2017 Edinburgh International Book Festival (edbookfest)
29 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 5 years ago - ★★★ - 1 ratingThe Book Festival welcomed hundreds of authors from countries across the world to take part in over 900 events. Literary heavyweights joined popular bestsellers and talented newcomers in the Book Festival’s home, a specially-created tented village in central Edinburgh. They shared their stories with audiences, discussed the hot topics of the day and offered inspiring new perspectives on a vast range of subjects including globalisation, sport, feminism, music, Brexit, art, race, America, the environment and much, much more. You can listen to some of the talks in this free series of podcasts, recorded live, and offering a small taste of what the Edinburgh International Book Festival had to offer in August 2017.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Jess Phillips (2017 Event)
February 16, 2019 16:31 - 1 hour - 44.4 MBTelling the Truth Journalist Julie Burchill calls her 'a breath of fresh air, with a dirty laugh'. In Everywoman, Labour politician Jess Phillips shouts long and loudly about the things she cares most about: poverty, equality, the rights of refugees and serving her Birmingham Yardley constituents. If you didn't know before why she's created such a storm in Parliament, you will now. Part of our This Woman Can series of events.
Sebastian Barry (2017 Event)
February 16, 2019 16:31 - 55 minutes - 38.1 MBLove Amid the Carnage of War Anyone who has heard Sebastian Barry read from his work knows he’s one of the best in the business. Anyone who has read Days Without End, his impossibly tender novel set in mid-19th century America, knows that it's another great work from the Costa Book of the Year-winning author and is surely in with a chance of bagging him another clutch of awards. Prepare, in other words, for an unmissable treat. Chaired by Jane Fowler.
Outriders: Harry Giles & Katherena Vermette (2017 Event)
February 16, 2019 16:31 - 51 minutes - 35.1 MBCanada: Montreal to Hudson Bay As part of our project to explore the Americas, poet Harry Giles travelled across Canada with Métis writer Katherena Vermette. Starting in Montreal amid the buzzy Quebecois writing scene, the two writers travelled to Winnipeg, where Lord Selkirk’s Red River colony was set up to house farmers displaced by Scotland’s Clearances. From there, the writers flew north to the small town of Churchill – known as the polar bear capital of the world. Today they share some ...
Harriet Harman (2017 Event)
February 16, 2019 16:30 - 57 minutes - 39.7 MBGENDER POLITICS When Harriet Harman was elected in 1982, she notes in her memoir A Woman’s Work, the House of Commons was 97% male. Since then, she has led the way on all-women shortlists, introduced laws on equality and domestic violence and has twice become Labour’s Acting Leader. Come and meet a feminist politician who has made a real difference. Chaired by Ruth Wishart. Part of our This Woman Can series of events.
Jemima Foxtrot, Iona Lee, Sabrina Mahfouz & Sophia Walker (2017 Event)
February 16, 2019 16:29 - 54 minutes - 37.7 MBPHENOMENAL WOMEN SPEAK OUT While comedy still struggles with gender equality, the spoken word scene is well used to its biggest, most exciting exports being female. Following in the footsteps of Kate Tempest and Hollie McNish, we bring you some of the most exciting new talents in spoken word. Jemima Foxtrot, Iona Lee, Sabrina Mahfouz and Sophia Walker perform their work relating to (and not relating to) themes of womanhood. Chaired by Becky Fincham. Part of our Babble On - Spoken Word serie...
Limmy (2017 Event)
November 27, 2017 12:53 - 56 minutes - 39 MBBRIEF ENCOUNTERS OF THE COMEDIC KIND The short, sharp and funny shock has been Brian Limond aka Limmy’s forte ever since breaking through with his World of Glasgow web series in 2006. After a Scottish BAFTA-winning TV show, Limmy has turned his attention to books of tiny tales (some hilarious, some sinister) and That’s Your Lot is his latest weird and wonderful collection, which he'll tell you all about in his own inimitable style.
