A Life on the Scrap HeapIn 2001, almost 150 tattered notebooks were discovered in a skip in Cambridge. They were a small part of an intimate diary that began in 1952 and ended half a century later. It took Alexander Masters five years to unco

Shirin Ebadi (2016 Event)

Nov 17th, 2016 52m 45s

My Fight for Human RightsThe first Muslim woman and first Iranian to win a Nobel Peace Prize, Shirin Ebadi is a leading lawyer and activist who has campaigned fearlessly for freedom of speech and equality before the law in her country, despit

Charles Fernyhough (2016 Event)

Nov 16th, 2016 53m 51s

Voices in our HeadsTwo years ago, authors at the Book Festival took part in a major study into the multiple inner voices that make up human consciousness. Now, the leader of that project, psychologist Charles Fernyhough, has completed a major

David Millar (2016 Event)

Nov 13th, 2016 56m 24s

Life in the PelotonThose lucky enough to witness David Millar’s spellbinding Book Festival event in 2011 will recall the athlete’s forthright admissions about calorie counting, secret doping and quirky camaraderie on the pro cycling circuit.

Ben Rawlence (2016 Event)

Nov 10th, 2016 1h 4m

The World’s Largest Refugee CampDadaab Refugee Camp in Northern Kenya has existed for 25 years. Originally created for 90,000 Somalian refugees it now contains over 350,000 people, including 10,000 third-generation inhabitants. Over a period

Nina Stibbe (2016 Event)

Nov 8th, 2016 57m 42s

The Funniest Writer in Britain?Already a wildly popular author thanks to her memoir Love, Nina and bestselling debut novel, Man at the Helm, Nina Stibbe returns with Paradise Lodge. Set in a 1970s ramshackle old people's home, this lovingly c

Kenny MacAskill (2016 Event)

Nov 4th, 2016 1h

Unlocking LockerbieIn 2009, then Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill controversially granted the release on compassionate grounds of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only man ever convicted for the Lockerbie Bombing in 1988. Now MacAskill has written

Edna O'Brien (2016 Event)

Nov 1st, 2016 54m 12s

One of the Greatest Irish WritersPhilip Roth has called it Edna O’Brien’s masterpiece; for John Banville it’s savage, tender and true; Claire Messud describes it as arduous and beautiful. The Little Red Chairs is the work of a truly great Iri

Kevin Barry (2016 Event)

Oct 31st, 2016 58m 53s

John Lennon’s Bad TripKevin Barry’s Beatlebone recently won the £10,000 Goldsmiths Prize for ‘fiction at its most novel’. The phrase seems apt: even though this is a story built from familiar elements – an imagined John Lennon, post-Beatles i

Alaa Al Aswany (2016 Event)

Oct 28th, 2016 1h

Egypt: A Devastating PortraitIn 2002, The Yacoubian Building was an international bestseller, establishing Alaa Al Aswany as one of the Arab world’s most influential voices. Since then, Egypt has changed radically. However, Al Aswany’s new no

Packie Bonner (2016 Event)

Oct 26th, 2016 1h 2m

The Goalkeeper Who Saved the DayThe idea that footballers stay with one club throughout their career is almost laughable in these cash and ego-driven times. But Patrick ‘Packie’ Bonner was one such man, keeping goal for Celtic across three de

Philippe Sands (2016 Event)

Oct 24th, 2016 1h 1m

East West StreetThere is no lawyer quite like Philippe Sands QC. Outspoken on a range of human rights issues, from the illegality of the Iraq war to torture in the Bush administration, the Professor of Law at University College London is also

Mark Haddon (2016 Event)

Oct 20th, 2016 59m 53s

Nine More Curious IncidentsFirst he found literary acclaim with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, then he struck gold with a National Theatre play based on the bestselling book. Now, Mark Haddon turns his hand to short fictio

Miranda Sawyer (2016 Event)

Oct 18th, 2016 57m 21s

Middle-Aged MiseryMid-life crises arrive at different times for different people. For journalist and broadcaster Miranda Sawyer, hers made its presence felt at the age of 44. Out of Time is Sawyer’s investigation of this most challenging of l

Mervyn King (2016 Event)

Oct 17th, 2016 1h

Making Banking BetterNearly a decade after the Great Recession of 2007-09, banking may have become one of the world’s less popular professions, but has the financial system itself actually changed much? If not, what corrections to banking and

Janet Ellis & Lorna Gibb (2106 Event)

Oct 14th, 2016 59m 50s

Dangerous HeroinesTwo debut novels whose lead characters will entrance, unnerve and delight. Evoking the blood, filth and beauty of Georgian London, Janet Ellis’ The Butcher’s Hook introduces us to young Anne Jaccob who embarks on a passionat

Michel Faber (2016 Event)

Oct 12th, 2016 1h 7m

Strange to be Doing This Without HerThe acclaimed author of Under the Skin and The Book of Strange New Things reads from a collection of deeply moving poems entitled Undying. In tender, bittersweet verse, Michel Faber grieves for his wife Eva

Jonathan Safran Foer (2016 Event)

Oct 11th, 2016 1h 3m

Extremely Talented and Incredibly CloseThe bestselling US author of Everything is Illuminated launches his first novel in 11 years. Jonathan Safran Foer’s Here I Am is the story of a fracturing New York family, set against the backdrop of a m

James Kelman (2016 event)

Oct 4th, 2016 59m 19s

A Road Trip Through AmericaWith the publication of Dirt Road, Scotland’s only Booker Prize winner joins a Scottish publisher for the first time in decades. This brilliantly accessible road movie of a novel arrives with Canongate’s typical pan

Mark Billingham with Val McDermid (2016 Event)

Oct 2nd, 2016 1h 1m

Deceptively Brilliant FictionWith over three million copies of his books sold to date, Mark Billingham’s career as a novelist has been a slam-dunk success. And he’s back for more this summer with Die of Shame, his smartest, most unusual thril

Cecilia Ekbäck & Graeme Macrae Burnet (2016 Event)

Sep 30th, 2016 57m 20s

Mysteries Under the Northern LightsIn the mid-19th century, what unites the Sami people of Lapland and a band of crofters in north-west Scotland? In the fictional worlds of Cecilia Ekbäck and Graeme Macrae Burnet, each community has witnessed

Paul Morley (2016 Event)

Sep 29th, 2016 59m 2s

Bowie: Life of a LegendLast year, the jubilation upon the arrival of David Bowie’s new album, Blackstar, quickly turned to shock and grief with the announcement of his death. A true and rare musical icon, Bowie influenced generations of artis

Hadley Freeman (2016 Event)

Sep 26th, 2016 58m 45s

A Love Letter to 1980s CinemaFor many, the 80s was a decade that taste didn’t just forget, but totally bypassed. Guardian and Vogue columnist Hadley Freeman does not subscribe to that one bit and is so passionate about 80s American movies tha

Cara Ellison and Simon Parkin (2016 Event)

Sep 23rd, 2016 1h 6m

Is Video Gaming Killing Us?For years video games have been part of daily life and now two keen players have written insiders’ accounts that explore their effects. Cara Ellison (a ‘cyberpunk hair-dyed Attenborough’) spent a weird year observin

Gregor Fisher & Melanie Reid (2016 Event)

Sep 18th, 2016 58m 5s

Tough Childhood of a Comedy HeroGregor Fisher may be best known as Rab C Nesbitt, the funniest string-vested street philosopher in all of Govan, but his own life story is far from amusing. His upbringing was a tale of secrets, deception, trag