Why Edinburgh International Book Festival can't ignore working-class and gender-critical voices

Do you remember the good old days? Back when the Edinburgh International Book Festival was situated in Charlotte Square and felt like the beating heart of everything good happening in the city in August. In those days, it punched way above its weight, attracting some of the finest authors of our age and tackling every subject under the sun. Then it got lost.

Literally, that meant a journey to Edinburgh College of Art, then onto its new home at Edinburgh Futures Institute. But it also lost its spine.

Last year that involved caving in to the new puritans who decided sponsorship money supplied by Baillie Gifford wasn’t scented enough for their delicate nostrils. The cultural vandals identifying as Fossil Free Books demanded sponsors should divest any investments linked to oil and gas or Israel. Citing concerns about “safety”, the book festival organisers compliantly pulled the plug on a 20-year-relationship.

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Writer and musician Darren McGarvey, pictured at the launch of the Make Health Equal campaign last year, claims he has been excluded from Edinburgh International Book Festival (Picture: David Parry Media Assignments) | PA

Left out in cold

So how did that work out for everyone? For the investment firm, it was business as usual but the move emptied the festival’s coffers. Unsurprisingly no replacement corporate sponsors have been keen to face the constant trial by scolds so it has been left to generous, kind-hearted individuals to prop things up for the sake of the institution.

You might have thought last year’s embarrassment would have made the organisers think more carefully about the decisions they make but no. This year they’re being pilloried over programming, with gender-critical feminists and Orwell prize-winning author Darren McGarvey claiming they’ve been deliberately excluded. The theme of this year’s book festival is repair so both would have fitted perfectly into the programme.

McGarvey lives here, is an acclaimed writer and has a new book out about the impact of sharing trauma. Any psychologist will tell you that is central to repairing damage done but there was no invitation for the author. As one of the few genuine working-class voices in the literary world, he is right to feel left out in the cold.

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‘Extremely divisive’

As are the authors of The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht, a gender-critical anthology that has been a Sunday Times bestseller on three occasions. Despite being called by one critic “the most important political work to come out of Scotland this century”, it proved too difficult territory for the book festival.

“At present, the tenor of the discussion in the media and online on this particular subject feels extremely divisive. We do not want to be in a position that we are creating events for spectacle or sport, or raising specific people’s identity as a subject of debate,” said director Jenny Niven, in response to a question about why the book wasn’t featured.

What’s happened here is all very sad. A once-great ‘August in Edinburgh’ institution has taken sides in the culture wars in a desperate bid to be seen as progressive by the sort of people who preach being kind while practising the opposite.

The end result is an event that claims to be open, curious and inclusive but does so only on its terms. Working-class people shouldn’t be too working class and gender critical feminists should, well, just wheest.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival is a precious institution. Let’s hope these strange times are just a misguided storyline in its evolution and not the start of the final chapter.