Books

Amy Sackville

Retreating into imagined worlds of the past

12 Aug 2010

Amy Sackville’s debut novel, The Still Point, is an Arctic love story which has already drawn comparisons with Virginia Woolf. Set in modern England, Julia is the great-grand-niece of an explorer whose story fascinates her and she often dreams about the…

David Mitchell

Dreaming up the non-existent

12 Aug 2010

David Mitchell isn’t known for his simple approach to storytelling. His most recognisable work, the Booker-shortlisted Cloud Atlas, was described as having a ‘Rubik’s cube structure’. Ambitious and unconventional, it melted genres of airport…

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

Masterful characters discover a world of crime and corruption

12 Aug 2010

Popular private investigator Jackson Brodie makes a dramatic return in Kate Atkinson’s latest offering; as he delves into the past and discovers a world of corruption, killings and cover-ups. Set in Leeds, Started Early, Took My Dog marks another…

Simon Rich

Taking inspiration from the comedy greats

12 Aug 2010

Simon Rich makes his first appearance as a fully fledged novelist at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival. Although the 24-year-old Harvard graduate has written two anecdotal non-fiction comedy books in the past three years – Ant Farm: And…

John Harris at the Book Festival

Hail Hail Rock'N'Roll: expect full audio-visual support

12 Aug 2010

‘I will talk about rock moustaches, Elvis’ jumpsuits and James Blunt’s lyrics,’ proclaims John Harris, author of Hail Hail Rock’N’Roll, his vintage rock, pop and counter-cultural almanac. ‘The aim is to navigate through 50-odd years of rock history…

Marek Kohn

Tackling climate change denial head-on

12 Aug 2010

Think of Marek Kohn as the mouthpiece of the moderates in the climate change conversation. His new book, Turned Out Nice: How the British Isles will Change as the World Heats Up, strips the sensationalism from the story and projects a thoroughly…

David McKee

Discussing the inner monster

12 Aug 2010

‘They’re like my children,’ smiles David McKee, the creator of such long-adored characters as Mr Benn, King Rollo and Elmer the Patchwork Elephant. ‘You love them equally and they all demand attention at different times.’ The legendary storyteller and…

Owen Sheers

Covering the poetic landscape of Britain

12 Aug 2010

One of those infuriating people whose expansive CV (poet, novelist, playwright, actor, television presenter) is matched only by their down to earth charm, Wales’ Owen Sheers will be presenting two very different projects at the Book Festival. The first…

Tana French - Faithful Place

Otherwise gripping drama suffers from inconsistencies

12 Aug 2010

As much a sprawling family drama as a crime novel, Tana French’s character-driven mystery has more of the life stuff – heart, family, class – than the average genre work. In following the trials of undercover Irish cop and estranged son, brother and…

Angus Peter Campbell's Archie and the North Wind

Enchanting in parts, but not a wholly compelling or intriguing tale

12 Aug 2010

To temper the harsh winters and escape an unhappy marriage and dreary life on a Scottish island, Archie leaves to find and cover the hole where the North Wind blows. Working as a crewman, he heads north, accompanied by a Russian composer nicknamed Brawn…

Real Lives by Peter Bagge

12 Aug 2010

Since rising to fame with Hate, his comic book chronicling the slacker generation, Peter Bagge has specialised in capturing realistic characters trapped by the frustrations of real life. Here, he casts his eye on the false personalities people project…

Courtyard Readings

Read and listen to poetry at these outdoor readings

12 Aug 2010

One of the loveliest annual events of the Festival season, these outdoor readings (don’t worry, they go indoors if/when it rains) hosted by the School of Poets are open to all poetry lovers. Come and read your own work, or a personal favourite poem, in…

