EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL
EXPLORES A CHANGING WORLD IN WORDS

The Edinburgh International Book Festival launched its programme for 2011 with a diverse collection of events around the theme of Revolution in the 21st Century which promises 17 days of lively debate in Charlotte Square Gardens this August. With Guest Selectors, the return of the debut authors’ award chosen by readers together with prize-winning authors, politicians, journalists and poets and a second year of late night Unbound events, the Book Festival promises a summer of rich discussion, entertainment and inspiration.
Nick Barley, Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival said “In this, the year that the new Europe comes of age, popular uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East are challenging life long regimes and the world is in a state of change, we will examine the theme of Revolution. From Libya to China, India to Iran, the USA ten years after 9/11 and the recent controversies involving Twitter and Wikileaks, audiences and authors in Charlotte Square Gardens will explore the power of the written word to provide a compelling commentary on the world around us.”
“We will also be celebrating some legends of modern literature. 2011 sees the centenary of the birth of two great poets from opposite ends of Europe - Sorley MacLean and Czeslaw Milosz - and thirty years since the publication of Alasdair Gray’s Lanark. We are delighted that Alasdair will be joining us, not only to open the Book Festival but also on the final evening with a full-length performed reading of his latest work, Fleck, in what is perhaps the most ambitious event we have ever attempted: a world premiere featuring a stellar cast including Liz Lochhead, Will Self, A L Kennedy, Ian Rankin and Alasdair himself. We are very grateful for the support of the Scottish Government's Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund which has allowed us to stage this special event, and to develop a wider programme of performance events in our free Unbound programme.”
Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs Fiona Hyslop said, “The Edinburgh International Book Festival has long been a highlight in the Edinburgh Festivals’ calendar, bringing together some of the world's finest authors and the best of contemporary Scottish talent. This year's programme is sure to intrigue and delight audiences as well as raising Scotland's cultural profile on the international stage.”
The Book Festival has invited four Guest Selectors to curate individual strands of the programme. BBC Special Correspondent Allan Little, who has reported from almost every international conflict in the last 20 years, will explore Revolution in the 21st Century - political and technological - inviting world class authors, including Hisham Matar, Kamila Shamsie and Chan Koonchung to provide unrivalled insights into our fast changing planet. Audrey Niffenegger will be joined by Chris Adrian, Neil Gaiman and Kelly Link, writers unique in their genre-defying, boundary-crossing writing, to examine Writing Without Boundaries. Finally Joan Bakewell will investigate Key Ideas of the 21st Century with a selection of renowned speakers including Michael Symmons Roberts, Julian Baggini, Olivia Laing and Ian Stewart. The new Children’s Laureate, Julia Donaldson MBE, is the Guest Selector for the RBS Children’s Programme in 2011 and will explore new ways to engage children in books and reading. She will also look at the importance of illustration with Nick Sharratt, the Book Festival’s Illustrator in Residence.
Packed into the 17 days are almost 800 authors from over 40 countries around the world including the exiled Chinese Nobel Laureate, Gao Xingjian, who will discuss his life and recent work, the giant of American literary postmodernism, Robert Coover, and Sapphire, who will reveal her long-awaited follow-up to Push. Tobias Wolff, author of This Boy’s Life - a milestone in American letters - will discuss his life and work with Kirsty Wark while Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond will chair an event with Iain Banks. Tom Devine, Sebastian Barry, John Burnside, Tam Dalyell, Michael Ondaatje and Dava Sobel will launch their new books while A S Byatt, Bettany Hughes, Jonathan Lynn and Janice Galloway will give a sneak preview of their books which launch in September.
In addition to great Scottish writers such as Ali Smith, William McIlvanney, Alan Warner, Candia McWilliam, Andrew O’Hagan, Don Paterson, A L Kennedy, Louise Welsh, Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith and Robin Robertson, some of the country’s leading scientific minds, including Keith Campbell and Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, will be touching on the culture of enlightenment and innovation and looking at how Scotland plays a key role in global scientific advancement.
The First Book Award returns, sponsored this year by Newton Investment Management, with 45 authors introducing their debut novels or short stories, including some leading international authors with the first English translation of their work. The Newton First Book Award will encourage audiences to discover the Man Booker Prize winners or Nobel Laureates of the future, to read the books, attend the events and to vote online for their favourites before the end of October.
