2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival Edinburgh International Book Festival

Long description

In his effervescent memoir Maggie and Me, journalist, writer and gifted storyteller Damian Barr explains how his family, living in the shadow of Ravenscraig, learned to thrive in Scotland during Margaret Thatcher’s 1980s. In this event, recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, Barr talks honestly to Richard Holloway about his exuberant and moving life story, touching on a turbulent family life, coming out in small–town Lanarkshire, religion and the influence of Margaret Thatcher on his childhood perceptions.

It’s taken the entertainment world six years to recover from Rupert Everett’s first memoir Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins and now he’s back on raucously top form with Vanished Years. With it, the star of Another Country and My Best Friend’s Wedding paints vivid portraits of a career on stage and screen. Talking to the Guardian’s chief arts writer Charlotte Higgins in a sold-out event recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, Rupert Everett applies his inimitable wit and charm to tales of love, life and loss.

For the first time two of the world’s best graphic novelists, Joe Sacco and Chris Ware, appeared together on stage to discuss life as a cartoonists. Sacco uses his art to capture the realities of global political upheaval; Ware creates understated fictions on suburbia. Both are united by the unique artform of graphic novels. In this event, chaired by Teddy Jamieson, they talk about the brilliance in bringing together word and image on the page. Recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Her novel based on a famous Vermeer portrait sold a staggering 4 million copies worldwide and put Tracy Chevalier straight into the international literary premier league. Now she’s produced The Last Runaway, which has been described by Rose Tremain as ‘the best thing Chevalier’s written since Girl With A Pearl Earring’. Recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, this event sees Chevalier in conversation with Scottish journalist Jackie McGlone, describing a journey to the sunlit cornfields of Ohio where life is not as idyllic as it may sound.

Sitting at home in 2005, Tracey Thorn realised she was no longer happy to be part of the show business feeding frenzy and decided to tell her story. And so one of the finest pop memoirs in recent times, Bedsit Disco Queen, was formulated. In it she tells of her time as one-half of Everything But The Girl and how writing the book gave her a taste for songwriting once again. She chats to Bob McDevitt in this event recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival.