2011 Edinburgh International Book Festival

Edinburgh International Book Festival

Nobel prize-winners and bestselling authors from around the world rubbed shoulders with the literary stars of tomorrow at the 2011 Edinburgh International Book Festival in over 800 events which included enlightening Parkinson-style chats, lively debates and readings. You can listen to extracts from some of the events in our series of free podcasts, recorded live at the festival.

  • 53 minutes 47 seconds
    Kurdo Baksi (2011 Event)
    Stieg Larsson’s books have sold more than 20 million copies in 41 countries. But because they were published after his death, many have been left wondering about the true character of a man who was as passionate in his campaign against Swedish neo-Nazism as he was about writing.
    14 November 2011, 8:44 am
  • 59 minutes 41 seconds
    Robert Coover (2011 Event)
    The reissue of his early novels as Penguin Classics in 2011 underlines his status as a giant of American literary postmodernism. Stories like Spanking the Maid, Gerald's Party and Pricksongs and Descants show that a mordant – and morbid – humour are part of his genius.
    11 November 2011, 7:53 am
  • 1 hour 1 minute
    Audrey Niffenegger (2011 Event)
    Michigan-born writer and artist, and one of our guest selectors, Audrey Niffenegger is the author of the runaway bestseller The Time Traveler’s Wife. In this event she chats about her various books, the most recent of which is a graphic novel, The Night Bookmobile.
    9 November 2011, 7:53 am
  • 53 minutes 21 seconds
    Ben Mezrich (2011 Event)
    His last book was adapted to become The Social Network, one of the most successful movies of 2010. Mezrich then turned his attention to another strange-but-true American tale in his novel Sex on the Moon.
    7 November 2011, 7:57 am
  • 57 minutes 5 seconds
    Stella Rimington (2011 event)
    The former director general of MI5 has forged a new career for herself as an author of spy novels, using her inside knowledge of intelligence activities to create a credible new hero, Liz Carlyle.
    5 November 2011, 8:30 am
  • 55 minutes 11 seconds
    Michael Scheuer (2011 Event)
    The death of Osama bin Laden in May 2011 marked a key moment in the history of the so-called War on Terror. But Michael Scheuer, formerly the chief of the CIA unit responsible for capturing the elusive Saudi, believes bin Laden’s death will make no difference. Incandescent at ‘pro-terrorist’ US foreign policies,
    1 November 2011, 1:30 pm
  • 57 minutes 59 seconds
    Ed Stourton (2011 Event)
    When you hear that a book by a renowned journalist and broadcaster is subtitled ‘Time Spent Following a Lead’, you might assume it’s a memoir concerning the pursuit of headlines. But Diary of a Dog Walker is in fact Stourton’s tale/tail of going out with his pooch.
    31 October 2011, 7:48 am
  • 1 hour 10 minutes
    Melvyn Bragg (2011 Event)
    Since its publication in 1611, the King James Bible has been the world’s number one bestseller. But the book has become a story in itself. It has been the Bible of wars from the British Civil War to the American Civil War.
    30 October 2011, 11:21 am
  • 58 minutes 4 seconds
    Niall Ferguson (2011 Event)
    Are we living through the dying embers of Western ascendancy? For Scottish historian and broadcaster Niall Ferguson, the ‘killer applications’ test is the best way to measure our status with the rest of the world.
    26 October 2011, 7:17 am
  • 1 minute 40 seconds
    Tam Dalyell with James Naughtie (2011 event)
    There can be few backbench politicians who have had as much influence on British politics as Tam Dalyell. Fiercely independent and a thorn in the side of several Prime Ministers, his contributions to politics include his vocal opposition to military intervention in the Falklands.
    24 October 2011, 6:22 am
  • 1 hour 8 minutes
    Neil Forsyth (2011 Event)
    The BBC Radio adaptation of Forsyth's Delete This at Your Perilcatapulted the fictional Dundonian anti-hero Bob Servant to national attention.
    22 October 2011, 12:16 pm
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