Revolution in the Air
The Edinburgh International Book Festival has launched a large scale programme of events designed to explore the changing world around us.
The festival, which runs from the 13-29th August, launched with the theme of ‘revolution’ taking centre stage, setting the scene for 17 days of debate, discussion and inspiration in Charlotte Square Gardens this August.
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.”
In addition to revolutions, Big Ideas is another central theme at the 2011 festival, and is well represented by events such as Pamela Stephenson-Connolly’s meditation on human sexuality, Keith Campbell and Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s views on the culture of enlightenment and innovation and Joan Bakewell’s investigation of Key Ideas of the 21st Century with a selection of renowned speakers
including Michael Symmons Roberts, Julian Baggini, Olivia Laing and Ian Stewart.
Alasdair Gray will both open the festival with a discussion entitled A Life in Words and Pictures, and will close the festival with an ambitious blend of theatre and literature with the first performed reading of his play Fleck, featuring some of Scotland’s leading writers.
Other notable festival favourites who will be making an appearance include Scottish literary giants Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, Iain Banks and Julia Donaldson, who will be guest curating the Book Festival Children’s programme.
Children’s Programme highlights include the launch a brand new book of photographs of pandas in the wild, Panda: A Window On Our World to coincide with the arrival of Edinburgh Zoo’s own pandas. Children will also get the chance to see weird and wonderful sights as the Guinness Book Of Records arrives in Charlotte Square Gardens this summer. Audiences will also 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.
The festival will play host to almost 800 authors from over 40 countries around the world, all packed into the 17 day programme of events in Charlotte Square Gardens.