Lars Husum and his novel My Friend Jesus Christ

A wild and bizarre slapstick farce

6 Aug 2010

Given that My Friend Jesus Christ reads like a Dogme movie, you can’t help but feel Lars Husum’s time working as a dramaturge at Lars von Trier’s Copenhagen film production company Zentropa fed into his debut novel. ‘It’s not conscious, but I see your…

Emily Woof at the Writer's Retreat

The ex-actress conducts a deep involvement with language

6 Aug 2010

Emily Woof first graced Edinburgh nude and on a trapeze for a trilogy of one-woman Fringe plays, under the Sex umbrella. And throughout The Whole Wide Beauty (the debut novel by The Full Monty and Wondrous Oblivion star), the loss of physical expression…

Glasgow's Debi Gliori at the Book Festival

Capturing hearts, imaginations and library space

6 Aug 2010

‘You can expect to see a slightly wrinkly writer-illustrator,’ offers children’s favourite Debi Gliori of her Book Festival appearance, ‘who will attempt to regale all present with stories, drawings, anecdotes and chat about books in general, books in…

Garth Nix kicks off this year's Book Festival

What he has in store and why fantasy is making a comeback

6 Aug 2010

Garth Nix, the bestselling Australian author of young people’s fantasy fiction, is both honoured and alarmed that he’ll be kicking off this year’s Book Festival with its very first session. ‘I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be talking about yet!’ Nix…

Natasha Walter's fight for women's equality

She presents her new book Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism

6 Aug 2010

Following sold out events at Brighton, Dublin, the South Bank and Latitude, writer and campaigner Natasha Walter is hitting the Edinburgh International Book Festival to stress that the struggle for women’s equality is as important as ever. To some…

Philip Pullman - The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ

'The Most Dangerous Author in Britain' comes to the Book Festival

6 Aug 2010

You will know him by the horns, of course, and the casual air of unholy sin. For Philip Pullman is the anti-God and ‘The Most Dangerous Author in Britain’, according to the modern gospel of The Mail on Sunday. To most of us, however, he is the avuncular…

Laura Barton talks about Twenty-One Locks

The author describes why and how she wanted to write her novel

6 Aug 2010

Born and raised in Lancashire, Laura Barton migrated south a decade ago, and found gainful employment with The Guardian. ‘I started writing a music column [Hail, Hail, Rock ‘n’ Roll] in a style that was quite different to most journalism at the time,…

Gary Younge visits the Edinburgh Book Festival

Exploring issues of identity across this mad world

6 Aug 2010

Returning to Edinburgh holds bittersweet memories for Gary Younge. He was in the city as a student in the late 80s, studying Russian and French at Heriot-Watt and was awestruck by the geography of his new surroundings. ‘Having grown up in Stevenage…

Alberto Manguel will discuss All Men Are Liars

And why we should step back from the over-reliable narrator

6 Aug 2010

Alberto Manguel’s latest book, All Men Are Liars, is ‘a tribute to falsehood’ in which no one is a reliable source; not the enigmatic figure whose death is being investigated, not those who knew him, nor Manguel himself. It’s a concept that challenges…

Candia McWilliam will discuss her memoir at the EIBF

The festival veteran considers her own difficult story

6 Aug 2010

‘I have loved the Edinburgh International Book Festival all its 22 years,’ says Charlotte Square Gardens veteran Candia McWilliam. ‘It makes an annual conversation about books and about thinking, about what it is to share in the examined life. It is…

Top five Scottish crime writers to catch at the EIBF

The city that embodies vice and virtue welcomes the authors

6 Aug 2010

With its Jekyll and Hyde nature, Edinburgh is the perfect spot for the portraiturists of good and evil to congregate. Here’s a quintet of Scottish scribes to catch this week Tony Black. Gus Drury is Black’s flawed bobby and in Long Time Dead, he’s…

Albanian Ismael Kadare's newest: The Accident

The author obliquely examines his homeland's paradocixal nature

6 Aug 2010

Albania’s foremost literary writer and winner of the Man Booker International Prize has spent his career examining his homeland’s paradoxical nature. This latest offering from Ismael Kadare does the same but more obliquely, with a central premise that’s…

