2019 Edinburgh International Book Festival
30 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 4 years ago -The Edinburgh International Book Festival is one of the largest public celebrations of the written word in the world. Internationally renowned writers and thinkers from around the world gather in Charlotte Square Gardens, the Book Festival’s home, to trade stories, share ideas, discuss the hot topics of the day, inspire audiences and answer questions. The result is a wonderfully diverse programme of creative, joyful, interactive experiences. You can listen to some of the author events and discussions in this free series of podcasts – a small selection of what went on in Edinburgh during August 2019. There are also videos of selected events on Edinburgh International Book Festival’s YouTube channel (edbookfest).
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Jokha Alharthi at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
November 22, 2019 08:18 - 1 hour - 42 MBIn May 2019, Jokha Alharthi became the first Arabic language writer to win the Man Booker International Prize for her searing novel Celestial Bodies. She also became the first female Omani novelist to be translated into English thanks to Marilyn Booth, with whom she shares the prize. Alharthi joins the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2019 to discuss her path to success as well this work of incredible depth, which follows the lives of three sisters in the village of al-Awafi through h...
Mike Berners-Lee at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
November 20, 2019 07:25 - 35 minutes - 24.6 MBWarnings of looming environmental catastrophe rain down on us with increasing frequency, and only the most ardent climate change sceptics deny we live at a crucial point for the Earth's future. Join sustainability expert Mike Berners-Lee in a live conversation with WWF’s Tanya Steele at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019, as he cuts through the noise with practical advice on how we can avoid calamity, drawn from his book There is No Planet B, a ‘Handbook for the Make or Break Years’.
Tessa McWatt & Zeba Talkhani at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
November 18, 2019 09:22 - 1 hour - 41.4 MBIn a pair of moving memoirs, Guyana-born Canadian writer Tessa McWatt and Zeba Talkhani, who was raised in Saudi Arabia, explore themes of race, feminism, heritage and belonging. McWatt’s Shame On Me is a journey through the multiple threads of her identity. In My Past Is a Foreign Country, Talkhani charts her experiences as a British Muslim feminist with nuance and generosity. They come together at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 to share their stories in an event chaired by N...
Mary Robinson at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
November 15, 2019 09:18 - 56 minutes - 38.6 MBWhile the realities of climate change are not always visible, the realisation that our grandchildren will live in troubled times can catalyse action. After becoming a grandmother, former Irish president and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson travelled the world to learn about the fight back. In her book Climate Justice, she describes the people working to overcome the threat. In a live event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 she shares her hopeful account in ...
Giles Yeo at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
November 13, 2019 09:02 - 54 minutes - 37.7 MBWhenever the latest dieting fad comes along, those promoting new theories are well fed on the proceeds, while many people trying to shed pounds are left wondering why nothing seems to work. Meet Giles Yeo, geneticist and presenter on BBC’s Trust Me, I’m a Doctor, who has spent 20 years researching the brain’s relationship to food intake. In his book Gene Eating, he describes his work and why he’s determined to break this cycle. Hear all about it in this live recording from the Edinburgh Inter...
Serhii Plokhy at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
November 11, 2019 08:58 - 1 hour - 41.9 MB‘Heartbreaking stories of heroism’ set against a backdrop of ‘political cynicism and scientific ignorance'. That’s how judges described the winner of 2018's Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction – Serhii Plokhy’s Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy. The Harvard history professor and expert on the 1986 nuclear disaster presents a specially commissioned paper linking Chernobyl to the demise of the Soviet Union. Hear him shed light on the incredible book in a live event at the Edinburgh Internationa...
Charly Cox, Theresa Lola & Tayi Tibble at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
November 08, 2019 08:30 - 1 hour - 44.9 MB‘It’s official. We’ve fallen (back) in love with poetry’ the Metro declared earlier this year, reporting a 12% increase in poetry book sales in 2018. Underpinning the boom are bold new voices exploring issues from politics to mental health on page, stage and social media. Three of the most exciting new talents – Charly Cox, Theresa Lola and Tayi Tibble – perform from their well-received debut collections at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 in an event chaired by fellow poet Beck...
Louise Doughty & Stuart Turton at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
November 06, 2019 10:05 - 57 minutes - 39.5 MBMeet two British writers of cleverly conceived and suspenseful stories, Louise Doughty and Stuart Turton, who come together to talk about their new novels at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019. The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle, Turton’s 2018 Costa First Novel Award-winning debut, sees its central character killed afresh daily until her would-be saviour tries to solve the riddle. Doughty, author of the hugely successful Apple Tree Yard, talks about Platform Seven, which has he...
Matt Haig at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
November 04, 2019 11:18 - 1 hour - 41.3 MBThe modern world can make us feel like the walls are closing in, but a vanguard of writers are here to help us cope – and none more so than Matt Haig. After the storming success of Reasons to Stay Alive comes Notes on a Nervous Planet, a wise and witty guide to kicking the habits around everything from sleep to social media to work that are making us less happy. Enjoy an hour of conversation at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 that will soothe your 21st century anxieties. Chaire...
