Tracey Thorn at Edinburgh International Book Festival

Long description

In his effervescent memoir Maggie and Me, journalist, writer and gifted storyteller Damian Barr explains how his family, living in the shadow of Ravenscraig, learned to thrive in Scotland during Margaret Thatcher’s 1980s. In this event, recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, Barr talks honestly to Richard Holloway about his exuberant and moving life story, touching on a turbulent family life, coming out in small–town Lanarkshire, religion and the influence of Margaret Thatcher on his childhood perceptions.

It’s taken the entertainment world six years to recover from Rupert Everett’s first memoir Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins and now he’s back on raucously top form with Vanished Years. With it, the star of Another Country and My Best Friend’s Wedding paints vivid portraits of a career on stage and screen. Talking to the Guardian’s chief arts writer Charlotte Higgins in a sold-out event recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, Rupert Everett applies his inimitable wit and charm to tales of love, life and loss.

For the first time two of the world’s best graphic novelists, Joe Sacco and Chris Ware, appeared together on stage to discuss life as a cartoonists. Sacco uses his art to capture the realities of global political upheaval; Ware creates understated fictions on suburbia. Both are united by the unique artform of graphic novels. In this event, chaired by Teddy Jamieson, they talk about the brilliance in bringing together word and image on the page. Recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Her novel based on a famous Vermeer portrait sold a staggering 4 million copies worldwide and put Tracy Chevalier straight into the international literary premier league. Now she’s produced The Last Runaway, which has been described by Rose Tremain as ‘the best thing Chevalier’s written since Girl With A Pearl Earring’. Recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, this event sees Chevalier in conversation with Scottish journalist Jackie McGlone, describing a journey to the sunlit cornfields of Ohio where life is not as idyllic as it may sound.

Sitting at home in 2005, Tracey Thorn realised she was no longer happy to be part of the show business feeding frenzy and decided to tell her story. And so one of the finest pop memoirs in recent times, Bedsit Disco Queen, was formulated. In it she tells of her time as one-half of Everything But The Girl and how writing the book gave her a taste for songwriting once again. She chats to Bob McDevitt in this event recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival.

A decade ago, the death of Dr David Kelly shook the country and for a moment threatened to topple a Blair administration already reeling from dissent against the war in Iraq. The government scientist had died in woods near his Oxfordshire home amid a scandal over the leaking of reports that the case for war was flawed. In this event recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, Robert Lewis, author of Dark Actors, recounts the events surrounding an appalling human tragedy in an interview withAl Senter.

Kay Ryan is widely regarded as one of America’s great living poets. Her book The Best of It: New and Selected Poems won her the Pulitzer Prize in 2011, and she was the US Poet Laureate from 2008-2010. However, despite the plaudits, Ryan is no creature of the establishment: she once said ‘it’s poetry’s uselessness that excites me.’ Both Ryan’s poetry and personality are on show in this event, recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival. With Robyn Marsack, Director of the Scottish Poetry Library.

Tim Burgess’ rock and roll battles and the death of keyboard player Rob Collins are among the events in The Charlatans’ front man’s upbeat memoir, Telling Stories. Full of tales about his rollercoaster ride at the helm of this much-loved indie outfit, Burgess tells rock junkie and crime writing superstar Ian Rankin about musical influences, his best albums, and the importance of a good haircut. This event was recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Riveting and horrifying in equal measure, Kristen Iversen’s memoir of growing up next to the Rocky Flats nuclear facility near Denver, Colorado describes the secrecy surrounding a plant which made plutonium warhead triggers for the US nuclear arsenal. Full Body Burden is a fascinating story of successive radiation leaks and cover-ups set against a coming-of-age memoir and in this event, recorded live at the 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival, Iversen tells her story to Stuart Kelly.