Harry Baker (2017 Event)
November 27, 2017 12:53 - 56 minutes - 39 MBPERFORMING POETRY WITH CHARM Meet the man who is a World Poetry Slam Champion turned full-time poet via a maths degree. Following on from his debut collection, The Sunshine Kid, Harry Baker brings a selection of old favourites and brand new poems to the Book Festival this year. Performing with a mix of hope and humour, he has already won the hearts and minds of audiences all over the world. Part of our Babble On - Spoken Word series of events.
Robert Webb (2017 Event)
November 13, 2017 05:22 - 56 minutes - 39 MBUNDERSTANDING THE MALE OF THE SPECIES What is it to be male? Peep Show actor Robert Webb reckons it involves a heap of unnecessary pressure applied from a very early age. With his call-to-arms memoir How Not To Be A Boy, Webb considers his own inculcation into the cult of man and how bending those stringent rules is not easy in a world which expects males to have a certain, well, maleness about them.
Conor Gearty & Douglas Murray (2017 Event)
November 10, 2017 08:06 - 57 minutes - 39.2 MBEUROPE: ACTS AND COUNTERACTS In The Strange Death of Europe, Douglas Murray travels from places where migrants land to places where they end up, talking to people who welcome them and others who don't, and finds a continent in a serious muddle. In On Fantasy Island, Conor Gearty, Director of the LSE's Institute of Public Affairs, explores another area of confusion, Europe and the Human Rights Act, and suggests a way forward. Chaired by Rosemary Burnett. Part of our Age of Political Earthqua...
Laird Hunt & Colson Whitehead (2017 Event)
November 08, 2017 08:28 - 1 hour - 41.8 MBA TOUR OF AMERICA RACE IN AMERICA Two of the finest writers working in America today take a tour around the dark history of their country. Paul Auster called Laird Hunt's last novel Neverhome 'magnificent'; The Evening Road is his latest, which he discusses today, and it's a novel 'as audacious as it is lyrical'. Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad has already won him the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Award and the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in fiction - join him t...
Christine Otten & The Last Poets (2017 Evet)
November 06, 2017 16:20 - 1 hour - 46 MBMEET THE POETS WHO CHANGED AMERICA The Last Poets were formed in the US in the late 1960s, a period full of hope and a time when the Black Panthers were at the height of their power. Their performance poetry has influenced generations of musicians, securing them the title of ‘the founding fathers of hip-hop’. Coming from New York to Scotland for the first time, The Last Poets - Umar Bin Hassan, Abiodun Oyewole and Baba Donn Babatunde - discuss their incredible lives with their friend and aut...
Juliana Buhring (2017 Event)
October 30, 2017 08:11 - 53 minutes - 48.7 MBTHE CYCLE OF LIFE FOR A RECORD-BREAKER Feats of human endurance never cease to amaze and enthral. In 2012, against all odds, Juliana Buhring became the first woman to circumnavigate the world on a bike, after very little training and with barely any financial backing. Now a Guinness World Record holder, Buhring tells us about her upbringing, which is both fascinating and shocking. Saddle up for a classic Book Festival ride. Part of our This Woman Can series of events.
Raja Shehadeh (2017 Event)
October 27, 2017 08:24 - 59 minutes - 40.6 MBCROSSING BOUNDARIES Brave, intelligent and deeply personal, Where the Line is Drawn shows how the Israeli occupation affects every aspect of Palestinian daily life. Raja Shehadeh, Palestine's premier writer and essayist, winner of the 2008 Orwell Prize and founder of the human rights organisation Al-Haq, asks whether bitter enemies can put aside their differences and find a common cause in the name of peace. Chaired by William Sutcliffe.
Richard Ford (2017 Event)
October 25, 2017 06:59 - 55 minutes - 37.8 MBFILIAL BOND Richard Ford is one of America’s greatest living writers, capturing the changing face of the USA since the late 70s. Today, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sportswriter talks about his most personal book yet. Between Them is a clear-eyed yet intimate appraisal of Ford's parents and mid-20th century America. A story of devotion and loss that is sure to enchant his many fans. Chaired by James Runcie.
