Edinburgh International Book Festival: 15 highlights of the 2024 programme

Lorraine Kelly was honoured for her outstanding contribution to television at the BAFTA Television Awards last month. Picture: Joe Maher/Getty Images

Around 600 writers will be appearing across more than 500 events when the Edinburgh International Book Festival returns in a brand new home this August. Ahead of public book for events in the programme, which runs from 10-25 August, opens on 20 June, here are some of the expected highlights in the line-up.

Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson, 10 August: It is 40 years since then Glasgow drama school students Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson brought their cabaret double act to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. To mark the anniversary, the pair have reunited for a trip down memory lane to create a “Kelvinside Compendium” telling the full story of Victor and Barry for the first time.

Margaret Atwood, 10 August: The Canadian poet novelist and critic, who is best known for her book The Handmaid’s Tale, is a long-time favourite of book festival audiences in Edinburgh. This year she will be exploring some of humanity’s most pressing challenges, including the climate crisis, what kind of homes we should be living in and what we should be eating.

Author Irvine Welsh, pictured at Leith Theatre. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

Roger McGough, 13 August: There will be few performers in Edinburgh this August who can trace their festival heritage in the city as far back as McGough, who emerged from Liverpool’s beat poetry scene in the 1960s and made regular appearances at the Traverse Theatre with John Gorman and Mike McCartney (brother of Beatles star Paul).

Alice Oseman, 13 August: Oseman’s series of graphic novels following the lives of teenagers Nick and Charlie have attracted a huge following, which has only built further since a TV adaptation was launched on Netflix two years ago, turning actors Kit Connor and Joe Locke into huge stars in the process.

Jim and William Reid: The Jesus and Mary Chain, 14 August: The mercurial Lanarkshire brothers, who formed one of Scotland’s most influential indie-rock outfits more than 40 years ago, discuss their eagerly-awaited new memoir, Never Understood. Announced in March, it is described as a “wildly funny and improbably moving chronicle of brotherly strife, feedback, riots, drug and alcohol addiction, eternal outsiders and extreme shyness, that also somehow manages to be a love letter to the Scottish working-class family.”

Lorraine Kelly, 16 August: The award-winning broadcaster became an author for the first time this year with the publication of The Island Swimmer, which is set in Orkney and inspired by Kelly’s numerous visits there. Crime writer Ian Rankin will be interviewing Kelly - who has been a familiar figure on the nation’s screens since she made her debut with TV-am 40 years ago - months after she was honoured for an outstanding contribution to television by BAFTA.

Scottish comic Fern Brady attends the National Comedy Awards at the Roundhouse in London last year. Picture: PA

Len Pennie, 17 August: The Lanarkshire-born poet, writer and commentator became a social media sensation with her “Scots word of the day” videos during lockdown. She has since won acclaim for her debut poetry collection, Poyums, which became an instant best-seller.

Amy Liptrot and Stef Smith, 18 August: Two adaptations of Liptrot’s acclaimed memoir of returning to Orkney after a decade living in London and sliding into addiction problems are being showcased in Edinburgh this August. With director Nora Fingscheidt’s screen version opening the film festival, Liptrot will be in conversation with Stef Smith about the stage version of the book, which started life at the event before the pandemic.

Suzie Miller, 18 August: The playwright and screenwriter drew on her own experiences working as a lawyer in Australia for her play Prima Facie, which was a huge hit on Broadway and London’s West End, with Jodie Comer playing a criminal defence barrister whose view of the legal system changes after she is sexually assaulted. Miller will be discussing the one-woman play and the challenge of turning it into a novel at the festival with Jackie Wyllie, artistic director of the National Theatre of Scotland.

Paul Lynch, 18 August: Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will be interviewing the Irish author on the back of his Booker Prize win last year. His dystopian novel Prophet Song unfolds after Dublin scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find officers from Ireland’s newly-formed secret police looking to interrogate her trade unionist husband.

Jim and William Reid formed The Jesus and Mary Chain in East Kilbride more than 40 years ago.

Fern Brady, 21 August: The Bathgate-born comic emerged as one of Scotland’s leading comedy talents of the last decade thanks to acclaimed appearances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and has seen her profile rise further thanks to TV shows like Live at the Apollo, Taskmaster and Frankie Boyle's New World Order. She will be discussing her acclaimed memoir, Strong Female Character, which explores her experiences of living with autism.

Blindboy Boatclub, 22 August: More than a decade after storming the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as one half of the Irish comedy hip-hop duo The Runnerbandits, David Chambers, who is better known as Blindboy Boatclub, has won widespread critical acclaim for his short story collection Topographia Hibernica.

Jenni Fagan, 22 August: It is more than a decade since Fagan made a sudden impact on Scotland’s literary scene with debut novel The Panopticon, which was inspired by her experiences of growing up in the Scottish care system. The writer, whose books have included Sunlight Pilgrims, Luckenbooth and Hex, will be launching her long-awaited memoir, Ootlin, at the festival.

Irvine Welsh, 23 August: The Trainspotting author has enjoyed further screen success in recent years with the TV series Crime, which focuses on the troubled Edinburgh detective Ray Lennox, played memorably by Dougray Scott. Welsh will be at the festival to launch the third in the series of novels, Resolution, which sees Lennox move to Brighton to make a fresh start in his life, only to find himself forced to confront dark events from his childhood.

Jenni Fagan is appearing in this year's Edinburgh International Book Festival. Picture: Mihaela Bodlovic

David Nicholls, 23 August: There will always be a special bond between the best-selling author and Edinburgh after the huge success of his 2009 novel One Day, which is partly set in the city, and the two subsequent screen adaptations, the most recent of which was launched to huge acclaim on Netflix earlier this year. He will appear at the festival on the back of the launch of his latest love story, You Are Here, which unfolds on a walk across the Lakes, the Dales and the North Yorkshire Moors.