Irma Kurtz (2014 event)

For four decades, the Cosmo Agony Aunt has been helping to solve readers’ problems, encompassing everything from eating disorders to bad behaviour in the office. In My Life in Agony, In this event, recorded live at the 2014 Edinburgh International Book Festival, Irma Kurtz looks back on the social changes that informed her advice and reflects on the chaos of her own life as an American single mother living in the UK.

Download MP3

Book Festival News

Communities Programme participants celebrate success of 2024 Communities Programme participants celebrate success of 2024
Friday 13 December

Enjoying this event? You can help us produce more like it.

Donate

Share

Listen to more

Michael Rosen - Mustard, Custard, Grumble Belly... Michael Rosen - Mustard, Custard, Grumble Belly... New Children's Laureate and master entertainer Michael Rosen (most famous for We're Going on a Bear Hunt) thrilled Book Festival audiences in 2007 with this fun event for the whole family, full of silly, zany poetry told with infectious enthusiasm… Michael Frayn (2012 event) Michael Frayn (2012 event) The Man Booker-shortlisted and Whitbread-winning author of Headlong and Spies travelled to Edinburgh to discuss his latest novel… Hadley Freeman (2013 event) Hadley Freeman (2013 event) Guardian journalist Hadley Freeman is known for her hugely entertaining daily columns. Now she has produced Be Awesome, a book of heart-warming but razor sharp essays… Robert Webb (2017 Event) Robert Webb (2017 Event) What is it to be male? Peep Show actor Robert Webb reckons it involves a heap of unnecessary pressure applied from a very early age. With his call-to-arms memoir How Not To Be A Boy, Webb considers his own inculcation into the cult of man and how bending… David Mitchell with Sam Amidon: The Music of Utopia Avenue (2020 Event) David Mitchell with Sam Amidon: The Music of Utopia Avenue (2020 Event) While the Summer of Love is about to unfold across the Atlantic, life in 1967 isn’t so easy for a young would-be musician in London’s shabby Charing Cross Road. Yet from this modest starting point, David Mitchell builds a joyful fictional biography of a… Christos Tsiolkas (2010 event) Christos Tsiolkas (2010 event) Christos Tsiolkas flew all the way to Edinburgh from his home in Australia to open the 2010 Edinburgh International Book Festival in fine literary style. In a sold-out event chaired by Steven Gale, he discussed his much talked-about best-selling novel The… Ian McEwan Ian McEwan Unedited audio recording of the 2007 event in which Ian McEwan chats with chair Ian Rankin about his early work, influences and most recent publication, On Chesil Beach. Great fun!… Fay Weldon Fay Weldon She's stylish, sharp, satirical and a great speaker to boot. A free spirit with a long and remarkable writing career, Fay Weldon talks in this 2007 event about her latest novel The Spa Decameron, in which ten women gather at a spa for pampering, new… Gina Miller (2018 Event) Gina Miller (2018 Event) Gina Miller came to prominence when she successfully took the British government to the Supreme Court, challenging its authority to trigger Article 50, the formal notification to leave the EU, without parliamentary approval. Guyana-born Miller became the… Douglas Stuart with Damian Barr: The Making of Shuggie Bain (2020 Event) Douglas Stuart with Damian Barr: The Making of Shuggie Bain (2020 Event) In the words of the Kirkus review: ‘You will never forget Shuggie Bain. Scene by scene, this book is a masterpiece.’ This astonishing debut is a powerful and heartbreaking story about the love between a boy and his mother, about poverty and addiction…