Voices of Hope Edinburgh Book festival 2025

Edinburgh International Book Festival at the Futures Institute

I travel on warm sunny days and with heightened senses and high anticipation for new insights and inspirations. The Edinburgh festivals offer HOPE in a present world often torn apart. A place for shared, diverse voices from across the world. The theme of this years Edinburgh International book festival was ‘How do we Repair’- looking for positives and connections, “to repair and reconcile in culture, politics and environment, through improving balance, resilience and hope”.   

 

The book festival is now hosted behind and on the ground floor of the impressive newly renovated Edinburgh Futures Institute near the Meadows walkway and Edinburgh university. The book festival aims to offer a safe place to challenge and to question – with over 600 writers from 35 countries offered differing perspectives on personal, social and global significance.100+ talks were live streamed. 

EIBF hosted workshops, school events, music and poetry, young adult and children’s talks. The children’s events included over 100 talks and included renowned authors Michael Rosen, Jacqueline Wilson and Cressida Cowell.

Nicola Sturgeon with Kirsty Wark

Jenny Nelson & Mark Kermode

Resilience: Renowned author Hanif Kureishi gave a talk about his recovery from a devastating accident which left him paralysed. Shattered But Unbroken. There were several book talks on books on the war in Gaza, which has turned into such destruction. Israeli writer Ilan Pappe and Israeli historian Avi Shlaim discussed the conflict in the Middle East and whether peace can exist.

Ivo Graham

Alexander McCall Smith

Brian Cox

Kate Dickie

Paula Hawkins

**TALKS

Foreign correspondent Lindsey Hilsum came with her book of war poetry, I Brought the War with me’

And spoke of how we remember poetry more than journalists stories of war. She always carries a book of poems with her to help make sense of the destruction. It’s the spaces between, the forgotten.

 

I enjoyed a talk by larger than life and popular film critic Mark Kermode, along with Radio producer Jenny Niven on their book on film music Surround Sound. This has interviews with film music composers – Johnny Greenwood and many more.  

The festival included prominent Front list talks at McEwan hall -

Former Scotland first minister Nicola Sturgeon held a positive chat with Kirsty Wark, about her new book Frankly. Mark Kermode talked all things film and acting with well kent Scots actors – Brian Cox, Kate Dickie and Michelle Gomez.

There were protests during a The Front List chat with: Yulia Navalnaya, about her husband the late

Alexei Navalnaya, over Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

 

There were Podcasts, live cabaret, and exclusive talks. Young adult program, Children’s program. Something for everyone. Edinburgh book festival is supported by Creative Scotland, Edinburgh city council, Lottery funds. 

The festival promotes vision, resilience and a safe place IN PERSON to debate! To encourage liberal thought – To remind the world of the role of freedom, truth, culture and the arts. We should find out what unites us, and what we have in common rather than what divides us. 

Sam Heughan

Naga Munchetty

Michael Pedersen

Maggie O'Farrell

What can Scots do!

Some talks feel like English voices with a few Scots asking questions. The narrative here is Scotland needs to change – to what can Scots do! And NOT, we have business brought to us! We must do for ourselves. We’ve had 3 big figures of the devolution government. Now the baton needs to pass to a new generation. 

 *An academic from Dublin suggests that “America should never have united," under its centralised control. Trump attempts to take control. The Maga movement for instance, appears to be culture wars between the extreme left and the extreme right. And the toxic online culture, which can’t differentiate between healthy debate and saying I dislike you, because of your views. Many in today politics seem shallow and thin, with no moral backbone or hinterland - the opposite of a an informed debate. We need Citizens Assemblies. Use your time wisely and don’t get sucked into ignorant, sensationalistic echo chambers. Look wider and broader for ideas – for innovation, diverse views and creative freedoms. 

I met a young German book researcher at the talk on film music, who was there at the book festival for the week. She had studied at Edinburgh university (before the Brexit  Scotland did not vote for). We chatted and I asked her whether there must be plenty of excellent book festivals in Germany. To which she replied, oh no, not like the Edinburgh book festival!  I was surprised certainly. 

We should find out what unites us, what we have in common rather than what divides us. Hopefully Edinburgh festivals can continue to be a place for hope, voices form many places, to celebrate all the arts and that cross over. To celebrate the endurance of the human spirit.

 

**QUOTES from the festival:

Brian Cox, We need good people. 

Kate Dickie, “I love England as a neighbour, but if you’re roof is leaking, you don’t ask your neighbour to fix it.”   Tariq Ali, Fighting the empire

Edinburgh festival cultural icon Richard Demarco - “Reform is a danger to the Edinburgh Festivals”, 

He calls for “a Festival of Thought” to help save liberal democracy - with no politicians.

