Yesterday (29th Aug) was the final day of Edinburgh’s International Book Festival. Returning to the Edinburgh College of Art for a second year, it was very much ‘back to business’ compared to the, pared down, event of 2021.
In a slight modification to the usual ‘one site’ format, events were held in both the Edinburgh College of Art and Central Hall, with the Central Hall events being beamed live to ECA
2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Maria Ressa faces 100 years behind bars in her home country. Her ‘crime’? Tracking the lies told by her government. In ‘How to Stand Up to a Dictator’, she lays bare how we are in the grip of untruths and propaganda, and how we can forge an effective response.
Hamnet was a runaway bestseller before winning the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2020. Unsurprisingly, Maggie O’Farrell’s latest novel is one of the most hotly-anticipated of 2022. In conversation with Damian Barr, the Edinburgh-based writer launched ‘The Marriage Portrait’, a portrayal of the battle for survival by a captivating young duchess in 16th century Florence.
In 1998, Irvine Welsh published his first detective novel, ‘Filth’, featuring Detective Inspector Ray Lennox. Now, Lennox is back in Edinburgh. In ‘The Long Knives’, a corrupt, racist Scottish MP with plenty of enemies is found dead behind a warehouse in Leith. Lennox has to set aside his personal feelings and search for the perpetrators. But will the real victims ever get justice?
Logan Roy, brought ferociously to life by Brian Cox in HBO series ‘Succession’, is one of the outstanding screen characters of the decade. Cox’s Golden Globe-winning depiction of the leonine media tycoon has won him countless new admirers. His memoir, ‘Putting the Rabbit in the Hat’, is refreshingly honest about life on stage and screen.
The Dundonian actor joined the public at EIBF for a wide-ranging conversation with Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon.
Edinburgh International Book Festival (edbookfest.co.uk)
