Book Festival programme's set to be a real page-turner

Published on Thursday 11 June 2009 10:14

CHERIE Blair and London Olympics chief Lord Sebastian Coe are among the big names set to appear at this year's Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Mrs Blair, wife of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, will be taking part in a discussion about her book Speaking for Myself: The Autobiography of Cherie Blair and will also take part in a question and answer session with the audience.

Lord Coe will make his first appearance at the book festival to discuss his novel The Winning Mind.

They will be joined by hundreds of authors and celebrities from around the world who are taking part in this year's event.

Renowned political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, historian Anthony Beevor, author Will Self, Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman and comic Griff Rhys Jones are among the big names lined up for this year's festival, held as always in a tented village at Charlotte Square Gardens.

Ruth Padel, the poet who was recently forced to step down as Oxford Professor of Poetry following a smear campaign against her rival, will have the prestigious opening session at the festival.

She resigned after it emerged she had told reporters about sexual harassment allegations against her rival Derek Walcott.

The festival programme, launched today, had been "conceived" by festival director Catherine Lockerbie before she had to take medical leave.

Richard Holloway, the controversial former Bishop of Edinburgh and chairman of the Scottish Arts Council, will act as guest director at this year's festival.

Highlights include an appearance by the UK's first female – and Scottish – Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, who will be at the festival for the opening day.

There will also be a first performance in Europe of George Dawes Green's cult storytelling event The Moth, which involves a group of as yet unknown celebrities taking to the stage for ten minutes to tell an unscripted story about their life.

Margaret Atwood will launch her new novel, The Year of the Flood, with a performance of music and song in St John's Church on Princes Street

Edinburgh author Ian Rankin will unveil his first ever graphic novel, Dark Entries, and will join renowned comic book writer and author Neil Gaiman for an event.

Also launching new books will be Richard Dawkins, city chef Tom Kitchin, Alexander McCall Smith and Douglas Coupland, while new volumes of short stories will be released by AL Kennedy, Irvine Welsh and Ben Okri.

The Book Festival will also feature a series of events exploring the implications of the global economic downturn with experts including Vince Cable, Philip Augur, and Andrew Simms, while David Simon and Richard Price, writers of the hit TV series The Wire, will be giving a talk about their work.

Mr Holloway will chair a special series of evening debates in the book festival's own Spiegeltent, bringing together festival authors with thinkers and experts from across Edinburgh to debate subjects from the economic crisis to the true meaning of happiness.

Mr Holloway said: "Scots are an argumentative race, but it is not all contrariness. We have learned during our turbulent history that ideas are dangerous things that need to be tested."

&#149 This year's Book Festival runs from 15-31 August, www.edbookfest.co.uk. Ticket sales will open at 8:30am on Monday, 22 June.