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| Iain MacWhirter |
At EIBF; Edinburgh International book festival 2015
‘Around the world’ brochure and Trading Stories. ‘We would be a much poorer culture had those wayfarers not persisted in gazing beyond the next horizon.’This year I met a personal hero of mine, the incomparable Nicola Sturgeon. She seems more approachable than Salmond and since she took over as first minister last year has achieved unparalleled popularity from the public. On the road for the Referendum she took time to listen - a crucial skill for a successful politician. At the same time she has a clear vision for where she sees the future for Scotland. At EIBF she interviewed the crime writer Val McDermid.
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| Nicola Sturgeon and Val McDermid |
and Iain MacWhirter on his book 'Disunited Kingdom: How Westminster won a Referendum but Lost Scotland.' Blog to follow.
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| Alan Cumming |
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| Ian Rankin |
Other famous
writers attending EIBF included – Greg
Proops, Celia Imrie, Terry Waite, Helen Lederer.
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| Celia Imrie |
Some of the
outstanding woman writers at EIBF included – Elif Shafak, Liz Lochead,, Phillappa Gregory, Val McDermid, Antonia Frazer,
Ali Smith, Lesley Riddoch, Margaret Atwood, Shami Chakrabarti.
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| Chtristobel Kent |
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| Lucy Ribchester |
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| Shami Chakrabarti |
The festival
is also a platform for new writers - Lucy Ribchester, Oscar Coop-Phane, Neil
Zink,
While I
didn't manage as many talks as I would wish to - I purchase the books that
interest me. I am always inspired by the book festival.
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| Tom Holland
*EIBF BOOKS
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Stuart McHardy - Scotland's Future History
Iain MacWhirter – Disunited Kingdom: How Westminster
won the Referendum but lost Scotland
Martin Kemp – Art In History. How art is
connected to history.
Shami Chakrabarti. -
On Liberty
Marianne Liner – Sacred Scotland
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| Simon Armitage |
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| Oscar Coop-Phane |
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| Terry Waite |
*Music EIBF. At the Jura Unbound there were several music evenings.
I met the
Scottish SAY award winner 2015 Kathryn
Joseph. Her old piano was being carefully lifted in the side gate. She was
the headline for Vic Galloway’s
music evening at Jura Unbound.
Michael
Hofmaa, Stories without Borders. (poet, translator and essayists). Does it
matter where stories originate from?
Sadly this
year I was busy with personal events, and also unwell, so I wasn’t able to
attend as much as I would have liked to.
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| Charlotte Higgins |
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| Richard Havers |
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| Nell Zink |
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| Kevin Mayer |
It is not what
you see but what one makes others see.
