Books

Russell Kane talks pop music, Indian food and bad hair - interview

The comic and author answers our questions ahead of his appearances at Book Festival and Fringe

First record you ever bought ‘I Should Be So Lucky.’ Last extravagant purchase you made My new Prius. First film you saw that really moved you Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. Last lie you told It won’t hurt, I promise. First…

2012 Edinburgh Book Festival reflects on 1962 Edinburgh World Writers' Conference

50 years on from landmark event featuring Burroughs, Mailer, MacDiarmid and Trocchi

In 1962, the Edinburgh World Writers Conference caused a literary stir as the likes of Burroughs, Mailer and Trocchi came to town. Fifty years on, the Book Festival marks that vibrant occasion with a new set of talks and speakers. We talk to some of…

Interview: Yiyun Li answers questions ahead of 2012 Edinburgh Fringe

The Chinese American author will unveil new short story collection Elsewhere and chat to Hari Kunzru

First record you ever bought I don’t remember Last extravagant purchase you made An 1894 edition of Turgenev’s Sketches from a Hunter’s Album. First film you saw that really moved you Casablanca. Last lie you told I can’t remember. First…

Edinburgh International Book Festival: Highlights

Seamus Heaney, Michael Morpurgo, Irvine Welsh, Nile Rodgers and more

Seamus Heaney The Nobel prizewinner is in town for what will be an undoubted highlight of the month (if not the year) as he chews some literary fat with Karl Miller and Andrew O’Hagan. See online feature at list.co.uk/festival. 3-18 Aug, 6.30pm, £10…

Edinburgh International Book Festival: Top 5 Kids events

Patrick Ness, Michael Morpurgo, Louise Rennison, Doctor Who and more

Patrick Ness With A Monster Calls, Ness is cementing his already burgeoning reputation as a must-read author for the 12-16 group. When this book about a boy dealing with his mother’s battle against cancer won him the Carnegie Medal, Ness said the…

Q&A: Kirsty Gunn speaks about new book before 2012 Edinburgh Book Festival

The New Zealand born author talks about her new novel The Big Music

In her latest novel, Kirsty Gunn writes of a dying man trying to define his life through a new musical composition. Here she takes on our Q&A Give us five words to describe The Big Music?‬ ‪‬Family. Landscape. Secrets. A world. ‪‪Which author…

David Vann talks about new novel Dirt before 2012 Edinburgh Book Festival

Writing books that are not for a mother’s eyes

‘I didn’t plan to write this book. It would’ve been better if I hadn’t written it, in fact.’ You can see David Vann’s point, but only because of his latest novel’s content, not its quality. Dirt is about a troubled young man in an incestuous and abusive…

Etgar Keret to talk at two events at 2012 Edinburgh Book Festival

The Israeli author will host an event with writer Nathan Englander

Etgar Keret is looking forward to returning to the Edinburgh International Book Festival: ‘I’ve been to the festival once and being a spoiled brat wouldn’t have came again unless I know for a fact that I’m going to have a great time.’ He’ll be doing two…

Prolific young Nigerian author Chibundu Onuzo to talk at the 2012 Book Festival

Looking to a future beyond books

Chibundu Onuzo’s tale is a heartening one for young writers. The Nigerian-born author began her first novel when she was just 17 and secured a two-book deal with Faber at 19, before being published at 21. Her debut, The Spider King’s Daughter, follows…

Irvine Welsh comes to 2012 Edinburgh Book Festival with Trainspotting prequel Skagboys

The Scottish author jogs back into the past with Begbie and co

While us Scots haven’t got the best reputation for putting fitness and health at the top of our to-do lists, Irvine Welsh is doing his bit for the image of his nation in further-off climes. Now mainly based in the US, he has had to knock…

Nile Rodgers, the man who brought us disco, to talk at the 2012 Edinburgh Book Festival

How one man helped shape a generation of pop

As the Book Festival programme announces, Nile Rodgers is ‘The Man Who Brought Us Disco’. Or, to be more accurate, he is: The Chic Frontman Who Brought Us Disco; Who Worked with Mick Jagger, Prince and Debbie Harry; Who Produced Madonna, David Bowie and…

Highlands-based writer Melanie Challenger to talk about last year's book at Edinburgh Book Festival

Reconnecting with the natural world

Highlands-based writer and poet Melanie Challenger acknowledges that last year’s On Extinction, a weighty book which muses on humanity’s often fraught relationship with the environment, isn’t a work based in specialist knowledge. ‘It’s a personal…

