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Edinburgh Book Festival
The Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) is a book festival that takes place during two weeks in August every year in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland. Described as ''The largest festival of its kind in the world'', the festival hosts a series of cultural and political talks and debates, along with a well-established children's events programme. It overlaps the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, as well as some of the other events that comprise the Edinburgh Festival. Jenny Niven is the Director and CEO. History The first Book Festival took place in a tent in Edinburgh in 1983. Initially a biennial event, it began to be held annually in 1997. It is a large (225,000 visitors in 2015) and growing international event, central to Edinburgh's acclaimed August arts celebrations. Perhaps partly as a result of this, Edinburgh was named the first UNESCO City of Literature in 2004. The Festival in Charlotte Square was cancelled in 2020 becaus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Festival
A literary festival, also known as a book festival or writers' festival, is a regular gathering of writers and readers, typically on an annual basis in a particular city. A literary festival usually features a variety of presentations and readings by authors, as well as other events, delivered over a period of several days, with the primary objectives of promoting the authors' books and fostering a love of literature and writing. List of writers' conferences, Writers' conferences are sometimes designed to provide an intellectual and academic focus for groups of writers without the involvement of the general public. There are many literary festivals held around the world. Notable literary festivals include: Africa * Port Harcourt Book Festival, October 20–25 * Chinua Achebe Literary Festival, November 16 Asia Asia-Pacific *Ubud Writers and Readers Festival (UWRF), held annually at Ubud, Bali in Indonesia (www.ubudwritersfestival.com) *Gateway LitFest, Gateway Litfest, Feb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander McCall Smith
Sir Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith (born 24 August 1948) is a Scottish legal scholar and author of fiction. He was raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and was formerly Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. He became an expert on medical law and bioethics and served on related British and international committees. He has since become known as a fiction writer, with sales in English exceeding 40 million by 2010 and translations into 46 languages. He is known as the creator of '' The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency'' series. The "McCall" derives from his great-great-grandmother Bethea McCall, who married James Smith at Glencairn, Dumfries-shire, in 1833. Early life Rodney Alexander Alasdair McCall Smith was born in 1948 in Bulawayo in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe), to British parents. He was the only son, having three elder sisters. His father worked as a public prosecutor in Bulawayo. McCall Smith was educated at the Chr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacqueline Wilson
Dame Jacqueline Wilson (' Aitken; born 17 December 1945) is an English novelist known for her popular children's literature. Her novels have been notable for tackling realistic topics such as adoption and divorce. Since her debut novel in 1969, Wilson has written more than 100 books. Early life Jacqueline Aitken was born in Bath, Somerset, on 17 December 1945. Her father, Harry, was a civil servant and her mother, Margaret "Biddy" (née Clibbens), was an antiques dealer. Jacqueline particularly enjoyed books by Noel Streatfeild, as well as American classics such as ''Little Women'' and '' What Katy Did''. At the age of nine, she wrote her first "book", "Meet the Maggots", which was 21 pages long. Wilson was given the nickname "Jacky Daydream" at school, which she later used as the title of her autobiography, telling of her life as a primary school-aged child. Wilson attended Coombe Girls' School in Surrey and Carshalton Technical College. After leaving school at the age of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew O'Hagan
Andrew O'Hagan (born 1968) is a Scottish novelist and non-fiction author. Three of his novels have been nominated for the Booker Prize and he has won several awards, including the ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize. His most recent novel is ''Caledonian Road'' (2024) published by Faber. His previous novel ''Mayflies'' (2020) won the Christopher Isherwood Prize, and was adapted into a two-part BBC television drama of the same name. O'Hagan was executive producer of the TV adaptation. Early life and education O'Hagan was born in Glasgow City Centre in 1968, of Irish Catholic descent, and grew up in Kilwinning, North Ayrshire. His mother was a school cleaner, his father worked as a joiner in Paisley, and he had four elder brothers. His father was a violent alcoholic, and as a boy, he would hide books from his father under his bed. He attended St Winning's Primary then St Michael's Academy before studying at the University of Strathclyde, the first in his family to reach terti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith (born Sadie; 25 October 1975) is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, ''White Teeth'' (2000), immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She became a tenured professor in the Creative Writing faculty of New York University in September 2010. Early life and education Zadie Smith was born on 25 October 1975 in Willesden to a Afro-Jamaicans, Jamaican mother, Yvonne Bailey, and an English father, Harvey Smith, who was 30 years his wife's senior. At the age of 14, she changed her name from Sadie to Zadie. Smith's mother grew up in Jamaica and emigrated to England in 1969. Smith's parents divorced when she was a teenager. She has a half-sister, a half-brother, and two younger brothers (one is the rapper and stand-up comedian Doc Brown (rapper), Doc Brown, and the other is the rapper Luc Skyz). As a child, Smith was fond of tap dancing, and in her teenage years, she considered a career in musical theatre. While at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Susan Sontag
