2014 Edinburgh International Book Festival

In her powerful, emotive memoir, H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald recounts her obsessive pursuit to become a falconer. Following the shock of her father’s death and inspired by T H White’s The Goshawk, she embarked on a journey to train her own goshawk and H is for Hawk is a celebratory, elegiac account of her story as well as a beautiful reminder of our deep-rooted connections to the natural world. In this event, recorded live at the 2014 Edinburgh International Book Festival, Macdonald spoke to Charlotte Higgins from the Guardian about her experience.

People with severe mental health issues are often stigmatized by society. From drugs to psychiatry, solutions are complex and expensive. Eleanor Longden, a voice hearer and a qualified psychologist joins James Ley, a playwright who explores his bi-polar disorder in his writing, and Robin Murray, professor of psychiatric research at King's College London, to discuss how hearing voices can be a creative and ingenious psychological survival strategy. Chaired by Dr Angela Woods, a lecturer in Medical Humanities. This event, recorded live at the 2014 Edinburgh International Book Festival, was part of the Festival’s Conversations with Ourselves series of events presented in association with the University of Durham and with the support of the Wellcome Trust.

Genuinely Original Fiction

One of contemporary rock and pop’s true mavericks, the former leader of The Teardrop Explodes dazzles with his brilliance as he launches One Three One upon the reading public. It features an 80s musical genius who heads to Sardinia with one thing on his addled mind: to settle some scores. Today, Julian Cope joins us to share his ideas and read from his Gnostic whodunit.

Part of our First Book Award Nominee series of events.

As part of a series of events examining the key ideas that have shaped the human race, sociologist Saskia Sassen, research director in international economics at Chatham House Paola Subacchi and professor of political economy Robert Skidelsky joined James Anderson, manager of Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, to explore the profound and far-reaching effects of capitalism on humanity. Recorded live at the 2014 Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Throughout history, divine intervention has influenced great artists, thinkers and leaders, and the voice of God is a distinct and separate presence in the minds of many people today. Author and former Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway leads this discussion with writer Sara Maitland and psychiatrist and theologian Chris Cook to explore how religious beliefs and creative inspiration define our consciousness. This event, recorded live at the 2014 Edinburgh International Book Festival, was part of the Festival’s Conversations with Ourselves series of events presented in association with the University of Durham and with the support of the Wellcome Trust.

Billy Collins has twice been poet laureate in the US and says he hopes his poems ‘begin in Kansas and end in Oz’. Aimless Love, his first collection of new and selected poems for 12 years, is elegant, poignant and thrillingly accessible. In this event, recorded live at the 2014 Edinburgh International Book Festival, Collins performs his deeply inspiring poems with great élan.

The last time Martin Amis wrote about the Holocaust was in 1991 in his novel Time’s Arrow. Now he returns to the subject with the much-anticipated The Zone of Interest. In this event, recorded live at the 2014 Edinburgh International Book Festival, he discusses this acclaimed new work in which he succeeds in finding moments of unexpected comedy as love blossoms in a Nazi concentration camp.

Kuwaiti author Mai Al-Nakib is a thrilling new voice from the Middle East. Educated at Brown University in the USA, her debut short story collection The Hidden Light of Objects peels away the private struggles of adolescence, marriage and middle age with a unique Kuwaiti-American perspective to stunning effect. Tom Barbash is an acclaimed, bestselling San Francisco writer whose new book Stay Up With Me has been glowingly described as ‘the Great American Story Collection’. In this event, recorded live at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, they read and discuss their work. Since the event, Mai Al-Nakib has been announced as the winner of the Book Festival's 2014 Readers First Book Award.

Literature’s Brilliant Experimenters

Quite possibly Britain’s best hope for the future of literature, Ned Beauman’s first two novels have already picked up multiple prizes. Now he presents Glow, set in a strange South London where nothing quite seems to make sense. With a similar talent and a similarly unusual novel, Clemens J Setz returns with Indigo. Already shortlisted for the prestigious German Book Prize, it takes readers to an uncanny near future. Chaired by Richard Lea from the Guardian.

Part of our First Book Award Nominee series of events.

Spirit of the 1920s

We are thrilled to welcome bestselling writer Sarah Waters to preview her forthcoming novel The Paying Guests. Set between the wars, it’s the story of ‘modern couple’ Lilian and Leonard Barber. Their move to genteel Camberwell brings about tension, devastation and plenty of surprises. Waters’ previous novels such as Fingersmith and The Little Stranger have been shortlisted for Britain’s major literary awards.