Top 5 tech-related shows at the Edinburgh Festivals 2012

Featuring Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Misha Glenny, Mark Restuccia and Through the Looking Screen

The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs A one-man theatre show detailing the working conditions in Chinese factories that manufacture the iPhone, highlighting the lengths we are willing to go to in pursuit of technological advancement. Steve…

Unbound at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

Night-time strand of off-the-page experimentation featuring Sarah Hall and Jenni Fagan

As wonderful as the Edinburgh International Book Festival is – and believe us, it is wonderful – the leafy confines of Charlotte Square Gardens, the village fete-style white tents and the hordes of latte-sipping Guardianistas can sometimes make the…

Amanda Palmer & Neil Gaiman bring joint live show to Edinburgh Fringe

Singing and reading from musical and literary couple

‘Amanda taught Neil to love the festival,’ speaks the Palmer/Gaiman marital unimind (in fact hallowed fantasy author Gaiman emailing on behalf of himself and his ex-Dresden Doll and Fringe mainstay spouse). ‘He used to come to Edinburgh and do the book…

Anonymously-created book sculptures to tour UK

Here at List HQ, we adored the anonymous pieces of book art being left at venues around Edinburgh over a nine-month spell last year. Left with the simple message ‘in support of libraries, books, words, ideas,’, the creator remains unknown but the…

Sally Magnusson - Horace and the Haggis Hunter

The BBC newsreader teams up with husband Norman Stone to create illustrated children's story

Better known for reading the news on the BBC, Sally Magnusson has now turned her hand to writing children’s books – enlisting the help of husband Norman Stone for the illustrations. Resolutely Scottish, Horace and the Haggis Hunter brings to life our…

Edinburgh Book Festival 2012 day planner

Julia Donaldson, AC Grayling, AL Kennedy, Alexander McCall Smith and more

Saturday 11 Julia Donaldson The Glasgow-based Children’s Laureate kicks off the Book Festival with a performance-based show in which she brings life to stories such as The Gruffalo and Superworm. Hubbie Malcolm will be on hand to help things along.

Choose Your Own Adventure author Ian Livingstone to visit Edinburgh

The author will appear at both the Book Festival and Edinburgh Interactive

I always had a big interest games. In the 1960s I used to play Diplomacy [a strategic WWI board game] and play-by-mail games. When Steve Jackson and I met up in London in the 70s, we were old school friends and we thought, wouldn’t it be a great idea to…

Highlights from the Fighting Fantasy series of role-playing games

Henry Northmore and Murray Robertson pick their favourite Fighting Fantasy books

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain A collaboration between Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, this was the book that started it all. The first installment was written back in 1982, and is set as you set out to plunder the treasure of the mystical mage.

Scotland's Toni Davidson speaks at the Edinburgh Book Festival 2012

‘I wrote in huts, by the beach, in hotel lobbies, in train stations’

Scotland’s Toni Davidson is a self-confessed ‘slow writer’. In 1999, his debut Scar Culture was acclaimed for its innovative and unflinching portrayal of child abuse. And though there was the short story collection The Gradual Gathering of Lust in 2007...

Sandi Toksvig comes to Fringe with live show My Valentine

The author and broadcaster's show is inspired by her latest novel, Valentine Grey

As the incomparable Sandi Toksvig prepares for a Fringe pit-stop, as part of her UK tour, The List grill her on what’s inspired her latest opus

Justine Picardie presents her book at the Edinburgh Book Festival 2012

Justine Picardie tells The List how Coco Chanel has shaped her own world

‘I wouldn’t say I have an interest in Chanel; it’s more an obsession,’ says Justine Picardie. The former Vogue features editor and journalist wrote 'Coco Chanel, The Legend and the Life' after almost ten years of rigorous research. As she tried to learn…

Frank Cottrell Boyce discusses his winged Fleming sequel at Edinburgh Book Festival

The author talks of new novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again

Liverpudlian writer Frank Cottrell Boyce has a career which can only be described as enviable. When we spoke he was in the midst of working on the Olympic Games opening ceremony, as one of director Danny Boyle’s hand-picked creative advisors. He’s…

The Forest Fringe is still a part of the Edinburgh Festival 2012

Director Andy Field talks of how the mini-festival continues after the closure of the Forest Cafe

For the last five years you could always find Forest Fringe in the same place in Edinburgh. A beautiful old church hall above a vegetarian café. A set of stone steps. A sign above a door. However, as you may know, we are no longer able to use that…