Edinburgh Book Festival E-news: 16 October 2026 edition
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October in Edinburgh: the leaves are changing colour, the rain is making reading indoors feel like an especially good idea, and – at the Book Festival – we’re back at it already, starting to plan ahead for August 2027 (can you believe it?!) – researching upcoming titles and interesting writers, speaking to publishers, mapping out copy, design, print deadlines for the brochure…
And alongside that, we’re planning a few exciting surprises for you (more on that next month), and continuing on with our year-round Communities work.
In this month’s e-news, you’ll find:
Six highlights from our on demand events (available to watch online now!)
Don’t forget that there are loads of brilliant events that you can watch back from our August 2026 programme available to watch online now (like Hollie McNish, pictured above)! Later this month, we’ll be adding more than 30 titles to the collection – so keep your eye out for news of those coming soon…
All of our on demand events are available on a Pay What You Can basis, with every penny supporting the Book Festival’s charitable objective.
A few highlights from the collection include:
🐕 Maggie O’Farrell’s chat with Sam Baker, offering us a glimpse into the world of Hollywood, writing the film adaptation of her novel Hamnet, the personal roots of her latest novel, Land, the role and influence of Irish myth in her life…
🏠 David Olusoga, beloved historian and broadcaster, chats to Amina Shah about – among other things – choosing Edinburgh for the latest series of his popular show A House Through Time and what our homes reveal not just about ourselves but the past too…
🌹 Nandini Das, British Academy Book Prize-winner and Oxford Professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture, chatting with Samira Ahmed about the captivating word of Tudor and Stuart England, little-known histories, and oysters…
📚 John Grisham, the legal thriller sensation and author of 52 consecutive no.1 bestsellers, chats to Scotland’s own award-winning crime writer Ian Rankin in a special conversation that ranges from stories of his early childhood to reflections on his (incredibly successful) life in writing…
🐍 Nikita Gill and Saara el-Arifi– two outstanding talents who have both reimagined legendary, ancient women (Hekate and Cleopatra) – chat to classical historian Jean Menzies in a fascinating conversation about myth, drafting, and the importance of having diverse storytellers, especially in the age of AI where we’re at risk of just hearing one story…
🏛️ Tom Holland, historian and podcast co-host of The Rest is History, chats with Festival director Jenny Niven about translating Suetonius’ The Lives of the Caesars, the eternal appeal of Homer’s The Odyssey (with some chat about the Nolan film and translator Emily Wilson), and dragging his family around ancient sites on holiday…
If you decide to watch, or share with a friend, please do donate what you can. As a charity, every donation made when watching an on demand event helps support accessibility at the Book Festival as well as our year-round work with libraries, schools, and communities. Thank you so much.
With October being Black History Month in the UK, we’re bringing you a reading list of fiction, history, art, poetry, and more from an amazing range of Black authors writing across genres and age-ranges that’ll inspire you to ‘dig deeper, look closer, think bigger’.
Author, broadcaster, historian, and ultimate Faithful on 2025’s Celebrity Traitors UK, David Olusoga teams up with his siblings Yinka and Kemi Olusoga for this engrossing treasure trove of Black history. The volume introduces you to unsung heroes and lesser known cultural moments as well as celebrating well-known figures and history-changing acts of resistance. The Guardian calls it an ‘invaluable, fascinating, often heartbreaking resource’. | Discover the book here >
A gorgeous, thrilling, and provocative reimagining of Mark Twain’s American classic, TheAdventures of Huckleberry Finn, from the perspective of the enslaved James (or Jim, as he’s called by most). Percival Everett won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the novel last year and his narrative moves deftly between moments of humour, wisdom, and horror; both a riveting retelling and a profound work on the resilience of the human spirit in its own right. (And if you need even more reason to read, Salman Rushdie called it his favourite book of last year!) | Discover the book here >
‘How can you play the game when the cards are stacked against you?’ is the tagline of Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé’s unputdownable YA thriller, Ace of Spades. Set in an exclusive high-school nearly bursting with buried secrets, the story follows two Black students trying to find out who is spreading rumours about them – both a compelling read and a blistering critique of institutionalised racism. | Discover the book here >
‘Claudia Rankine’s book may or may not be poetry –’ Kate Kellaway writes at the start of her Guardian review of Citizen, ‘the question becomes insignificant as one reads on.’ In this fearless, genre-defying book – which weaves images, essays, and poetry together – Claudia Rankine examines the experience of race and racism in Western society to powerful, thought-provoking effect. | Discover the book here >
Shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize for Fiction (after winning the Prize back in 2015 for A Brief History of Seven Killings), Marlon James tells an unflinching, deeply human story of queer life in Jamaica in the late 20th century with The Disappearers. The New York Times has called it ‘a masterpiece, the novel of the decade and possibly of the century thus far’. | Discover the book here >
New College Festival of Books and Belief, 6–7 November
And finally, our sponsor and partner, the University of Edinburgh, are glad to share that this year they’re celebrating New College’s 180th anniversary by bringing together another stellar range of writers, historians, academics, and performers to their annual Festival of Books and Belief.
They welcome Booker-shortlisted author Luke Kennard, celebrated musician Karine Polwart, and festival favourite Alycia Pirmohamed. Guests can imagine mythic pasts with Malcolm Guite, uncover histories with Alec Ryrie and Francesca Stavrakopoulou, and explore the future of AI with Eleanor Drage. Back by popular demand, there will be two writing workshops at the festival – poetry writing with Jane McKie and prose with Margaret Somerville.
Discover these and other events (including the playwright David Ireland in conversation with Donald Smith; Nada Shawa; Mhairi Collie and Gavin Francis; and Elli Tikvah Sarah) all in their 2026 programme.
And that’s all for now! We’ll be back in November with more Book Festival news and reading recommendations! In the meantime, keep up with all the latest from the Book Festival on our social media (@edbookfest).