The Edinburgh International Book Festival was a founding partner of the Word Alliance – a network of six international book festivals providing a platform for artistic collaboration, further expansion of online content, professional, audience and organisational development and an international touring programme for authors. The Word Alliance network includes The Bookworm International Literary Festival, Beijing, The International Literature Festival in Berlin, The Jaipur Literature Festival, Melbourne Writers Festival and the International Festival of Authors in Toronto. A stellar array of international authors will appear in Charlotte Square Gardens including Cate Kennedy and Steven Amsterdam from Australia, Kathleen Winter and Miriam Toews from Canada, Wang Hui and Bi Feiyu from China, Rahul Bhattacharya and Siddhartha Deb from India and Judith Schalansky and Clemens Meyer from Germany.
Three major literary prizes will be awarded at the Book Festival this year. The Edwin Morgan International Poetry Prize will take place on the first anniversary of the poet’s death on Wednesday 17 August. The James Tait Black Prize, in association with the University of Edinburgh, is the world’s oldest literary prize and will take place on Friday 19 August, and this year, for the first time, the prestigious Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year Award, in partnership with Creative Scotland, will be awarded in Charlotte Square Gardens on Friday 26 August.
Janet Smyth, the new Children & Education Programme Director, has re-imagined the events for a younger audience this year to reflect the changing way we view the stories around us. Exploring well known classics from new angles, the programme will offer a fresh perspective on stories such as The Canterbury Tales and Twelfth Night. Featuring a host of the best Scottish, British and international writers, the Book Festival will welcome favourites such as Jacqueline Wilson, Andy Stanton and Robert Muchamore, who will launch his new book, as well as newcomers to Edinburgh including Oscar winning Shaun Tan and Morris Gleitzman from Australia, Kate De Goldi and Peter Millett from New Zealand and leading Finnish writers and illustrators.
The Edinburgh International Book Festival runs from Saturday 13 August to Monday 29 August in Charlotte Square Gardens in the heart of Edinburgh. Tickets go on sale on Sunday 26 June at 8.30am: online at www.edbookfest.co.uk, by phone on 0845 373 5888 or in person on Sunday 26 June only at the EICC, Morrison Street, Edinburgh, and from Monday 27 June to Thursday 11 August at The Hub, Castlehill Edinburgh then at the Box Office in Charlotte Square Gardens from Saturday 13 August.


ADULT PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS
• Get under the skin of British spies as Richard Aldrich explores the history of the listening station GCHQ while Keith Jeffery discusses the history of the first forty years of MI6. Former Director General of MI5 Stella Rimington brings her new Liz Carlyle novel to the Festival.
• Pamela Stephenson-Connolly provides an enlightening account of how human sexual appetites continue to evolve through life, aiming to dispel the myths that commonly surround this most fundamental of activities.
• From the world of politics Bob Marshall-Andrews QC recalls life behind the scenes of New Labour; Robin Harper, the UK’s first Green MP discusses his personal and professional life; Chris Mullin launches the third and final instalment of his political diaries and Mark Malloch-Brown, former Secretary General of the UN, offers a front line view of the challenges of leadership in global politics. Sarah Brown, wife of former PM Gordon Brown, gives a glimpse into her life in No 10 Downing Street.
• Michel Faber will be joined by actor Romola Garai, Director Marc Munden and Lucinda Coxon who adapted The Crimson Petal and the White for television.
• The kidnap of presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt by the guerrilla group FARC created headlines around the world. She tells her story of six years of captivity in the Colombian jungle.
• Wallow in 70s and 80s music nostalgia with Pauline Black from platinum selling 2-Tone band Selector, Kristin Hersh of American indie band Throwing Muses and Barry Miles, NME journalist and archivist for William Burroughs. Ian Rankin brings the music theme up to date with a conversation with the Fife singer James Yorkston of the Fence Collective.
• Exposing the controversy behind drug taking in professional cycling are David Millar and Richard Moore while Jonathan Agnew takes a gentler view of cricket and his working relationship with the legendary Brian Johnston. John Hartson, the explosively talented Celtic striker, discusses his very public battle against cancer.
• The National Library of Scotland Donald Dewar Memorial Lecture will be delivered by The Right Honorable Dame Elish Angiolini DBE QC., the former Lord Advocate of Scotland.
• Grant Morrison discusses his new book on the history of graphic novel superheroes; Rodge Glass and Pat Mills explore Charley’s War, the inspiration for the contemporary story of Dougie’s War; while William Goldsmith and Nick Hayes take the genre to a modern literary artform.
• James Robertson will be in conversation with Irvine Welsh on his epic story of Scotland’s recent history And the Land Lay Still.



RE-IMAGININGS AND REFLECTIONS RUN WILD IN THE RBS CHILDREN’S PROGRAMME
The RBS Children’s Programme of The Edinburgh International Book Festival has been re-imagined this year to reflect the changing way we view the stories around us. Exploring familiar books but with a new angle, the programme will offer a fresh perspective on old classics, such as The Canterbury Tales, revealing them in a whole new way.
