New Voices Edinburgh book festival 2019

Rory Stewart

The people I meet.

The festival is about bringing people together to celebrate the spoken word. 

The challenges and the cycles of life: renewal and recharge.

After only a few days, I meet many interesting people. 

The people who attended are from so many different backgrounds, viewpoints and voices. We need more room and platforms for free debate.

Kenny MacAskill

There is supposed to be intermittent showers but its been mostly warm and sunny so far. Typical changeable August – perhaps more so than usual even. 

We need to new voices, but more than ever we need as many diverse voices as possible. So many of us feel betrayed, confused, let down, and not sure where the answers are anymore. We are in a great state of flux, things are shifting and great change is inevitable. At Biblos  restaurant- I wonder is the festival too big these days, with too much average and too little great? Another year gone. But I'm always inspired and often exhausted!

Rachel Long

Isabella Hammad

Heida Ásgeirsdóttir

 Inua Ellams

The theme this year was – We need new stories. 

One of the most original voices I’ve read in recent years over the present political madness of Brexit, is Irish Times writer Fintan OToole. His event at eibf sold out instantly when tickets went on sale- so I was surprised when I joined the long queue to see him that is was doing his talk in the small Spark tent on George street, rather than the main New York Times tent. 

Clare Balding

Nicola Sturgeon and Arundhati Roy

Fintan O’Toole

I am presently reading O’Toole’s recent book, Heroic Failure, on the Brexit carry on, and what an excellent story teller he is in his well researched tale. Things are badly off kilter and we certainly need well researched and original new voices. 

Question?  Is EIBF, or rather why does eibf not cater for the young adults, if not why not? 

Photography -  Some people have a presence or inner light that shines through in their photos. Perhaps its experience, character or simply knowing who you are. At eibf there is such a great variety of characters to shoot – from explorers, composers, journalists, illustrators, scientists, poets, comedians, politicians,.

Tania Nwachukwu

Amna Saleem 

Denis mina

Miriam Khan

**TALKS

Gender Debate: What is Gender in the 21^stcentury.

Her Scotland, author Rosemary Gorling

Lowland Clearances, Tom Devine

**BOOKS

Fintan O’Toole – Heroic Failure

Tom Devine – The Scottish Clearances

David McCraw - Truth in Our Times 

Robert Crawford – The Book of Iona

Marina Warner – Forms of Enchantment : Writing on Arts and Artists

Edinburgh festival 2019

2019 was the festivals 72nd year 

For the month of August Edinburgh’s population doubles in size, and every possible room and hall becomes a venue. Edinburgh’s Royal Mile is the perfect historic backdrop for the players to exhibit their talents. The weather in August may be changeable, but it is also just right. 

The main event is the comedy: and the international main festival, theatre plays, music concerts, dance, cabaret – from world class, to school and university amateurs. It offers an expanding platform for new talent. There is something here for everyone. Edinburgh is also just the right size to walk around the dramatic castle, old town and new town. Its worth taking time to explore Scottish history off the main tourist paths and down the Canongate. 

Many great writers have lived here - Alan Ramsay, Adam Smith, David Hume, Dugald Stewart, Adam Ferguson, James Hutton, Henry MacKenzie, Robert Burns, Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, Alexander Macall Smith, Ian Rankin.

Forgotten Women

Women pass on our stories, but they are often forgotten in the archives and annals of history. 

We live in a world where most of the statues are to men. I used to wonder were there no great women artists or musicians. Then I discovered, yes there were many outstanding women artists! –

In my life time there have been women of genius and great accomplishments – Joni Mitchell, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, Oprah Winfrey, Coco Chanel, Angela Merkel, Christine Lagard, Hilary Clinton, Angelina Jolie, and many, many more. 

There are many women, who not only supported their husbands, but added to their creativity. 

I also read of how women influenced their children – Robert Burns learned not only from his father, but from his aunt’s stories and his mother singing the traditional ballads. 

Scottish author Sara Sheridan has written a new book where all the names in Scotland are female names!

Where are the Women? (2019) Sara Sheridan

Margaret MacDonald

Elsie Inglis

 A Few Examples

Elsie Inglis: Female hero honoured in Serbia. There is no statue to her in Edinburgh, only  plaque in st Giles, she brought hygiene to war conditions and saved many lives. 

**Elsie Inglis, doctor and suffragette, who fundraised for the first Scottish Women’s Hospitals (SWH)  hospice for poor women Edinburgh in 1894. She attended Edinburgh medical school and qualified from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Edinburgh. She trained at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson’s new hospital for women London and later at the Rotunda Dublin. She was appalled by the general standard of care and lack of specialization in the needs of female patients. 