Some celebrity faces attend EIBF - 

 

**BOOKS & TALKS

Surround Sound – Mark Kermode and Jenny Niven

I Brought the War with me – Lindsey Hilsum

After Gaza – Pankaj Mishra

Frankly – Nicola Sturgeon 

Shattered but Unbroken – Hanif Kureishi 

A Truce that is not Peace – Miriam Toews

 

I would prefer not to see “History” books in the EIBF Bookshop by the archaeologist Neil Oliver or by the Canadian historical fiction writer John Prebble – of the Scotland lost and gone forever. Please stock more of Tom Devine’s well informed and articulate books. Also the excellent critiques of polticla theoristsTom Nairn. 

**Two competing Narratives 

Pakistani author Pankaj Mishra was writing about the two totally opposing narratives in the middle east – one of the Israelis (from the river to the sea) and the other of Palestinians (our Homelands) in his book After Gaza. It all made me think in Scotland we also have two opposing, irreconcilable narratives. In 2025 Scotland is stuck, so how can we move forward in love, in peace and in liberal thought?

 

Indy for Scotland’s self determination and improving democracy. Scots need a say over our own energy resources, immigration, climate, and infrastructure. We can still unite for good trade and security together. Unionism is for strength by being run by London, and being ‘together’ with the high centralization in London. Westminster refuses Scotland another vote.  

 

“Nationalism is both good and bad” wrote politician historian Tom Nairn. All Nationalisms are different. He claims Scotland’s nationalism is unique as Scotland jumped ahead to a modern state 1700s. By contrast European states moved to modern states 1800s, due to the uneven nature of capitalism. Scots nationalism is about our self determination. 

All I hear is depressive negatives and an SNP Bad message by the dominant mainstream unionist media. But indy isn’t all about the SNP. Its about democracy, accountability and how our democracy works or doesn’t work. Is devolution simply a trap? Someone at Westminster said recently – “Oh I forgot you’ve got that pretend government in Scotland.” After decades – the SNP Party was begun in 1934 - I’ve heard many reasons for Scottish indy, but so far I’m still searching for a positive reasons for the union.

STRANDS: Brilliant Fiction. Fascinating Non-Fiction will explore everything from moving memoirs to scientific excavations, family odysseys to travelogues. Good Information brings together a host of trustworthy experts well versed in sifting out hard fact and cutting through murky algorithms to give you an honest account of a diverse range of topics. New World Orders gathers the most authoritative voices across international and domestic politics, conflict, economics, and law to engage with and dissect current affairs, and Brainwaves holds up a magnifying glass to all things cranial, including mental health, neuroscience, and psychology. How to Live a Meaningful Life, guiding audiences new and deeper ways of creating connection, resilience and hope, amongst the chaos, and an expanded Table Talks series, with top chefs and food writers taking to the stage – or rather around the table – in intimate gatherings with audiences to enjoy delicious food and make memories together. Music, Poetry and Performance

 

Lindsey Hilsum Poetry in Times of War EIBF 2025

It’s the Poetry we’ll remember

Channel four foreign news correspondent gave a talk at Edinburgh international book festival 2025, on her book I Brought the War with me, about her poetry in times of war. She always carries a book of poetry with her. After her horrific experiences of fighting in Rwanda, she felt she needed philosophical more than psychological help.

 

She says that people remember the great poets of the world wars, and not the journalists reports. 

When in Ukraine in 2022, at a town called Izium, she stood beside an apartment block split apart by a missile. Fifty four people had been killed in the Russian attack six months before. 

 

"Purple and yellow wild flowers were growing in the rubble that filled the chasm between the two parts of the block. It is not the houses. It is the space between the houses,” I thought. “It is not the streets that exist. It is the streets that no longer exist.” 

She then thought of James Fenton 1981 poem A German Requiem, about selective memory in the second world war. 

 It is not your memories which haunt you.
It is not what you have written down.
It is what you have forgotten, what you must forget.
What you must go on forgetting all your life.

“The idea that the spaces between the houses symbolised gaps in memory, and that forgetting might be essential if people were to live together in peace, 

Poetry helps us see parallels with the past, and puts up a mirror to our fears.

 

Hilsum spoke of her often traumatic experiences covering many foreign wars over her 40 years of experience…” Many journalists are resilient, and – at least for now – I would count myself as fortunate in this regard. Witnessing the suffering of others, surviving danger and experiencing grief are all profound experiences, to which nightmares, anger, tears and bouts of despondency are all normal, human responses. They are not necessarily signs of a clinical condition.”

