Marina Lewycka is a gifted and entertaining storyteller whose popularity became assured with her first novel A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian. Just like her books, her events are full of energy and humour which has made her loved by festival audiences. In this event she introduces her latest book We Are All Made Of Glue which charts the unlikely friendship between an abandoned wife and her eccentric old Jewish emigr? neighbour.

It was a joy to welcome Malorie Blackman to the 2009 Book Festival. She is a fantastically inventive storyteller as proved by her innovative novel Noughts and Crosses. In this event she introduces Double Cross, the latest instalment of the series, to a packed teenage audience.

Leading foreign correspondents such as Hemmingway, Gellhorn, Orwell and many others, now forgotten, were present during the Spanish Civil War. In this fascinating event, eminent historian Paul Preston explores their courage and skill and, through a huge trove of letters and diaries, how they each fought to tell the world the story about what was happening.

What does work mean to us? Why do we do it? What makes it pleasurable? Alain de Botton's gift for looking deeply behind the ordinary, taken-for-granted things in our lives has won him huge popularity. In this event he brings us The Pleasure and Sorrows of Work, his new book in which he explores our daily grind with all his customary imagination, wit and lucidity.

Expect storytelling of the highest order from William Boyd. He's become a favourite at the Book Festival for his relaxed and witty events and, of course, for his brilliant stories. His latest, Ordinary Thunderstorms, is the thrilling tale of a young Londoner, victim of an unknown conspiracy, who seeks survival in the city's darkest reaches and in this event he tells us all about it.

Much to our delight, Alistair MacLeod agreed to travel across the Atlantic from his home in Ontario to be with us at the 2009 Book Festival. One of the foremost novelists and short story writers, he is a master craftsman, an exquisite stylist whose work is epitomised by his award-winning novel No Great Mischief. In this event he discusses his life, work and the importance of his Scottish heritage with Richard Holloway.

One of the hottest tickets of the 2009 Book Festival, we were thrilled the creator and writer of HBO's universally acclaimed TV series The Wire, took time out to come to Edinburgh for the Book Festival. David Simon first posed the question 'Are America's inner cities unpoliceable?' eighteen years ago in his award-winning Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. Now re-issued, the gripping, gut-churning account of his twelve month stint on the streets with the Baltimore police is factual storytelling to rival Mailer and Capote. An utterly fascinating event.

Mark Millar candidly discusses comics, graphic novels and Hollywood with Stuart Kelly in this sold-out Book Festival event. His bestselling comic Kick-Ass is being made into a film this year; Wanted 2 is in development after the success of his blockbuster adaptation; and there is talk of a re-imagined Superman appearing on the big screen. He's also working on the next instalment of his controversial American Jesus graphic trilogy. Irreverent, iconoclastic, inimitable, Mark Millar's unique brand of energetic storytelling is not to be missed.

After being awarded the coveted Costa Book of the Year Award earlier in the year for his incredibly moving novel The Secret Scripture, Irish writer Sebastian Barry went on to receive the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction too, which was announced in a special event at the 2009 Book Festival.

This multi-talented writer (he's a poet and playwright too) reads from his novel and chats to Diana Hope in an engrossing event.

One of Scotland's great masters of the crime genre was welcomed back to the Book Festival by capacity audiences. Great chat and some more tales from the casebooks of Dr Tony Hill and Detective Carol Jordan. A festival favourite if ever there was one!