She is best known for The Elsie Inglis maternity hospital and her war work when she set up the SWH for Foreign Service which sent medical teams to Belgium, France, Serbia, and Russia. After the British army turned her down she gained support from the French government. She was told – to go home and sit still by the UK war office! She went to Serbia and worked to improve hygiene to reduce typhus and other epidemics. She was awarded the Order of the White Eagle of Serbia

Margaret MacDonald

– (1864 -1933) Scottish artist whose design work became one of the defining features of the "Glasgow Style" during the 1890s.With her husband, renowned architect Rennie Mackintosh, she was one of the most influential members of the loose collective of the Glasgow Four. She exhibited at the 1900 Vienna Secession, where she was arguably an influence on the Secessionists Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffman. Her husband Charles Macintosh said, Margaret is the genius, I have only the talent.’

Beverly Martyn, English singer songwriter (1947 - )

Apparently John Martyn wrote his best songs with Beverly Kutner, his wife, which she gets little credit for. Beverly had worked with Paul Simon, Nick Drake. They recorded three albums together before John was persuaded by the record label to go solo - Stormbringer, Road to Ruin and Bless the Weather. She played piano while they wrote songs together for Solid Air.  Beverly was then left on the house on the hill to raise their children. John toured and turned to alcohol. Beverly left him after ten years of marriage.    

Nelle Harper Lee (1926 – 2016), author of To Kill a Mocking bird, one of the best loved American classics. 

Sofonisba Anguissola (1550 Spain) 

Lavinia Fontana (1520 Italy) 

Artemisia Gentileschi (1615 Italy). 

Clara Peeters (1594) 

Lady Butler (1846 England) 

Berthe Morisot (1841 France) 

Karin Larsson (1859 Sweden)  

Margaret MacDonald (1864 Scotland) 

Georgia O'Keefe (1887 America) 

Elsie Inglis -  (1864 –1917) Scottish doctor and suffragette,

Muriel Spark – (1918 – 2006) Scottish author

Margaret Macdonald – (1864 -1933) Scottish artist

Mary Somerville  (1780 – 1872)

Mary Barbour(1875  – 1958)

Scottish Women Writers

*Catherine Carswell 1876 – 1946

Carswell wrote of the worlds of Europe and Glasgow. Carswell was a professional reviewer for the Herald newspaper. She wrote of great women characters of modern fiction: vulnerable, tough, bright and strong. 

Biography Robert Burns (1930):The Sage Pilgrimage (1932); the Tranquil Heart (1937),

The Scottish world is not for Joanna: Italy and Europe must be experienced before she can fully inhabit her potential

*Nan Shepherd(1893 – 1981)

`The Quarry Wood, The Weatherhouse, A Pass in the Grampians. Shepherd wrote of identity and freedom; landscape and spirituality; responsibility and choice. Her most famous book is  The Living Mountain (1977).

*Willa Muir (1890 – 1970)

Women: An Enquiry (19250, Mrs Grundy in Scotland (1936), Imagined corners (1931); Mrs Ritchie (1933), Living with ballads (1963); Belonging (1968)

Aileen Christenson’s critical study moving in circles on Willa Muir’s writings (2007)

All three have either place in any canon of modern literature, write Alan Raich. Scotland should be glad to give them acclaim.

Scottish Collaborations: Medici Intersection

In Edina at the Mercat Cross, the great and good gathered -  from all walks of life and it was a great melting pot of ideas. They met near William Creech’s publishing house, in the time of great men such a David Hume, Adam Smith, Dugald Stewart, Robert Burns, Alexander Nasmyth, and many others. 

“During the renaissance the Medici family provided opportunities for people from different disciplines – artists, writers, scientists, engineers, natural philosophies – to all come together, in a space where they could work together to solve problems. All the labs in England and Wales are commercially driven and are completely privatised. Whereas in Scotland we have  a more cohesive organisation, not driven commercially.”

‘its partly our philosophy of working together, which comes out of the Scottish enlightenment. The enlightenment here emerged in a different way than it did in England and Wales and France and elsewhere, because instead of just having scientists and natural philosophers working together to solve problems we also had artists and writers and poets and we brought them all together in some sort of a rammy.” Forensic scientists Dundee centre, on their multi disciplinary approach. "  

Namh Nic Daeid, Dorector Forensic centre Dundee

Medici intersection

Edinburgh Festivals 2018!