Juno Dawson & C N Lester (2017 Event)
October 23, 2017 08:16 - 54 minutes - 37.5 MBTRANSITIONS What makes a woman a woman? Is it her biology? Is it a rite of passage? Is it society? As she transitions from male to female, Juno Dawson's The Gender Games explores feminism and femininity in culture, science and society. Co-founder of the first national group for young LGBTI people in the UK, academic and activist C N Lester's Trans Like Me analyses the most pressing questions of the transgender debate.
Outriders: Ximena Escalante & Stef Smith (2017 Event)
October 18, 2017 08:17 - 48 minutes - 33 MBMEXICO: FROM THE US BORDER TO GUATEMALA As part of our project to explore the Americas, leading Mexican playwright Ximena Escalante travelled across Mexico with Scottish theatre writer Stef Smith. Starting in the US city of San Diego, they journeyed south across the Mexican border, making their way to Mexico City, Oaxaca and Merida before arriving at the country’s southern border with Guatemala. Today they share some of their unforgettable experiences, and some of the writing inspired by the...
John Burnside (2017 Event)
October 16, 2017 06:26 - 56 minutes - 38.6 MBUNLIKELY FRIENDSHIPS One of the most acclaimed writers of his generation, poet, memoirist and novelist John Burnside today treats us to two new works. The hugely praised Ashland & Vine is the beautifully woven tale of an unlikely friendship between a grieving, semi-alcoholic widow and the elderly woman of whom she hopes to record the family history; Still Life with Feeding Snake is a poetry collection which hovers with great assurance on the brink of epiphany. Chaired by Stuart Kelly.
Jim Al-Khalili (2017 Event)
October 16, 2017 06:24 - 58 minutes - 39.9 MBIS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? For decades we’ve been told there's something out there. Jim Al-Khalili, host of Radio 4’s The Life Scientific and an inaugural winner of the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, has been gathering the latest word from within the science community about those little green folks (if that’s what they'll look like) and their potential existence. An enthusiastic speaker, Al-Khalili brings us his new book, Aliens.
Outriders: Mariana Enriquez & Kevin MacNeil (2017 event)
October 11, 2017 15:07 - 59 minutes - 40.8 MBARGENTINA: IN SEARCH OF UFOS As part of our project to explore the Americas, Scottish novelist Kevin MacNeil travelled around Argentina with journalist, novelist and short story writer Mariana Enriquez. Starting in Buenos Aires, the writers set off in search of lost voices, both literary and of other citizens within the capital city. MacNeil travelled across the Pampas to the city of Cordoba, while Enriquez embarked on her own journey into the imagination of a Scottish writer, both in search...
Outriders: Jennifer Haigh & Malachy Tallack (2017 Event)
October 04, 2017 06:48 - 57 minutes - 39.5 MBUSA: FROM NORTH DAKOTA TO NEW ORLEANS As part of our project to explore the Americas, Boston novelist Jennifer Haigh travelled with Scottish writer Malachy Tallack on a journey that took in the Midwestern heartlands of Donald Trump’s USA. Starting in Fargo, they visited the site of the Dakota Pipeline protests before travelling south through Tennessee and Mississippi and arriving in Louisiana. Along the way, they met the reclusive writer Wendell Berry and members of the Black Lives Matter mo...
Siri Hustvedt (2017 Event)
October 04, 2017 06:44 - 57 minutes - 39.2 MBA LIFE OF ART AND SCIENCE More than 50 years after the bust-up over C P Snow's famous Rede Lecture on the chasm between art and science, we welcome Siri Hustvedt, acclaimed American novelist and commentator on feminism, art criticism and philosophy, who analyses how the two sides could understand each other better. A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women is her compelling and radical exploration of what's hard and what's soft in art, sex and the mind. Chaired by Jackie McGlone. Part of our ...