Martin Bell discusses lack of faith in politicians in Edinburgh visit

Festival of Politics and Book Festival appearances scheduled

6 Aug 2010

The man in the white suit is in town for an event at the Festival of Politics but he’s also kindly dropping by to charm the punters in Charlotte Square. Here, he will be discussing the lack of faith we now have in our elected representatives, mainly due…

Nicolai Lilin: author of Siberian Education

The writer tells of his time in prison, tattooing, and film offers

5 Aug 2010

Handed his first weapon at the age of six, Nicolai Lilin was destined for a life of violence. Having fled the horrors of his past, he tells Jay Richardson why death is sometimes a better option. Born into a Siberian criminal dynasty, convicted of…

Harder, better, faster, stronger - Iain M. Banks interview

The Fife-born author on Led Zeppelin, bacon rolls

5 Aug 2010

The Fife-born author of 24 sci-fi books and mainstream novels talks to The List about Led Zeppelin, bacon rolls and his continual surprise at being even slightly famous First record you ever bought There were three, the day after I persuaded my…

Andrew O'Hagan's novel looks set to be turned into a feature film

The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, And of His Friend Marilyn Monroe

5 Aug 2010

The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, And of His Friend Marilyn Monroe is not your run-of-the-mill contemporary novel, and not just because the eponymous first-person narrator is an aristocratic Maltese terrier with Trotskyist tendencies, owned by the…

Christos Tsiolkas' The Slap touched a few raw nerves

He tells us how he tackled this multi-story tale.

5 Aug 2010

Judge me once you’ve walked a mile in my shoes, the old saying goes. Well in his latest book, The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas hands us the literary equivalent of eight pairs of walking boots. Set in suburban Melbourne, the novel opens with a chapter devoted…

James Robertson - And the Land Lay Still

One of Scotland's most vital authors tackles our Q&A

5 Aug 2010

James Robertson has been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize of 2006 for The Testament of Gideon Mack and has just published And The Land Lay Still.

Fatima Bhutto's Songs of Blood and Sword

Benazir Bhutto's niece tells her criticizing story.

5 Aug 2010

Mystery still surrounds the murder of Benazir Bhutto in 2007 but while people like her niece Fatima are around to ask questions, there’s always some chance that the puzzle might yet be solved. Not that Fatima has the family blinkers on as she was an…

Jill McGivering - The Last Kestrel

Novels published, August 2010

3 Aug 2010

(Blue Door) A debut novel about two women, a British reporter who returns to Helmand to search for the truth concerning the death of a friend, and an Afghan determined to protect her only son.

Ian Holding - Of Beasts and Beings

Novels published, August 2010

3 Aug 2010

(Simon & Schuster) A novel about two men in Africa, one having been seized by militia, the other a schoolteacher in a city stricken by fear and intimidation.

Monique Truong - Bitter in the Mouth

Novels published, August 2010

3 Aug 2010

(Chatto) Linda Hammerick is a young woman growing up in North Carolina during the 70s and 80s before escaping to the north in this Southern Gothic tale.

Annabel Lyon - The Golden Mean

Novels published, August 2010

3 Aug 2010

(Atlantic) Canada-based short story writer with a reimagining of the relationship between Aristotle and Alexander, who later had ‘The Great’ added to his name.

Helon Habila - Oil on Water

Novels published, August 2010

3 Aug 2010

(Hamish Hamilton) Two Nigerian journos search for the kidnapped wife of a British oil engineer, and in the process uncover corruption and violence.

