IN HIS latest novel, published this week, crime writer Quentin Jardine imagines a murder in the authors' yurt at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Whether or not that happens in Charlotte Square this August – practically everything else will, promised the festival's guest director Richard Hollowayyesterday as he launched this year's programme.
As The Scotsman revealed yesterday, this year's programme includes such stellar writers as Margaret Atwood, Kate Atkinson, Henning Mankell and David Simon, creator of The Wire.
But with 750 authors from 45 countries at this year's festival, "it'
s not a question of spotlighting individual authors – we really need floodlights", said Susan Rice, chairwoman of the festival's board of directors.
This year, a number of writers have chosen Edinburgh to launch new work. Margaret Atwood will unveil her latest novel The Year of the Flood with a specially created performance of music and song at St John's Church on Princes Street.
Actor and film star Joss Ackland; Michelin-starred chef Tom Kitchin; Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov; controversial atheist Richard Dawkins; poets Don Paterson and John Burnside; and novelists Alexander McCall Smith, Ian Rankin, AL Kennedy and William Boyd will also be presenting new work.
As ever, the festival will be the place to hear the great issues of the day discussed by experts. James Lovelock, originator of the Gaia hypothesis – which posits that the Earth is a single organism – and Nicholas Stern, the world expert on the economic consequences of failure to tackle climate change, will appear.
For anyone worried by the global economic downturn, the festival will also feature two of the people who did most to alert us to the likelihood of it happening – journalist Gillian Tett and MP Vince Cable – along with other commentators such as Paul Mason and Andrew Simms.
Politics? Cherie Blair is making her first book festival appearance; Shirley Williams is giving the National Library of Scotland's prestigious Donald Dewar Lecture; Chris Mullin will be debating "divided Britain" with Polly Toynbee; and former First Minister Henry McLeish will join a discussion with political commentators (including The Scotsman's Hamish Macdonell) on what ten years of devolution has meant to Scotland. Paddy Ashdown and Sebastian Coe are also on this year's bill.
Anniversaries have particularly strong echoes this year, not least the 250 years that have passed since the birth of Robert Burns – celebrated in a whole mini-festival in itself – the 150 since the birth of Arthur Conan Doyle, the 70th since the end of the Spanish Civil War and the 20th since the Berlin Wall fell.
This year's festival probably has more comedians on its bill than most (step forward Frank Skinner, Dave Gorman, Arthur Smith and Griff Rhys-Jones), while the world of the theatre is represented by Anthony Sher, Diana Quick and Richard Eyre.
A strong children's programme features a welcome return, after illness, of Jacqueline Wilson, who will be recalling her own teenage years and her struggle to be a writer. Judith Kerr, best-selling author of The Tiger Who Came to Tea, will also be talking about her own childhood, when her family was forced to flee Nazi Germany.
There's plenty more: a rare appearance by bestselling German writer Cornelia Funke; Bend it Like Beckham's Narinder Dhami; and The Gadget Show presenter Jason Bradbury talking about robots; Ian Rankin on his debut graphic novel; and Neil Gaiman, whose epic Sandman series is a true masterpiece of the genre.
How to buy ticketsPEOPLE wanting to buy tickets to this year's Book Festival have four ways of doing so when they go on sale at 8:30am a week on Monday.
IN PERSON: On Monday 22 June only, go to the EICC on Morrison Street (8:30am- 6:30pm). From 23 June to 13 August, the box office is at the Hub, Castlehill, 10am to 5pm Mon-Sat. From 15 August, it is at Charlotte Square Gardens, 9:30am-8:30pm daily.
ONLINE: From 8.30am on Monday 22 June, book via
www.edbookfest.co.ukBY PHONE: The number is 0845 373 5888. On 22 June, lines open 8:30am-6:30pm; from 23 June, 10am-5pm, Mon-Sat; from 15 August, 9:30am-8:30pm daily.
BY POST: Use the booking form at the back of the Book Festival programme, or download a copy from ||WEBSTART||www.edbookfest.co.uk
