Nick Barley announces writers from 55 countries at festival will shake up Britain’s parochial readers and showcase Scotland as an outward-looking nation.
Scottish crime writer Val McDermid will be interviewed by Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon.
The UK’s parochial reading habits are an embarrassment, according to the director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Nick Barley has introduced his sixth and most globally ambitious programme, which includes authors from North and South Korea, as well as first minister Nicola Sturgeon interviewing her favourite Scottish crime writer, Val McDermid.
Describing the festival, which runs from 15 to 31 August in Edinburgh’s Charlotte square, as “the most international ever attempted in Britain”, Barley accepted that many names would not be familiar to a British audience. “But what I want to get across is that these people are megastars in their own countries,” he said.
HOLLYWOOD actor Alan Cumming, Scottish pop icon Edwyn Collins, American civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will be among the main attractions at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this summer.
Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Marilynne Robinson, historical novelist Philippa Gregory and Wolf Hall star Mark Rylance are also lined up for the event.
Nicola Sturgeon will mark her debut at the event by revealing her passion for crime fiction in discussion with Val McDermid, after the festival asked her to choose a favourite author to appear alongside.
Tickets for this year’s festival go on public sale from 23 June.
The crime writer on the “profound signifcance” of Banks’ writing, and why she’s looking forward to the BBC dramatisation of Stonemouth.
He was one of the finest novelists of his generation
I remember reading Iain’s first novel, The Wasp Factory, when it came out in paperback in the mid-80s and thinking, “Wow! This is extraordinary.” After that, I read everything of his — the science-fiction [published under the name Iain M Banks] as well as the straight novels.
Later we met at a book signing in Manchester. I went along as a friend of the shop and a fan of his work. We all went out for a drink afterwards and that was the start of our friendship. Read the full article…
