As the curtain rises on the 30th edition of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, we talk to its director Nick Barley about how he has put together a 16-day marathon involving 800 events.
He explains why he has entrusted a large part of the programme to a series of guest curators, from Margaret Atwood – whose events explore whether there is such a thing as genre in fiction – to Gavin Esler, who interrogates the collapse of trust in society.
Kate Mosse has drawn some of the new stars of feminism into an investigation of the place of women at the start of the 21st century, while Neil Gaiman has programmed a series looking at the frontiers of fantasy fiction. Join us to pick up some of the tricks of the festival trade from a master of the dark arts …
