Parochial readers and showcase Scotland as an outward-looking nation

By Libby Brooks Scotland reporter

Wednesday 10 June 2015

The UK’s parochial reading habits are an embarrassment, according to the director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Nick Barley has introduced his sixth and most globally ambitious programme, which includes authors from North and South Korea, as well as first minister Nicola Sturgeon interviewing her favourite Scottish crime writer, Val McDermid.

Describing the festival, which runs from 15 to 31 August in Edinburgh’s Charlotte square, as “the most international ever attempted in Britain”, Barley accepted that many names would not be familiar to a British audience. “But what I want to get across is that these people are megastars in their own countries,” he said.

International highlights include Hyeonseo Lee, a North Korean author who describes her flight from the regime; the Colombian writer and politician, Sergio Fajardo; and three leading poets from the Innu First Nation people of northern Quebec, who will perform in their native language of Inuktitut.

In an attempt to reach beyond the usual publishing networks, Barley visited African novelist Alain Mabanckou in his home country of Congo-Brazzaville, where he witnessed scenes of adulation as the author walked through the streets.

The festival, which spans 800 events and features writers from 55 countries, also includes a series from guest selector, Gabriel Orozco, Mexico’s most renowned visual artist, who has chosen seven nationally popular authors to interview.

Noting that under 5% of books printed in the UK were first published in another language, Barley said: “The UK’s reading habits are something of an embarrassment. It’s the responsibility of a festival like ours to make available literature in translation.”

Speaking at the programme launch in Edinburgh’s Central Hall on Wednesday, Barley told the audience that Ali Smith’s success in the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction last week bolstered a powerful sense that “Scottish literature is sustaining its success”.

The festival features established local names such as Ian Rankin, returning after a year off to interview actor Alan Cumming about his memoir, which details his complex relationship with his father, alongside fresh Scottish talent including Philip Miller, whose noir-ish debut is set in the contemporary art world, and Kirstin Innes, who explores the world of sex work in her novel, Fishnet. The comedian Brian Limond, or Limmy, is publishing a collection of short, observational stories.

Other first-time novelists include Peep Show screenwriter Jesse Armstrong, and New York literary agent Bill Clegg, while established names such as Philippa Gregory, Pat Barker and Louis de Berniéres will be launching new work.

The children’s programme includes a much-anticipated new novel from young adult author Patrick Ness, and Cressida Cowell launching the last in her How to Train Your Dragon series.

Barley added that, in the light of the recent tectonic shifts in Scotland’s political landscape, this year’s festival was “based on the fact that stories don’t have borders”.

“It feels like an incredible time to be living in Scotland, and literary festivals are a brilliant prism to look at these changes in society,” he said. “But we wanted to zoom out from the close discussions about Scotland’s constitutional future. People have travelled from Scotland to other places taking their stories and songs, while Britain is a country full of other people’s diasporas. I wanted us to remember Scotland’s history as an outward-looking nation.”

As usual, the festival includes a significant political component, with strands built around human rights and inequality. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to discuss his role in last year’s Scottish independence referendum, and Channel 4’s economics editor and Guardian columnist, Paul Mason, is in conversation with the former first minister, Alex Salmond, about routes to a fairer society.

Another guest selector, the Guardian’s chief arts correspondent, Charlotte Higgins, will be hosting a series of events looking at globalism and xenophobia.

But Barley reassured crime fiction fans that Sturgeon’s event with detective-fiction doyenne Val McDermid would not be hijacked by any political agenda. Sturgeon is continuing the book festival tradition of first ministers interviewing authors.

Barley said that when he told McDermid that Sturgeon had suggested she interview her, the writer had revealed that the pair often discussed characters and plots. “It will be an interview about her writing conducted by a fan,” insisted Barley.

Questions and Tasks:

1. Find the key words leading to the understanding of the author’s intention.

2. What’s the topic of the article?

3. What’s the main idea of the article? Where is it formulated?

4. According to what pattern is the information in the article arranged?

5. What’s the author’s attitude to the problem?

6. Are you familiar with problem? What’s your background knowledge of the problem?

7. What’s your attitude to the problem? Do you support the author’s point of view or not?

8. Render the article in the English language according to the plan.

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