s magazines without wanting to grow a penis’, to ‘Beyond the armpit: a guide to being a modern day feminist’, this is Freeman in ferociously funny, fighting form. In this event, recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, she chats to Lee Randall.
Ma Jian at Edinburgh International Book Festival
September 06, 2013 19:23 - 56 minutes - 23.5 MBMa Jian’s criticisms of China’s government led to it placing a blanket ban on all his future books in 1987. He participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, and now lives in Europe. Ma’s new novel The Dark Road, researched through extensive travel in remote parts of China in 2008-9, is a magic realist tale exploring the terrible effects of the One Child Policy on Chinese women. In this event, recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, he talks to Rosemary Goring ab...
Nate Silver at Edinburgh International Book Festival
September 04, 2013 08:16 - 54 minutes - 24 MBStatistician, political forecaster and creator of the New York Times blog FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver shot to world fame when he predicted the outcome of all 50 states in the 2012 US Elections. In his award-winning book, The Signal and the Noise, Silver highlights how mathematical probability and statistics can build models to predict the outcome of baseball matches, poker games, climate change and financial crashes. He appeared at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, in conversat...
Jenn Ashworth and Peggy Riley at Edinburgh International Book Festival
September 02, 2013 06:42 - 56 minutes - 23.9 MBBrought up as a Mormon, Jenn Ashworth has since become a powerful voice in British fiction. She returned to Edinburgh with her third novel, The Friday Gospels, the story of a Mormon family that is by turns tragic and hilarious. Debut novelist Peggy Riley has written Amity and Sorrow, an astonishing, moving book about a woman and her children who flee from a religious cult. In this event, chaired by Serena Field and recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, the two novel...
Jonathan Agnew at Edinburgh International Book Festival
August 30, 2013 05:57 - 56 minutes - 24.5 MBThere are many, including Jonathan ‘Aggers’ Agnew, who would agree that cricket is more than just a game. Controversy has dogged the sport throughout its history, from the bodyline scandal of the early 1930s through to the Hansie Cronje match-fixing drama. Armed with his glorious new anthology of the finest cricket writing, the Test Match Special presenter spoke to audiences at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, reflecting on the game he loves. In conversation with Ruth Wishart.
Nadeem Aslam at Edinburgh International Book Festival
August 30, 2013 05:54 - 54 minutes - 24 MBDescribed by Colm Tóibín as ‘one of the most exciting and serious writers working in Britain now’, Nadeem Aslam’s new book will undoubtedly build his reputation still further. The author, twice longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, now gives us The Blind Man’s Garden, an unforgettable story set in Afghanistan and Pakistan after the 9/11 bombings. It’s an evocative novel that sheds new light on a key moment in recent history and in this event, recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International B...
Amy Sackville and Evie Wyld at Edinburgh International Book Festival
August 26, 2013 06:31 - 56 minutes - 23.6 MBHer debut The Still Point was inspired by the Arctic, and Amy Sackville heads north again with her second novel, Orkney, which confirms that this startlingly original writer is heading for the literary big league. The same is true for Evie Wyld, who has been named one of 2013’s Granta Best of Young British Novelists – her new book, All the Birds Singing, is about an outsider living on a British island. In this event, recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, the two nov...
Susan Greenfield with Kirsty Wark at Edinburgh International Book Festival
August 26, 2013 06:24 - 59 minutes - 25.8 MBShe’s the Professor of Pharmacology at Oxford University and has been awarded no fewer than 30 honorary degrees for her work. Baroness Susan Greenfield has risen to great heights in the field of neuroscientific research – a world largely dominated by men. What has she had to overcome along the way and has she had to make compromises? Susan Greenfield shares her story with broadcaster Kirsty Wark in this event, recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Joe Sacco at Edinburgh International Book Festival
August 26, 2013 06:24 - 54 minutes - 22.2 MBPrevious books such as Footnotes In Gaza established Joe Sacco’s international reputation as the world’s leading comics journalist. His latest graphic novel Journalism is a compelling set of cartoon-essays, in which he demonstrates the power of comic journalism to grasp at the truth. In conversation with event chair Adrian Searle, Sacco reveals what drives his work and why objective journalism is not always honest Journalism. Recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Chris Ware at Edinburgh International Book Festival
August 26, 2013 06:23 - 56 minutes - 21.9 MBIn Chris Ware’s first appearance at the Book Festival he discussed his critically acclaimed graphic novel Building Stories and why comics are a language, not a genre with event chair and comics fan Stuart Kelly. Building Stories is a box set of differently-sized comics, booklets, broadsheets, posters and a cloth bound book has been described as ‘a graphic novel on the scale of James Joyce’s Ulysses’. This event was introduced by Roland Gulliver and recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh Internat...