Lucy Irvine 8: Justin Marozzi 24 Aug. 6.45pm. Barking isn’t the word for Lucy Irvine. Having spent a year frolicking on the remote 'l'uin Island with ()liver Reed (well. not really. but a similarly overweight middle aged perv called (iei’ald) the intrepid Irvine recounted her experience in the smash hit novel (‘us-uimrv. ‘Never again?‘ she laughed. scurrying off to raise her three sons in a wooden shack in the Highlands. But. the call of the wild proved irresistible and. eighteen years after her first island adventure. Irvine accepted an invitation from the tinglish ex-pat Hepwortli family to live with them in the furthest away corner of the Solomon Islands. The resulting book I'imnruv is a compelling look at remote island life. and a fascinating delve into the chequered history of an empire-building family. She will be joined here by the similarly loopy man who crossed 1500 miles of Libyan desert on a camel. (Allan Radcliffe) Judges: Who Chooses? 24 Aug. 0.30pm. Now. here's a debate worth getting into a flurry over. l.egal eggltead Joshua Ro/enberg asks how courtly coffin-dodgers get to pass judgement in a world they no longer understand.
Gordon Legge, Joseph O’Connor & Christopher Wallace 23 Aug. l(l..1‘()um. tidinburgh—based writers l.egge and Wallace are joined by Irish fella Joseph ()'(‘onnor whose recent lnishmren merges the different lives of three [)ubliners. Bernard Lietaer 2.? Aug. 4pm. ()ne of the architects of the single currency discusses the future of money.
A Mbute to Hugh MacDiarmid with Alan Riach 8: special guests 27Aug. 5pm. The Festival draws to a close in ideal style with a celebration of this colossus of Scottish literature. Raise a glass to the argumenter laureate.
Andrei Makine with Allan Massie 26 Aug. 6.45pm. (‘racking tiuropean fiction comes to the Festival with Russia's Makine
joining Allan Massie for a chat about what
makes the great liuropean novel.
Roger McGough 20 Aug. 7 "TU/mt. rah Scotiser Mc(iough does that performance and poetry thing he's so good at.
Daniel Meadows 2!) Aug. 2.30pm. 'rhis fella went back in time to 1973 to re-trace the people from the north of lingland he photographed as an art student way back then. The result is The Bus.
Catherine Merridale, Malcolm Gaskill with Neal Ascherson 24
For hour by hour daily listings see
Listings Supplement.
Aug. 3.30pm. Here's a familiar question: how can anyone belie\e in a higher being when so much horrible stuff goes on in this world. These three set about finding an
Lucasta Miller 8: Miranda Seymour .1" Aug. 5pm. A tea-time chat about biography. particularly the Brontes and Mary Sltelley.
Deborah Moggach & Yvonne Roberts 25’ Aug. .t'..s’()/mi. This pair chat about the linked themes of their works with Moggach pushing her new book. l'i'nul [)(’I)I(IIIt/.
Sheridan Morley 24 Aug. (MU/mi. 'rhe biographer of Marilyn Monroe. (iene Kelly and Katherine Hepburn disctisses the subject of his latest bumper lifestory: Sir Johnny (iielgud.
John Mortimer 3/) Aug. ll..i'(hun. The man best known for his Rumpole books chats about film. theatre and ageing. OVS Naipaul 36 Aug. 5.5’U/Hn. At the age of 78. VS. Naipaul makes his first visit to the tidinburgh Book festival. for one of the world‘s greatest writers it is a visit that is long overdue. It was as long ago as l‘)(il that he wrote his best known book A House For .llr Bistros. a Dickensian tribute to the Indian bourgeoisie that proved he was a novelist of international standing. Since then he has written both fiction (winning a Booker in l‘)7l for In A Free Stu/e) arid a series of travelogues about his native India. the \Vest Indies and elsewhere. Strangely. it‘s books such as I‘)(i2‘s 'lilu' .lluhlle l’ussugt' and the more recent A .lIi/liun .llunniex .\'mv which give the greatest insight into Naipaul's blisterineg honest caste of mind. (Tim Abrahamst
Anne Perry 25 Aug. (LAW/mi. If Victorian crime fiction is your bag. don't miss out as I’erry' chats about her latest. Brunswick (inn/ens.