Festival Briefing 2010

Some things we think might help you at this year's festivals

30 Jul 2010

Here's a short briefing about some things to look forward to during the Book Festival, the Fringe, in Music events, and Shopping opportunities in Edinburgh

Lin Anderson - The Reborn

29 Jul 2010

(Hodder) A baby sliced from the womb in a fairground hall of mirrors; Jeff Coulter, a charming psychopath luring girls into a pact of sex and murder while he creates baby dolls from his prison cell for bereaved parents; dark, disturbing rituals; the…

Alan Warner and Howard Jacobson amongst nominees for Man Booker Prize

2010 literary award longlist announced

29 Jul 2010

The longlist of contenders for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2010 were announced yesterday. The prize of £50 000 is awarded to the best full-length novel by a citizen of the Republic of Ireland or the Commonwealth, is written in English, and is…

Penguin brings interactive puppetry to the Fringe

Polly Dunbar's children books translate easily to stage

29 Jul 2010

When writer and puppeteer Polly Dunbar creates her picture books, she’s got one eye on the page – and the other on the stage. ‘Although I’m not directly thinking of puppets whilst writing,’ she says, ‘I do keep performance in mind. Picture books are…

Howard Jacobson - The Finkler Question

29 Jul 2010

(Bloomsbury) Fans of Howard Jacobson’s skilfully constructed storytelling will not be surprised to hear that his latest work seems to centre around male-female relationships, a theme the London-based writer has explored often. But as The Finkler…

Jeff Lemire - Sweet Tooth

29 Jul 2010

(Titan/Vertigo) It’s hardly surprising that Jeff Lemire’s current ongoing series (the first five issues of which are collected here) should be a bleak, post-apocalyptic yarn that recalls, among other precedents, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Lemire…

Louise Dean - The Old Romantic

29 Jul 2010

(Fig Tree) There’s plenty of mileage to be had, both in terms of pathos and comedy, from the subject matter of death. Sadly, this tepid novel fails to capitalise on its dark premise, being neither moving nor funny, despite trying for both. Ken is an…

Jerry Della Femina - From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor

29 Jul 2010

(Canongate) ‘I know guys who would make you fly Nazi Airlines in a minute or get you to pack your voodoo kit for a little trip to Haiti,’ declares self-styled mad man Jerry Della Femina, in this re-release of the rambling 1970s cult classic. Although…

Alan Warner extract: Sullivan’s Ashes

23 Jul 2010

As part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, 50 authors have been commissioned to pen a short story or essay under the umbrella theme of ‘Elsewhere’. Here is an extract from Alan Warner’s Sullivan’s Ashes I wish for no funeral service but to…

And the Land Lay Still - James Robertson

23 Jul 2010

‘I’ve always had it in mind that I wanted to write a big, sprawling novel about Scottish politics and culture in the second half of the 20th century,’ explains James Robertson. ‘When I sat down to write my last book, The Testament of Gideon Mack, I…

Ned Beauman - Boxer Beetle

23 Jul 2010

(Sceptre) Not one for the easily shocked, young scribe Ned Beauman subjects the reader to a parade of ghoulish events and ghastly theories throughout his dazzling first novel Boxer Beetle. Admittedly it’s hard work at first, as we’re introduced to a…

Five history books

23 Jul 2010

1. Catherine Arnold - City of Sin Subtitled ‘London and its Vices’, this is the concluding part of a trilogy that has investigated the English capital’s seamier side, peeking at the bathhouses of Roman Londinium to the sexual underground of the 20th…

Stewart Lee - How I Escaped My Certain Fate

23 Jul 2010

(Faber) Like Ezra Pound’s notes on The Waste Land if they’d been more cutting, self-critical and in awe of Johnny Vegas, Stewart Lee here transcribes and annotates the three stand-up shows that brought him back from disillusioned retirement in 2001…

Gilbert Shelton - Not Quite Dead: Last Gig in Shnagrlig

23 Jul 2010

(Knockabout) Gilbert Shelton will always be most famous for his irreverent take on hippie culture as beloved by stoners across the world in his Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers strips and its off-shoot, Fat Freddy’s Cat. And among his other achievements…