Andy Hamilton (2017 Event)
September 30, 2017 10:20 - 1 hour - 42 MBOUT OF THE SCRIPTWRITING SHADOWS Comic Andy Hamilton has most likely had you bent double with laughter. As well as appearances on panel shows like Have I Got News For You, he co-created Outnumbered and Drop the Dead Donkey, and has written for everything from Not the Nine O’Clock News to The Two Ronnies. Now he’s in town to discuss his debut novel, The Star Witness, about a soap star whose life is set to unravel horribly.
Stephen Baxter (2017 Event)
September 29, 2017 07:07 - 56 minutes - 38.1 MBTHE MARTIANS ARE COMING! In the 1990s, Stephen Baxter won almost every award going for The Time Ships – the sequel to H G Wells’s The Time Machine. He now brings us his new book, The Massacre of Mankind, also approved by Wells’s estate, which updates The War of the Worlds, the most popular science fiction book on the planet. The martians, it seems, may not be so vulnerable to our germs after all. Baxter discusses his work with Ken MacLeod. Part of our Guest Selector: Ken MacLeod series of e...
Outriders: Bonnie Jo Campbell & Jenni Fagan (2017 Event)
September 27, 2017 09:28 - 59 minutes - 41 MBUSA: FROM THE RUST BELT TO SILICON VALLEY As part of our project to explore the Americas, short story writer Bonnie Jo Campbell travelled across her home country with Scottish novelist and poet Jenni Fagan. The two writers started in derelict Detroit, then visited a tented city in Chicago and the Tesla car factory in California’s Silicon Valley, meeting a vast array of extraordinary people along the way. Today they share some of their unforgettable experiences, and some of the writing inspir...
Meena Kandasamy & Helen McClory (2017 Evebet)
September 25, 2017 07:15 - 54 minutes - 37.2 MBWELLS OF LONELINESS Indian poet, novelist, activist and author of The Gypsy Goddess Meena Kandasamy has won many plaudits for her writing. She's here today with When I Hit You, a provocative examination of an abusive marriage. Joining her is Saltire First Book Award-winner Helen McClory, whose Flesh of the Peach describes an artist’s American road trip after her mother’s death. Explore the wilder shores of love and loss with these two rising stars of fiction. Chaired by Lee Randall.
Andrew O'Hagan (2017 Event)
September 22, 2017 06:57 - 53 minutes - 36.8 MBSCOTLAND, YOUR SCOTLAND In this keynote lecture, the country’s foremost essayist and one of our most astute commentators, Andrew O’Hagan, speaks for the first time on the future of Scotland and seeks to define this moment of change. Brexit has fundamentally changed the picture. The question, O’Hagan argues, is now beyond nationalism: it is about Scotland’s potential as a progressive, exemplary, enlightened, international country of the future. Part of our Age of Political Earthquakes series...
Daniel Gray (2017 Event)
September 18, 2017 08:28 - 58 minutes - 53.8 MBREASONS TO LOVE READING Inspired by J B Priestley’s 1949 book Delight, Daniel Gray celebrates 50 reasons to love books in Scribbles in the Margins. His previous book, Saturday, 3pm, did something similar for football. Join the Edinburgh-based author and STV's People's Historian for a joy-filled celebration of our favourite pastime.
Charley Boorman (2017 Event)
September 16, 2017 17:23 - 53 minutes - 36.5 MBTHE SLOW ROAD TO RECOVERY Motorcycle adventurer Charley Boorman experienced every rider’s worst fear when he was involved in a major road accident in 2016. Doubts were raised whether he would ever walk again, never mind get back on his bike, but in this event he recalls a long journey of recovery and how he contemplated many aspects of his life during his difficult rehabilitation. Chaired by Janet Ellis.
Ian Rankin (2017 Event)
September 13, 2017 18:33 - 58 minutes - 39.9 MBTHE RETURN OF REBUS It's been 30 years since the publication of the first Rebus novel and what better way to celebrate that fact than with one of Scotland's most successful writers, who comes with his latest tale featuring the troubled Edinburgh cop. Rather Be the Devil drags Rebus back to an unsolved murder four decades prior, while power plays stoke some bitter rivalries and unveil deep-rooted corruption.