The worlds largest arts festival has invited the world and the world came……

One of the highlights of my year is visiting the Edinburgh festivals in Augusts –  the Fringe, the Arts festival, the Edinburgh Book festival, as well as the main International festival. 

My main focus is always the Edinburgh International book festival, where I attend talks and do photography. Many famous faces attend from across the world of literature, politicians, sports, music the arts, science. I have photos of Scottish and authors worldwide on my website – 

Seamus Heaney, John Byrne, Ian Rankin, Iain Banks, Alex Salmond Liz Lochhead, Mark Baaumont, Neil Gaiman, Elif Shafak, Ruth Rendell, Maggie O’Farrell, Joanne Harris, Martin Amis, Nile Rodgers, Alan Cummings, Simon Callow, John Byrne - http://pkimage.co.uk/edinburghbookfestival

In the perfect setting of Charlotte square Edinburgh. EIBF is a celebration of books, written words ideas, spaces to collaborate and exchange views, inspiring stories. retrieving and renewing. I am looking outward to common interests, shared values, an informed country, and to renew the Scottish arts. The book festival will celebrate 'freedom' as their theme this year. 

Last year I was proud my son took part in the Edinburgh Fringewith the Aberdeen Aperpella group at Surgeons hall – the always popular harmony singing groups – and performed on the high street.  

The biggest part of the fringe is comedy – as well as musicals, drama, dance, music, 

The Edinburgh Arts festival is hosting a show on Scottish photography at the Arts Centre, As well as a show on Rembrandt at the Scottish National galleries. 

LINKS - 
EDINBURGH ARTS FESTIVALS -  https://edinburghartfestival.com/scottish-photography

EDINBURGH FRINGE-   https://www.edfringe.com

EDINBURGH BOOK FESTIVAL -  https://www.edbookfest.co.uk

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL - https://www.eif.co.uk

This year will see a high street revamp, I look forward to that!  The high street is always a must see. There will be nearly a thousand performers over the vast array of 3,500 varied venues. To provide the biggest platform for creative and for freedom of expression 

"All the arts involve writing and reading, in the widest sense, writing as in composition, creation, production, publication and reading as in attentive analysis, interpretation, conversation, comparisons and contrasts." Alan Raich

Theatre show Leo

Skating minster by Henry Raeburn

Edinburgh International Book festival 2018!

Freedom & Equality

This year the Edinburgh International book festival 2018 will explore our freedoms.  

EIBF provides open minded and challenging platforms to explore new ideas. Each year I attend the Edinburgh festival in the perfect setting of Charlottes Square August for photos and to enjoy some talks and to be inspired.  

Themes will include: - Freedom and Equality, Politics of Change, Sport and Society, Our Planet, Scottish Ideas, Music Makers, Mind and Body, Muriel Spark, Spoken Word. 

The year EIBF will host many writers who challenge the norms and encourage informed debate. *Famous names who will give talks this year – Clinton, Corbyn, Gina Miller, Yanis Veronfakes, Karl Ove Khausgaad, Ali Smith, Ian Rankind. Musicians, scientism, artists, historian and more are represented. Edinburgh was made the first Unesco City of Literature. 

The festival, in collaboration with the Scottish Government Expo fund, has commissioned essays - The Freedom Papers – which consider which freedoms we must protect and which ones give up for the good of society. 

The freedoms of the individual must not impede the necessary structures of a healthy society. A free democracy and free press. In an era of fake news and online click baits, we need professional gatekeepers and investigative journalism more than ever. With the break down of many religions  we need moral guidance. How do we than achieve a healthy balance, along with strong and stable family structures. Education and family are crucial for the core of an informed democracy,  

Alexander McCall Smith

Neil Gaiman

Hera Lindsay Bird

Jake Wallace Simmons 

Simon Callow

Lura Waddell

Paul Muldoon

More than ever we need ‘open spaces’ to discuss new worlds, adaptability, progress, to build bridges and for accountability. How do we encourage healthy, informed debates. 

To question the nature of our freedoms and the nature and health of our democracies.

Freedom can mean the right to vote, or the right of every nation for self determination. 

**The joy and love of books in central, and EIBF also has a large Childrens book festival. 

EIBF celebrate the written and spoken word in the perfect setting of Charlotte square Edinburgh. EIBF is a celebration of books, written words ideas, spaces to collaborate and exchange views, inspiring stories. retrieving and renewing. 

EDINBURGH INTERNAITONAL BOOK FESTIVAL - 11th to 27th August 2018

TICKETS - https://www.edbookfest.co.uk

Statue of poet Robert Fergusson, muse of Robert Burns

Edina skyline from Calton hill