Richard Dawkins

Pat Barker: The Women of Troy Ever since winning the Booker Prize in 1995 for the third book in her Regeneration Trilogy, Pat Barker has demonstrated an uncanny ability to describe the psychology of individuals during times of conflict. In 2019 Barker published The Silence of the… James Birch: Six Degrees of Francis Bacon This is the story of one curator’s audacious project to stage a retrospective of Francis Bacon’s paintings in Soviet-era Moscow. It’s also a picture of Soviet and Western relations just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. And it’s a close encounter with a… Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: The Myth of Human Progress One of the greatest living writers, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o joins us by a live link from his home in Kenya. When he visited Edinburgh in 2018, Thiong’o discussed his detainment as a political prisoner in Kenya and his passionate advocacy for the use of local… Damon Galgut: Ghosts of Apartheid South African novelist Damon Galgut has already had two novels shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Could The Promise go a step further? That’s certainly what the critics are suggesting in their glowing reviews of this latest offering. Like his other novels… Norman Scott: The Establishment (Almost) Always Wins This is the story of a man who took on the establishment – and it seemed he’d lost. But Norman Scott’s own perspective on his secret affair with politician Jeremy Thorpe in the 1970s has gained credence thanks to the TV drama, A Very English Scandal. Now… Hadley Freeman (2016 Event) For many, the 80s was a decade that taste didn’t just forget, but totally bypassed. Guardian and Vogue columnist Hadley Freeman does not subscribe to that one bit and is so passionate about 80s American movies that she’s written a book about them. Life… Michael Frayn (2015 Event) With Matchbox Theatre, Michael Frayn has produced perhaps his most daringly unusual book to date. Blurring the boundary between the page and stage, the brilliant author and playwright has produced a book of thirty short entertainments that function both… Alan Rusbridger talks to David McCraw at the Edinburgh International Book Festival When Alan Rusbridger stepped down as Guardian editor in 2015 he left one of the world’s most trusted news organisations. Rusbridger’s 20-year tenure oversaw international expansion and investigative triumphs, such as the phone hacking scandal. But it also… Anthony Horowitz: Shaken, Not Stirred Hugely loved author Anthony Horowitz brings us his third James Bond thriller, With a Mind to Kill. This high-octane tale presents 007 as we have never known him: accused of M’s murder, in custody and smeared as a traitor. His rescue depends on a group of… Omar Robert Hamilton, Sanaa Seif & Ahdaf Soueif: A Decade of Resistance Egyptian writer and political activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah's British citizenship was ratified in December 2021 while he was in an Egyptian prison, where he has been detained, almost continuously, since 2013. Today, his translators and family members Omar…