Susan Lee Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, critic, and public intellectual. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on "Camp", Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. Her best-known works include the critical works ''Against Interpretation'' (1966), ''On Photography'' (1977), ''Illness as Metaphor'' (1978) and ''Regarding the Pain of Others'' (2003), the short story "The Way We Live Now (short story), The Way We Live Now" (1986) and the novels ''The Volcano Lover'' (1992) and ''In America (novel), In America'' (1999). Sontag was active in writing and speaking about, or traveling to, areas of conflict, including during the Vietnam War and the Siege of Sarajevo. She wrote extensively about literature, cinema, photography and media, illness, war, human rights, and left-wing politics. Her essays and speeches drew backlash and controversy, and she has been called "one of the most influential c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darren Shan
Darren O'Shaughnessy (; born 2 July 1972) is an Irish writer and novelist. He is best known for his young adult fiction series '' The Saga of Darren Shan'', '' The Demonata'', and '' Zom-B'', published under the pseudonym Darren Shan. The former was adapted into a manga series from 2006 to 2009 as well as a live-action film in 2009, with a prequel series, '' The Saga of Larten Crepsley'', being released from 2010 to 2012. O'Shaughnessy has published other children's books as Darren Shan, including '' Koyasan'', and '' The Thin Executioner.'' From 2020 to 2022, he self-published his latest young adult series '' Archibald Lox''. In the past, O'Shaughnessy has also published novels for adults under the Darren Shan pseudonym, but since 2014 he has released his work for older readers under the name of Darren Dash. Early life and education O'Shaughnessy was born in St Thomas’ Hospital in London, opposite the Houses of Parliament. At the age of three, he started school at Engl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salman Rushdie
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie ( ; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern world, Eastern and Western world, Western civilizations, typically set on the Indian subcontinent. Rushdie's second novel, ''Midnight's Children'' (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two occasions, marking the Man Booker Prize#Winners, 25th and the The Best of the Booker, 40th anniversary of the prize. After his fourth novel, ''The Satanic Verses'' (1988), Rushdie became the subject of several assassination attempts and death threats because of what was seen by some to be an irreverent Depictions of Muhammad, depiction of Muhammad. This included a ''fatwa'' calling for his death issued by Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran. The book was banned in 20 countries. Numerous killin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ian Rankin
Sir Ian James Rankin (born 28 April 1960) is a Scottish crime writer and philanthropist, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels. Early life Rankin was born in Cardenden, Fife. His father, James, owned a grocery shop, and his mother, Isobel, worked in a school canteen. He was educated at Beath High School, Cowdenbeath. Neither of his parents were great readers, but Rankin enjoyed comics like ''the Beano'', ''the Dandy'', ''Superman'' and ''Batman'', later progressing to books borrowed from the library. Rankin was the first of his family to go to university. His parents were horrified when he chose to study literature, as they had expected him to study for a trade. Encouraged by his English teacher, he persisted and graduated in 1982 from the University of Edinburgh, where he also worked on a doctorate on Muriel Spark but did not complete it. He has taught at the university and retains an involvement with the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He lived in Tottenham, London, fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include ''The Birthday Party (play), The Birthday Party'' (1957), ''The Homecoming'' (1964) and ''Betrayal (play), Betrayal'' (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include ''The Servant (1963 film), The Servant'' (1963), ''The Go-Between (1971 film), The Go-Between'' (1971), ''The French Lieutenant's Woman (film), The French Lieutenant's Woman'' (1981), ''The Trial (1993 film), The Trial'' (1993) and ''Sleuth (2007 film), Sleuth'' (2007). He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television and film productions of his own and others' works. Pinter was born and raised in Metropolitan Borough of Hackney, Ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toni Morrison
Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist and editor. Her first novel, ''The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed ''Song of Solomon (novel), Song of Solomon'' (1977) brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1988, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Pulitzer Prize for ''Beloved (novel), Beloved'' (1987); she was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Born and raised in Lorain, Ohio, Morrison graduated from Howard University in 1953 with a B.A. in English. Morrison earned a master's degree in American Literature from Cornell University in 1955. In 1957 she returned to Howard University, was married, and had two children before divorcing in 1964. Morrison became the first Black female editor for fiction at Random House in New York City in the late 1960s. She d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Monbiot
George Joshua Richard Monbiot ( ; born 27 January 1963) is an English journalist, author, and Environmental movement, environmental and political activist. He writes a regular column for ''The Guardian'' and has written several books. Monbiot grew up in Oxfordshire and studied zoology at the University of Oxford. He then began a career in investigative journalism, publishing his first book ''Poisoned Arrows'' in 1989 about human rights issues in Western New Guinea, West Papua. In later years, he has been involved in activism and advocacy related to various issues, such as climate change, British politics and loneliness. In Feral (book), ''Feral'' (2013), he discussed and endorsed expansion of Rewilding (conservation biology), rewilding. He is the founder of The Land is Ours, a campaign for the Right of public access to the wilderness, right of access to the countryside and its resources in the United Kingdom. Monbiot was awarded the Global 500 Roll of Honour, Global 500 in 1995 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