She explained that Poets don’t have the answers. But they may help us understand our own actions and reactions and find a way through the darkness.  

She got into reporting via aid work in Central America in the 70s. ‘I didn’t really know that war was brewing across the region – my concern was social justice, and, at 20 years old, I just wanted to have an adventure and change the world. (I succeeded in the former but not – needless to say – in the latter.) In 1982, I moved to Kenya to work for the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund, Unicef.

She realised her main skill was to pivot to journalism. “Reality overcame the illusions I harboured. Nearly every country neighbouring Kenya – Uganda, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia – was going through civil war… I found that while reporting on people in war zones was at times upsetting and occasionally terrifying, it was also rewarding and exciting. I felt that I was living through history as it happened. Later, I was lucky enough to get a job with Channel 4 News, based in London, and while I have never been exclusively a war correspondent, I have spent a lot of my career reporting conflict”

She spoke of the great war poets, and said that many war poems are written by women. “I am drawn to what Wilfred Owen described as: “The pity of war, the pity war distilled.” 

Hilsum, was handed a rose in Velyka Novosilka, eastern Ukraine, by Oleksiy, who was cycling across town to see his friend, at the start of the Ukrainian counter-offensive in June 2023.” 

“ journalism is ephemeral. We rarely read the stories written by reporters who covered the first and second world wars. We do, of course, read the poetry. They focus on what is critical now – this village taken, that truce broken, a new atrocity by occupying forces. But poets through the ages have turned the horror of war into transcendent works of beauty and meaning.

The late Irish musician Frank Harte said: “Those in power write the history; those who suffer write the songs.”

 This is an extract from I Brought the War with Me by Lindsey Hilsum, which is published by Chatto & Windus on 19 September (£16.99). 

II  Extract from her memoir, she explains why her own words were not always enough    

My TV news report reflected some of this, but it did not have the allusive power of the poem.

“In my nearly four decades as a foreign correspondent, I have always carried a book of poetry with me. While the images we show have great impact, I feel that journalistic language sometimes fails to convey the intensity of the experience. Maybe Fenton’s poetry resonates with me because he was a war correspondent as well as a poet – he sees what I see but has found a more compelling way of expressing it, as if he is working in three dimensions while I am stuck in two. We journalists pride ourselves on the clarity of our prose and on making complex stories simple. That’s our job – to explain why terrible things are happening and to challenge the euphemisms used by politicians and military spokespeople. We also try to convey the thoughts and feelings of the people we meet, and a sense of what it feels like to be on the ground. Yet we may lose the deeper meaning, the universal import of what we have witnessed or the contradictory emotions that war engenders.”

She got into reporting via aid work in Central America in the 70s. "I didn’t really know that war was brewing across the region – my concern was social justice, and, at 20 years old, I just wanted to have an adventure and change the world. (I succeeded in the former but not – needless to say – in the latter.) In 1982, I moved to Kenya to work for the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund, Unicef."

”She realised her main skill was to pivot to journalism. “Reality overcame the illusions I harboured. Nearly every country neighbouring Kenya – Uganda, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia – was going through civil war… I found that while reporting on people in war zones was at times upsetting and occasionally terrifying, it was also rewarding and exciting. I felt that I was living through history as it happened. Later, I was lucky enough to get a job with Channel 4 News, based in London, and while I have never been exclusively a war correspondent, I have spent a lot of my career reporting conflict”

War gives your life purpose and meaning… the colours are brighter and the mountains clearer

She spoke of her personal reporting of war zones – “The lives of those who have had war visited upon them, the children, conscripts and civilians, are desperate and miserable. But those who visit war – aid workers, journalists, military volunteers – share a secret. War gives your life purpose and meaning."

 Suddenly you believe you know what matters and what can be dismissed as unimportant. The colours are brighter and the mountains clearer. You live in the moment.” 

This is an extract from I Brought the War with Me by Lindsey Hilsum, which is published by Chatto & Windus on 19 September (£16.99). 

 

Poetry Shapes Us

 

While Burns loved the lassies, his legacy is much deeper and more wide-ranging poetically than his love life. Some of his songs are so familiar, perhaps we can overlook his literary significance – both of his time and of ours.  The musicality of his song writing and poems, is unmatched and many famous poets and songsmiths name Burns as a favourite writer– from Bob Dylan to Wordsworth. 

