As part of our project to explore the Americas, leading Mexican playwright Ximena Escalante travelled across Mexico with Scottish theatre writer Stef Smith. Starting in the US city of San Diego, they journeyed south across the Mexican border, making their way to Mexico City, Oaxaca and Merida before arriving at the country’s southern border with Guatemala. In this event recorded live at the 2017 Edinburgh International Book Festival they share some of their unforgettable experiences, and some of the writing inspired by the journey.

Please note: this recording features strong language and adult content.

Part of our Outriders series of events.

Supported through the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund

As part of our project to explore the Americas, Scottish novelist Kevin MacNeil travelled around Argentina with journalist, novelist and short story writer Mariana Enriquez. Starting in Buenos Aires, the writers set off in search of lost voices, both literary and of other citizens within the capital city. MacNeil travelled across the Pampas to the city of Cordoba, while Enriquez embarked on her own journey into the imagination of a Scottish writer, both in search of UFOs. In this event recorded live at the 2017 Edinburgh International Book Festival they share some of their unforgettable experiences, and some of the writing inspired by the journey. Chaired by Nick Barley.

Part of our Outriders series of events.

As part of our Outriders project to explore the Americas, Boston novelist Jennifer Haigh travelled with Scottish writer Malachy Tallack on a journey that took in the Midwestern heartlands of Donald Trump’s USA. Starting in Fargo, they visited the site of the Dakota Pipeline protests before travelling south through Tennessee and Mississippi and arriving in Louisiana. Along the way, they met the reclusive writer Wendell Berry and members of the Black Lives Matter movement. In this event, recorded live at the 2017 Edinburgh International Book Festival, they share some of their unforgettable experiences, and some of the writing inspired by the journey.

Indian poet, novelist, activist and author of The Gypsy Goddess Meena Kandasamy has won many plaudits for her writing. In this event, recorded live at the 2017 Edinburgh International Book Festival, she discusses When I Hit You, a provocative examination of an abusive marriage. Joining her is Saltire First Book Award-winner Helen McClory, whose Flesh of the Peach describes an artist’s American road trip after her mother’s death. Explore the wilder shores of love and loss with these two rising stars of fiction. Chaired by Lee Randall.

Motorcycle adventurer Charley Boorman experienced every rider’s worst fear when he was involved in a major road accident in 2016. Doubts were raised whether he would ever walk again, never mind get back on his bike, but in this event, recorded live at the 2017 Edinburgh International Book Festival, he recalls a long journey of recovery and how he contemplated many aspects of his life during his difficult rehabilitation. Chaired by Janet Ellis.

In this keynote lecture recorded live at the 2017 Edinburgh International Book Festival, the country’s foremost essayist and one of our most astute commentators, Andrew O’Hagan, speaks for the first time on the future of Scotland and seeks to define this moment of change. Brexit has fundamentally changed the picture. The question, O’Hagan argues, is now beyond nationalism: it is about Scotland’s potential as a progressive, exemplary, enlightened, international country of the future.

As part of our Outriders project to explore the Americas, poet Harry Giles travelled across Canada with Métis writer Katherena Vermette. Starting in Montreal amid the buzzy Quebecois writing scene, the two writers travelled to Winnipeg, where Lord Selkirk’s Red River colony was set up to house farmers displaced by Scotland’s Clearances. From there, the writers flew north to the small town of Churchill – known as the polar bear capital of the world. In this event, recorded live at the 2017 Edinburgh International Book Festival, they share some of their unforgettable experiences, and some of the writing inspired by the journey.

Journalist Julie Burchill calls her 'a breath of fresh air, with a dirty laugh'. In Everywoman, Labour politician Jess Phillips shouts long and loudly about the things she cares most about: poverty, equality, the rights of refugees and serving her Birmingham Yardley constituents. If you didn't know before why she's created such a storm in Parliament, you will after listening to this event, recorded live at the 2017 Edinburgh International Book Festival. 

Anyone who has heard Sebastian Barry read from his work knows he’s one of the best in the business. Anyone who has read Days Without End, his impossibly tender novel set in mid-19th century America, knows that it's another great work from the Costa Book of the Year-winning author and is surely in with a chance of bagging him another clutch of awards. This event, recorded live at the 2017 Edinburgh International Book Festival, is therefore an unmissable treat.