Candice Carty-Williams & Annaleese Jochems at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
November 01, 2019 07:49 - 59 minutes - 41.1 MBMeet two authors chronicling the off-kilter experiences of upbeat millennials. Candice Carty-Williams’s novel Queenie sees a Jamaican British woman search for identity. Jojo Moyes called it ‘brilliant, timely, funny, heartbreaking’. Annaleese Jochems’s classy debut Baby made waves back home: fellow New Zealander Eleanor Catton called it ‘sultry, sinister, hilarious and demented’. Their lively conversation at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 is chaired by Sasha de Buyl-Pisco.
Julia Neuberger talks to Richard Holloway at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
October 30, 2019 09:45 - 1 hour - 42.5 MBIt’s clear that antisemitism remains a problem for British society. But recent headlines have brought more confusion than clarity in debates about the definition of what is understood by the word ‘antisemitic’. Westminster peer and West London Synagogue’s Senior Rabbi Julia Neuberger makes a vital intervention with her book Antisemitism, a succinct study of where it comes from and what it is now. She shares her expertise in a lively conversation with Richard Holloway at the Edinburgh Internat...
Venki Ramakrishnan at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
October 28, 2019 09:44 - 58 minutes - 39.9 MBJoint winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Venki Ramakrishnan’s work has gone past the whys and wherefores of DNA and on to the ribosome, the structure which helps decode our genetic make-up. In a live event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 the President of The Royal Society and Gene Machine author shares stories about his first uncertain experiments and making genuine scientific breakthroughs. An enlightening hour of conversation with Steve Brusatte.
Gina Martin at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
October 25, 2019 08:26 - 59 minutes - 41 MBThe vile practice of upskirting wasn’t an offence in Britain until activist Gina Martin came along. With no legal or political background, Martin changed the law within 18 months. Now, she wants to help others do the same. Be the Change is a campaigning handbook written to advise and empower. Listen to an inspiring force of nature live at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 in conversation with Heather Parry and learn how to follow in her footsteps.
Thomas Keneally at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
October 23, 2019 09:50 - 59 minutes - 41 MBThe Booker Prize-winning Australian author of Schindler’s Ark, Thomas Keneally comes to the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 having woven another masterpiece in The Book of Science and Antiquities. Ancient human remains are found in Western Australia, causing controversy: was the man Aboriginal, or does he signify an even older culture? Documentary maker Shelby investigates, sure that ‘Learned Man’ connects the planet’s earliest inhabitants with our troubled environmental future. He...
Lemn Sissay at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
October 21, 2019 10:34 - 1 hour - 55.9 MBOne of Britain's best loved poets, Lemn Sissay is a performer of rare passion. But growing up with foster families and in care homes, Sissay struggled with his identity. The discovery of his birth name and Ethiopian background is the catalyst for reflection in his memoir My Name is Why. At the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 he meditates on home and identity as he discusses his insightful book with Jenny Lindsay, exuding the creative energy that's made him a literary phenomenon.
Stuart MacBride at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
October 18, 2019 07:24 - 58 minutes - 40 MBSpend an hour with master of suspense Stuart MacBride as he introduces his latest dark, thrilling novel at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 in conversation with Lee Randall. With the nation at boiling point, someone’s sending messages in blood. Inspector Logan Macrae is back after a year off, but there’s no rest when a high-profile anti-Independence campaigner disappears amid growing tensions between those fighting for Scotland’s future. Can Logan survive in the cauldron of Scot...
Tracey Thorn at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
October 16, 2019 06:38 - 57 minutes - 39.6 MBReturning to our roots can be tough, revealing and, as Tracey Thorn discovers, inspiring. The singer-songwriter behind Everything But The Girl follows up her bestselling Bedsit Disco Queen by writing Another Planet, a wonderfully witty walk through the maligned suburbia of her youth. At the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 Thorn shares hilarious recollections of the physical and emotional cul-de-sacs of her Green Belt upbringing and its lasting impact with Serena Field.
Ibram X Kendi talks to Deray Mckesson at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
October 14, 2019 07:29 - 58 minutes - 40.5 MBWe all occasionally do things that are racist, yet often fail to recognise them. Ibram X Kendi is a founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center in Washington DC. How To Be an Antiracist is his extraordinary, inspiring guidebook which helps build a vital new understanding of racism – and how to work against it. As part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 this superb teacher and storyteller talks to educator and activist DeRay Mckesson, a key figure in the Black...
Kit de Waal talks to Damian Barr at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
October 11, 2019 06:57 - 1 hour - 43.5 MBThe publishing world is finally waking up to the barriers that have prevented working class voices from being heard in books. Kit de Waal grew up in Birmingham’s Irish community and she has successfully broken into the mainstream with two highly acclaimed novels. At the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 she talks to Damian Barr about Common People, her book of essays by working class writers, featuring coruscating pieces by authors including Barr himself.
Tim Winton at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
October 09, 2019 10:38 - 58 minutes - 39.9 MBTo celebrate Tim Winton’s first visit to the Edinburgh International Book Festival since 1993, he looks back over an oeuvre that includes classics such as Dirt Music, Cloudstreet and Breath, live in conversation with John Williams, Daily Books editor and writer for The New York Times. Plus, hear them examine his latest masterful work The Shepherd’s Hut in which a lonely boy attempts to cross the vast saltland deserts of Western Australia.