In his short life he touched hearts, wrote of the worth of man (and woman), respect for the natural world, of freedom fighters, and he was a man o independent mind. 

 

“Poetry hold s mirror to a nations heart and soul. “ Jackie Key

“Its the language of being human” 

 

 *Famous Scots Poems 20^th century 

 

Memo for Spring - Liz Lochead

Drunk man looks at a Thistle – Hugh MacDiarmid

In my Country – Jackie Kay

A Man in Assynt – Norman McCaig

 

Gaelic Song

A rare beauty, or the big sky of Lewis. 

Gaelic poems were songs, tunes and words intertwined. The connections to place.

  

Norman McCaig

“Who owns this landscape – has it anything to do with love? Even the dead are part of it. Land is a character…Landscape is my religion, I feel at home. My substitute for religion and politics.“

 

Drunk man looks at a thistle – Hugh MacDiarmid – Where extremes meet

His poem, revolutionized Scots poetry ’to be yoursell” 

“He showed us that small nations are better than large ones, and the possibility of a new Scotland.” Alan Riach. “A revolutionary vision of what society can be. To rethink the Burns cult for a multi-faceted identity. Language matters.”

 

Was Robert Burns a Reformer, a Jacobin or a Supporter of King George

 

There has been a debates over Burns political views. Its particularly difficult because Burns had to play all sides in order to earn a living and to gain subscribers for his poetry. Burns grew up the oldest of seven children with a poor tenant farmer, who was told his land would be improved, but wasn’t. In July 1786 Buns published his first book of poetry, Poems Chiefly in the Scotch dialect” and to do so required many subscribers. 

 

Burns was an active freemason which was a great way to network, gain influence and meet men from all walks of life. He also belonged to gentlemen clubs in Edinburgh. For instance during his time in the crossroads town of Mauchline (1784-1786) he met all kinds of people from all walks of life at Poozie Nansies ale house -  titled landowning men, dukes, earls, lawyers, academics, clergy, farmers, peasants, shopkeepers, artists, doctors, scholars. 

 

His first book of poems received great acclaim and sold worldwide. He was given enough support to enable him to travel to Edinburgh for a second edition and later to travel across Scotland collecting both subscribers and traditional tunes and songs. As a man of genius he might have been better supported and after two years (1786-1788) he felt compelled to join the Excise to support his young family. He married Jean Armour in April 1788 and they moved to Ellisland farm north of Dumfries. He continued to write his poetry, collect songs, travel long distances for the Excise and keep detailed records. Jean looked after the farm. 

 

The Burns museum displays many of the myths that surround Burns – from one of the first Romantic poets, to the farmers son in enlightened Edinburgh. His image was appropriated in Victorian times to promote Scotland worldwide. Often Burns significant and interesting political views and the turbulent revolutionary times he lived in are glossed over. At the times 1780s there was the American wars of independence and the French revolution.

 

But this was not how Burns viewed his poetry and songs. He wrote in Scots and English, after reading Robert Fergusson Scots poems and Allan Ramsey. He collected and wrote to save and preserve the Scots language and songs. At a time when Scots voices were being crushed after Culloden (1746), when the highland way of life was destroyed by Cumberland and wearing the kilt was banned. 

 

Burns wore a plaid shawl around his shoulders and his hair in a pony tail as a sign of rebellion. His grandfather had worked for the Earl of Marischal south of Aberdeen - the most powerful Jacobite who fled after the 1715 uprising. His father then travelled south.

 

In Dumfries Burns drank with reformers at the Globe Inn. In fact there’s a story of Burns rudely keeping his hat on during the singing of the British national anthem at the new Dumfries theatre. He wrote to Mrs Dunlop about the “idiot French King Louis, who deserved to have his head chopped off”. His reformer friends at Dumfries Globe Inn, sent weapons to France to help the new republic. Tom Paine wrote the Rights of Man’ pamphlet which helped start the American wars of independence. Burns wrote his famous poem A Mans a Man For A That 1795 – “shall equals be for all that”

Burns certainly was a man of many sides – a Lad O Pairts, He adored lively debates, had renowned conversations, and looked widely for ideas. His favourite book A Man of Feeling by Henry McKenzie. He read all the great English poets and enlightenment figures. He lived in crossroads, turbulent times – just as Mozart (1756-1791) and Bob Dylan. Any study of Burns needs to dig deep into the many images and myths portrayed of Burns.  