Adam Phillips 35 Aug. 3.30pm. Alain de Botton introduces us to the man who has written a book about how we are all in the process of escaping something. It's called Hmu/ini's lint.
Nigel Planer 36 Aug. (LAO/mt.
Nigel l’laner could be the first man on Mars. Michael Jackson's lover and win the Olympic l()() metres final. but he’d still be best known as Neil front The Young (him. As it happens. l’laner is a man of many talents. He recently starred in a West lind play. l-i'e/gmul. and has acted in umpteen big screen efforts. countless television series and does a handy sideline in reading Terry Pratchett for audio books. Then. of course. there's his own written work. liighl comedy books and two novels under his belt. l’laner is an accomplished writer. and his latest novel. lilting II. has received
widespread acclaim for its nippy humour and poignant social cormnent. So. no Neil impressions at the back there.
ft)ottg Johnstone)
Alastair Reid 37Aug. l..\’()/nn. Staff writer for the New liH'h’t’I'. this exiled Scot returns with some economical poetry at his fingertips.
Michele Roberts 8. Elena Lappin 24 Aug. 3.30pm. Two t'K-based writers whose heritages are firmly fixed elsewhere tl‘rance itt Roberts. case. Rttssia for Lappint chat about their cosmopolitan lives.
Anita Roddick 34 Aug. LAW/mi. Attila Roddick is best know It as the entrepreneur who concocted a multi-million pound cosmetics empire The Body Shop ottt of natural ingredients she kept in her garage. but her life story is as colourful as any work of fiction. Humble beginnings as the daughter of Italian and .-\merican immigrants followed by years of travelling and kibbut/ dwelling shaped her passionate commitment to social and environmental causes that have marked her out as an industry ‘outsider’. unflinchingly pouring vitriol on the wrong doings of globalisation. Roddick is also fascinated by the storytelling opportunities offered tip by skincare and the notion of the body as a canvas. Iler book Buxinesx As ( ivuul outlines the development ofThe Body Shop from fifteen crudely packaged products to thriving international franchise. tAllan Radcliffe)
George Rosie 8. Bella Bathurst 27 Aug. .t’pm. Frankenstein and Stevenson are the subjects of this afternoon chat. Rosie havng re-evaluated the bad doctor's life in Death's linenrv while Bathurst has made a name for herself with her biography of Rl.S and his family of lightliouse-buiIders. Dorothy Rowe 35 Aug. 5pm. You need a friend. That's I)ot Row e's firtn philosophy as she preaches about how we should communicate with one another. James Runcie 37Aug. /l..t’()um. This event is about the pleasures of chocolate. Simple aitd tasty as that.
Chris Ryan 36 Aug. .t’..1’()/ml. The former SAS man discusses the thriller genre which must be easier than being dropped far behind enemy lines. In Iraq. for example. Michael Schmidt 35’ Aug. l/um. The ('arcanet I’ress founder is currently on a vast mission to compile a history of
Nigel Planer
He could be the first man on Mars or Michael Jackson’s lover but he’d still be best known as Neil
Zadle Smith 25 Aug. 5.30pm. You expect your world class snooker players and your Young Conservatives and your underage drinkers to be of a certain tender age. But when it comes to writers of profound. dark and deep novels. 23 is just plain ridiculous. Yet. that was the ripe number reached by Zadie Smith when she wrote White Teeth.
Even before it had reached the nation's bookshops (and by the way it shifted off them. you could say quite accurately that its shelf life was distinctly short) Salman Rushdie had pinpointed her as a future star. ‘tt has bite' may have verged on the cheesy. but it was still the kind of clanging endorsement that gets a debut writer read.
And for once. this tale of a multitude of North London—based families and friends struck a chord with critics. audiences and judges alike. The Whitbread First Book Awards was one of the prizes to find its way onto the Smith mantelpieee. And TV audiences will soon be able to share the book—buyers' pleasure as ll’hire Teeth is set to be filmed as a Channel 4 mini-drama.