Fatima Bhutto at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
October 07, 2019 10:39 - 57 minutes - 39.6 MBThe Edinburgh International Book Festival was thrilled to welcome back Fatima Bhutto in 2019 to discuss her second novel The Runaways with Roanna Gonsalves. Published against the backdrop of the Shamima Begum controversy, Bhutto’s novel could hardly feel more topical: set between Portsmouth and Karachi, it charts the lives of three vividly drawn characters from contrasting backgrounds, offering compelling reasons why jihadis are able to lure rootless, marginalised people into terrorism.
Christopher Brookmyre at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
October 04, 2019 10:39 - 58 minutes - 40.1 MBAmong our finest crime writers and funniest speakers, Chris Brookmyre is back with one of his best stories yet. He talks to Brian Taylor live at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 about his new standalone thriller Fallen Angel. Sixteen years on from the death of young Niamh on a holiday in Portugal, the glamorous Temple clan hold a fateful family reunion. For Amanda, a neighbouring nanny, fascination gives way to suspicion – what did happen to the girl?
Arundhati Roy with Nicola Sturgeon at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
October 02, 2019 10:40 - 1 hour - 48 MBAt the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 Arundhati Roy discusses her works and her astonishing experiences with Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon. What did she do between the publication of her Booker-winning debut The God of Small Things in 1997 and her extraordinary follow-up, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness two decades later? In a stunning new book of essays, we have the definitive answer. My Seditious Heart is much more than a series of illuminating observations on just...
Mark Walters at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
September 27, 2019 07:54 - 1 hour - 44.6 MBFootballer Mark Walters is remembered for his wing wizardry, but while he’s revered by the Rangers faithful who cheered him for four trophy-laden years, he also endured racist chants – an issue he campaigns against now. At the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 Walters talks to Pat Nevin about new memoir Wingin’ It, working for Graeme Souness, great moments at Liverpool and Aston Villa, and his views about the modern game.
Markus Zusak at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
September 25, 2019 07:55 - 53 minutes - 36.6 MBThirteen years since his multi-million bestseller The Book Thief, Markus Zusak joins us at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 with his much-anticipated follow-up, Bridge of Clay. In a conversation with author and presenter Janet Ellis, Zusak discusses his ambitious portrait of a family, introducing us to the Dunbar brothers, who are living and fighting in a house with no parents, and no rules. To find peace and beauty, one brother, Clay, sets out to build a bridge, unaware of the ...
Prue Leith at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
September 23, 2019 08:01 - 55 minutes - 38.4 MBIf The Great British Bake Off is your first encounter with Prue Leith, you’ve missed a great deal. Founder of Leith’s School of Food and Wine, restaurateur, journalist, novelist and now TV judge – she is one of the nation’s most respected foodies. Live at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 Leith introduces her first recipe book for 25 years, Prue: My All-Time Favourite Recipes, and shares suppers, showstoppers, and the personal stories behind her recipes with Sue Lawrence.
Casey Gerald with DeRay Mckesson at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
September 23, 2019 08:01 - 22 minutes - 15.4 MBCalled ‘extraordinary’ and ‘electrifying’ by Marlon James and Colm Tóibín, Texan writer Casey Gerald’s powerful memoir traces fault lines in American racial and masculine identity. There Will Be No Miracles Here examines how Gerald grew up underprivileged, black and gay in Dallas but went on to study at Yale and Harvard, and work on Wall Street. It’s an American Dream story; so why does he spurn the classic rags-to-riches narrative? Live at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 he sh...
Kevin Barry at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
September 23, 2019 08:00 - 56 minutes - 38.7 MBIn his early novels City of Bohane and Beatlebone as well as his short stories, Kevin Barry showed clear signs of his prodigious talent as a writer. But the Booker Prize-longlisted Night Boat to Tangier is his best book yet – a modest masterpiece of a novel dripping with tenderness, remorse and laconic humour. Join Barry live at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 with Peggy Hughes to hear about his two fading but irresistible Irish gangsters trying to piece together the shards of ...
Caroline Criado Perez with Sally Magnusson at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
September 23, 2019 08:00 - 56 minutes - 39.1 MBIn conversation with Sally Magnusson, award-winning feminist campaigner and writer Caroline Criado Perez exposes the hidden systematic discrimination women face every day. Invisible Women is her clarion call for change, bringing together new research and stories revealing the gender data gap; a lack of knowledge which has created unseen bias against women everywhere from public policy to technology, business and the media. This event was recorded live at the Edinburgh International Book Festi...
Salman Rushdie at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
September 23, 2019 07:59 - 1 hour - 41.4 MBOne of the most significant writers of our age, Salman Rushdie joins the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 for the worldwide launch of epic novel Quichotte. Veering from wildly comic to heartbreaking, Rushdie discusses his playful retelling of Don Quixote with James Naughtie. Set in present day USA, ageing salesman Quichotte embarks on a quest for love in his Chevy Cruze, driving with his imaginary son Sancho through a country on the brink of moral collapse.