Lucy Hawking

Nadifa Mohamed: For Whom is Justice Served? Can the truth save those who have been condemned for something other than a crime? Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2021, The Fortune Men takes us to Cardiff ’s multicultural Tiger Bay in 1952, where Mahmood Mattan is accused of murder. He feels secure… Robin Niblett & Yuan Yang: Shaping Our Century Former director of Chatham House, Robin Niblett, who in The New Cold War describes the ongoing geopolitical contest between the US and China. The Financial Times’ Beijing bureau chief Yuan Yang, whose Private Revolutions traces the lives of four Chinese… Thomas Harding & Kojo Koram: What Was Taken? Inspired by a personal quest to learn more about Britain’s role in the slave trade, Thomas Harding tells the story of the Demerara Uprising, a key trigger in the abolition of slavery, in White Debt. In Uncommon Wealth, Kojo Koram traces the group of… Chris Riddell (2016 Event) Award-winning author Siobhan Dowd died in 2007, bequeathing her royalties to a trust which aims to bring the joy of reading to those who need it most. In 2016, the Book Festival's Siobhan Dowd Trust Memorial Lecture was delivered by Children's Laureate… The Last Colony: A Performance on Restoring an Island to its Rightful Owners Philippe Sands QC’s The Last Colony chronicles the unlawful mistreatment of the inhabitants of the Chagos Islands by the British Government. In this illustrated performance he presents readings and images together with RSC and Bridgerton actor Adjoa Andoh… Sean Connery - filmed highlights On the day of his 78th birthday, 25 August 2008, Edinburgh-born film icon Sean Connery chats with his friend and co-author Murray Grigor about a range of subjects including his much-anticipated book Being A Scot. The event proved to be the fastest-selling… Liz Lochhead (2015 Event) A hugely accomplished playwright, as well as Scotland’s current Makar (National Poet), watch as Liz Lochhead discusses her new play, Thon Man Molière, her fascination with the great French comic dramatist and his oeuvre, Greek tragedy… Interview - Joanne Harris (2015) Hugely popular writer Joanne Harris took a moment before her event in Charlotte Square Gardens to talk to us about her new Norse inspired novel, The Gospel of Loki. We also spoke to some audience members to see what they thought about her event. You can… Yiyun Li: One-way Correspondence Yiyun Li is a writer who is as playful and dexterous as she is shrewdly literary, applying her sheer talent with intimacy and empathy, and playing with notions of truth and fiction. Her 2017 memoir, Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life… Rachel Cusk: A Carousel of Lives Rachel Cusk is arguably one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary British literature, widely celebrated for her ability to fold the momentous into the seemingly mundane. The celebrated author of the Outline trilogy returns to the Festival…