Too much. too young may eventually come to be Zadie's epitaph. But she thoroughly deserves to be wallowing in her early rising. (Brian Donaldson)
16 THE LIST FESTIVAL GUIDE 713 Aug t; Sop Qtifli
English poetry from the 7th century onwards.
Colin Shindler, Giles Smith 8‘ John Duncan 26 Aug. ll. t’lhun. Three humorous writers have their take on the world of sport. Anti-Man l' sentiments. television sport and ('uban boxing are the seribes' obsessions.
Shore Poets 25 Aug. 8pm. It's ten years since the Shore Poets Society was formed. So. let's celebrate it.
0 Zadie Smith .35 Aug. 5.30pm. See prev iew.
Wendy Steiner 8. Lisa Armstrong 35 Aug. JAN/rm. Were the l‘)()()s a salad century for style and how will fashions change in the new millennium‘.’ Two experts on the subject have their say. Alan Taylor 20 Aug. 4pm. l‘ormer Li's! scribe hooks tip with Sheena MacDonald to discuss the snippets of people's lives flatnous folk. mind) which he amassed into the epic Assassin 's ('hulk. Telling Lies for Fun & Profit 24 Aug. ()p/n. Sounds a tad immoral. but it‘s only a workshop on the art of storytelling. Lisa St Aubin de Teran 25 Aug. 7pm. She ran away to South America with her aristo husband when only seventeen. That's the kind of stuff which turns people into writers. And it did. Sandi Toksvig 27Aug. 3.30pm. A wryly humorous session with the star of
Whose Line and the author of Flying I'm/er
Bridges.
Sue Townsend 27 Aug. 3.30pm. It‘s astounding that comic author and playwright Stie Townsend isn't heartily sick of Adrian Albert Mole. Ilaving scripted the venerated whinge—bag Middle tinglander's diaries for nearly twenty years. brilliantly satirising British life under three Prime Ministers. the temptation must surely arise to have Mote plunge to his death from some Midlands version of the Reichenbach lialls. Mole. now in his 30s. a single father and celebrity offal chef. still nursing his infatuation with Random. re-surfaced in 1900's The (ii/i/nu‘t‘ino )i'urx. and appears weekly in The (hum/urn. 'l‘ownsend's other works include the wickedly subversive The Queen .‘lltt/ I. Having spoken candidly about her now near-total blindness. all proceeds from 'I'ownsend's Book I'icstiyal event will go to the Royal National Institute of the Blind’s Talkng Books appeal. (Allan Radcliffe) Q Marina Warner 27 Aug. 12.30pm. The (ioddess of Myth. Marina Warner is famed for an immense. daHling. and eclectic collection of fiction. history and cultural criticism. Bogey men. beasts and blondes. monsters and maidens have all fallen victim to her entrancing writing and subtle academic satire. A (ietty scholar and Reith lecturer. she has been appointed a (‘heyalier de l.'ordre des Arts et des l.ettres by the French government. won the l’liN Silver I’en Award and the
(‘ommonw ealtlt Writer's I’ri/e (Iiurasial. and is Visiting Fellow of All Soul's ('ollege. ()\ford. Her latest novel. ill/l" l.efu Hunt/Iv. propels Xeus’ rape of the 'l‘itaness l.eto into let century cyberspace. quually at home in the worlds of Hellenic myth. global capitalism and w ebspace. her words can't fail to inspire and entertain you. tlleather Walmsleyt
Nigel West 8- David Stafford 20 Aug. 5pm. lispionage and all that secrecy stuff is the raw material for West and Stafford as they bring together the Pope. (’hurchill and the K(iB.
Kenneth White 39' Aug. 7.40pm: 34 Aug. 5pm. l’octry. philosophy and essays from one of Scotland's finest exiled writers.
Writing for Children 36 Aug. ()pm. It's one of the toughest games in the business but Allan Ahlberg show s you how you cart turn words into gold dust.