EIBF 2008: Sunday 10th August

A sublime and haunting start to Sunday with two of Scotland’s most prodigiously gifted writers. A winner of the James Tait Black Prize, Alice Thompson sets her eerie fable The Falconer, in the 1930s Highlands, with unsettling apparitions and Hitler’s shadow falling. Multi award-winning John Burnside’s latest novel Glister also explores strange and sinister depths as boys mysteriously disappear.

The Scots language has inspired authors and defined the nation’s literature. This workshop celebrates the power and potential of the Scots language in creative writing and provides an opportunity to see how an understanding of the language through Scottish Language Dictionaries can nurture our linguistic heritage. The workshop will be led by author Christine Robinson, the director of Scottish Language Dictionaries. (Maximum 20 places)

Self-publishing is becoming more and more popular; it makes economic and environmental sense but as an author, why should you self-publish? What size of print run should you go for and how much does an ISBN cost? How should you market your book? Join author Keith A Charters for a helpful ‘how to’ guide to self-publishing. (Maximum 30 places)

The queen of crime returns. Whether writing stand-alone thrillers or for her bestselling series, Val McDermid’s novels show a deep understanding of humankind’s dark psychological complexities. Join her for a memorable hour of riveting and wide-ranging conversation, humour and insight. Chaired by Brian Taylor.

Our daily free readings in solidarity with writers facing persecution for their thoughts and words. Today: The right to form a trade union is denied to millions, including the writers we hear from this afternoon. Our featured readers include Maggie O'Farrell.

A glorious double bill of popular literary fiction. We are delighted to welcome from the States Karen Joy Fowler, whose The Jane Austen Book Club was a worldwide bestseller and film. Her brand new novel looks at a young woman moving to California to investigate her secretive crime-writer godmother. Maggie O’Farrell also looks at family secrets in her acclaimed fiction.

Who better to open our philosophy, psychology and ethics series than the former Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway, one of the most respected thinkers in the land? Between The Monster and The Saint: Reflections on the Human Condition is a major new enquiry into how humans can find their moral place on our endangered earth.

Effervescent comedy, a tonic for the brain. Irish writer and actor Pauline McLynn, famed for playing Mrs Doyle in the TV series Father Ted, brings acute observation of human foibles to her latest novel Bright Lights and Promises. Scot Laura Marney’s wonderfully humorous My Best Friend Has Issues will win her yet more devoted fans.