Featuring the best Scottish, British and international writers, the Festival will welcome well-known Edinburgh favourites such as Jacqueline Wilson, Andy Stanton and Robert Muchamore as well as illustration workshops with Axel Scheffler and David Roberts. Leading Finnish writers and illustrators such as Riitta Jalonen prove there’s more to Finland than the Moomins; the Italian author Fabio Geda tells an astonishing story of human endurance; and New Zealanders Kate De Goldi and Peter Millett will share stories from down under.
Choreographer and star judge of So You Think You Can Dance Arlene Phillips will be leaping her way into Charlotte Square Gardens this summer with Alana Dancing Star, while Francesca Simon will bring Horrid Henry along for some mischief. Dr Susan Stewart will reveal the beauty secrets of Ancient Rome, and Patrick Ness will share his moving novel A Monster Calls.
Janet Smyth, Director of the RBS Children’s Programme, said “This year we are delighted to have the new Children’s Laureate Julia Donaldson MBE as Guest Selector; and her events reflect the scope of the programme as a whole and involve illustration, drama, song, debate and plenty of interaction. Nick Sharratt will undoubtedly draw a big crowd as our Illustrator in Residence and our ‘re-imagination and reflection’ theme involves authors revisiting favourite tales from Twelfth Night to Tarzan. We welcome authors from Scotland and from abroad, including Australian Oscar winner Shaun Tan, to talk, draw, sing and inspire young readers of all ages.”
Andrew Wilson, Head of Group Communications at RBS said “The authors and illustrators taking part in this year’s RBS Children’s Programme are a unique collection of talents and we recognise the importance of inspiring children to connect with the world of books through participation, imagination and creation. We support this wonderful Festival as part of a range of investments in and around our home city that demonstrate our commitment to growth from where our roots lie. The Book Festival has international stature and we are very pleased to play our own small part in helping its success happen.”
The Edinburgh International Book Festival opens on Saturday 13 August and the public programme runs until Monday 29 August, with the RBS Schools Gala day closing the Festival on Tuesday 30 August. Full details of the 2011 programme can be found at www.edbookfest.co.uk.


RBS CHILDREN’S PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS
• The Guinness Book of Records will be bringing the weird and wonderful to Charlotte Square Gardens this summer including the world’s tallest man! Audiences will have the chance to become a record breaker in their own right and join in the attempt to have the greatest number of people in a reading relay in a single venue.
• Travelling to Edinburgh from down under, Australia’s best loved children’s writer Morris Gleitzman will make his first visit to Scotland this century in a special event with the winner of the 2010 Costa Children’s Book Award Jason Wallace.
• James Mayhew’s Katie series have proved a popular hit and the latest offering brings Katie to bonny Scotland. Young readers will be able to join Katie as she tours around some of the country’s best known landmarks.
• Chair of the The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and the Guardian children’s books editor Julia Eccleshare will be joined by longlisted author Andy Stanton as they discuss the writing process for younger audiences.
• Divided City is Theresa Breslin’s novel of sectarianism in Glasgow and was recently made into a musical by over fifty secondary school children in partnership with the Citizen’s Theatre, Glasgow. The original cast will perform extracts from the musical and the author will be discussing the process and pitfalls of page to stage.
• In a self styled Shanathon, Darren Shan will perform all twelve of his books from the popular Cirque Du Freak series in just two hours. In a ‘Reduced Shakespeare’ style each book will get ten minutes with the end result being an action packed dive into the world of tarantulas, snakeboys, wolfmen and things that go bump in the night…
• In The Sea Are Crocodiles is a true story, shaped into a remarkable piece of fiction by Italian novelist Fabio Geda. Describing Enaiatollah Akbari’s five year journey from Afghanistan to Italy where he finally managed to claim political asylum aged 15. This is set to be an inspiring and insightful event for teenage readers.
• To coincide with the arrival of pandas to Edinburgh Zoo from China, the Book Festival will launch a brand new book of photographs of pandas in the wild, Panda: A Window On Our World.
• Winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize for her novel Ghost Hunter, Michelle Paver will share the story of Torak, Wolf and Renn – characters so close to the author that she ‘felt like howling’ when it came time to bid them goodbye.
• Celia Rees, author of The Fool’s Girl, a re-imagining of Twelfth Night, will be joined by author of The Highwayman’s Footsteps Nicola Morgan – two writers who are masters of bringing the past to life through their fiction.
• Proving there is more to man’s best friends than meets the eye will be Sara Ogilvie and Anna Kemp with their book Dogs Don’t Do Ballet – a story about a hound who doesn’t want to chase sticks or pee against lampposts but dreams of being a ballerina.