 

In his book “Robert Burns and Political Culture” Dr Paul Malgrati advocates that Burns was politically ambiguous - he was so to protect himself and his family, from being investigated by the Hanoverian London authorities. He was nearly investigated but managed to contact supporters to protect him. At the time reformers such as the lawyer Thomas Muir were being put on trial and then sent to Australia. Malgrati suggests that our great Scottish bard is not the right role model or image for Scotland’s independence. (Sunday National, 22 Dec 2024. Book suggests independence movement should cut ties with Robert Burns).  

 

Reformers for liberty in turbulent times! - “I was the independent-minded man whose sympathies were with my own folk – even while I had to work for the crown and government. Democracy’ was a dangerous word. Reform! My god! What a reform I would make among the sons and even the daughters of men!”  RB

My impression of Burns is he had great humanity and understanding. Burns was a man of independent mind. His many letters show a man interested in politics and also a great reader. Reading his letters, poems, songs and biographies’ its hard not to believe Burns supported reform. 

He lived in turbulent times of reform. Burns wrote his famous ‘Scots wa Hae’ about all freedom fighters – from Wallace, Bruce to Thomas Muir. Burns questioned, he looked for truth, he studied enlightened thought. He’s Scotland’s best known and loved poet. In my view Burns views on egalite, freedom of thought, respect for nature, his wish to preserve Scots voices – make Burns exactly the role model for Scotland’s independent future.

A NEW “Robert Burns and Political Culture” book raises the question of whether Burns is the best cultural icon for the Yes movement. Book suggests independence movement should cut ties with Robert Burns - 

Sunday National 22 Dec 2024 - 

https://www.thenational.scot/news/24812289.book-suggests-independence-movement-cut-ties-robert-burns/

BURNS Photos

May liberty meet wi success

May prudence protest her frae evil

May tyrants and tyranny tine i the mist

And wander their way to the deil! 

For the past years I have been following in Robert Burns footsteps and reading of the national Scots bard. As I live north of Glasgow I’ve been able to make several journeys down to Burns country in Ayrshire to find the real Burns behind the many myths. Here are some of my favourite Burns photos.

Burns wanted to be a Bard for all of Scotland, not only Ayrshire – and so in 1787 he embarked on travels by horseback across the Borders, the west highlands and further north. He collected songs and poems, to help keep Scots heritage alive. Its not widely recognised but he gained great inspiration from many English poets, such as Alexander Pope and other writers and his letters are written in English. But it was when he read Robert Fergusson’s poetry in Scots, he realised the power of his native tongue. So he combined the force of Scots and the imagery of English. He also knew Latin and French and had been tutored by his father and a young teacher John Murdoch. He was also a great reader. 

 

Burns pens

Ellisland farm beside the river Nith

Burns desk Ellisland looking over the orchard 

Burns was a unique mix of his mother's ballads and his fathers education. He worded hard, wrote and read constantly. Robert Burns 1759 - 1796

1786 

Burns first book of poems published

1787

 Oct. Again in Edinburgh and wrote songs for the Scots Musical Museum. Dec met Nancy.

1788. Left Edinburgh and married Jean in April and moved to build a farmhouse Ellisland north of Dumfries. Jean joined December at the farm. Trained to be an exciseman collecting taxes. 

1790 Feb. Third Volume of Scots Musical Museum with 40 songs published.

At Hallowe’en composed Tam O’Shanter. 

 

1791 Moved to Dumfries in October 

July his brother William died at 13. 

1792

Fourth volume of poems published with 47 of my poems. Nancy left for Jamaica in January 1792. Elizabeth Riddell born November.

April given the Dumfries first foot and walk, which paid more.

Reform was happening. John Taylor was arrested and accused by Robert Dundas as a ringleader – ‘of a mob, raged in a riotous and tumultuous manner.’  And brought before Creech. A witness was Robert Graham of Fintry and Alexander Nasmyth was on the jury. Burns asked him to design scenery for the new theatre. 

Sent Creech poems autumn 1792 and signed myself Ca ira, a wild flourish! 

 

1793

Creech published Second Edinburgh Edition, 2 volume edition of Burns Poems. 

The French king was executed. Burns suffered extreme mood swings and conflicts – hypochondria he called it. 'I often despaired, suffered low moods. The more I was in the position of authority the more I rebelled!'

May moved to a red brick 2 storey town house, Mill fennel, 

1794

James Glencairn born August. 

1795

Joined the Dumfries volunteers. Sept Elizabeth died. Burns fell ill. 

1796

December fifth volume of  Scots Music Museum published with 3 Burns songs – 

Dancing was independence. Burns died july 1796

Mauchline

Dumfries house

First Book Poems Chiefly in the Scotch Dialect