Edinburgh International Book Festival preview: Lyse Doucet, David Olusoga, Anita Anand, Gordon Brown and more

Lyse Doucet would qualify on both counts. Most of us know nothing about the subject of her first-ever book, The Finest Hotel in Kabul, so well-written that it won this year’s Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, though we also know her as one of television’s most poised and unaffected foreign correspondents. A literary talent hiding in plain sight: who knew? No wonder her event at this year’s Edinburgh book festival (27 August) was the first to sell out.

What are the other must-sees? Away from Celebrity Traitors, David Olusoga (24 August) is always a thought-provoking historian, and given his recent research in Edinburgh for his A House in Time series, we might expect a little local enlightenment too. Among the rest of the festival’s historians, Tom Holland (20 August) will be making a case for Suetonius’s Lives of the Caesars as belonging in that ultimate ‘who knew?’ category of top-drawer gossip. Perennial festival favourite William Dalrymple, along with his Empire podcast co-host Anita Anand (30 August), however, by looking at what past historians took for granted, will probably reveal more about attitudes hiding in plain sight.

Enjoying The Scotsman's coverage of the Edinburgh festivals? For just £2 a month you can get unlimited access to scotsman.com plus 2-for-1 Fringe tickets. For details visit www.scotsman.com/subscriptions

In truth, though, the rest of the programme has a width that defies any kind of narrow focus. Festival director Jenny Niven takes as her “hero theme” Changing Your Mind, and it’s a strand well worth following, from Gavin Francis arguing against rigid categorisation of mental illness (15 August, 11.45am) to The Secret Life of Books event (29 August) in which Maggie O’Farrell joins the podcast’s panel to talk about what happens in our brains when we read - and write - books. The only cancellation I have heard of so far is that of the event with Anil Seth (24 August): a shame as I was looking forward to hearing the pioneering neuroscientist argues that consciousness is a “controlled hallucination” in which the brain invents colours, shapes and feelings - and even our very sense of self.

This year, for the first time, the festival’s controlled hallucination will take Greyfriars Kirk, in a series of collaborations between Scottish writers William Dalrymple (16 August) Kathleen Jamie ( 25 August) Len Pennie (27 August) and Ali Smith (28 August) with a number of international musicians and performers. But as I have no idea how these creative trips will work out, I shall end by recommending some other literary superstars.

I was lucky enough to interview Colson Whitehead (21 August) for a feature that will appear on these pages next week, ahead of which I read all three books in his Harlem Shuffle trilogy and strongly suspect that he is a stone-cold genius. And if you don’t take my word for it, take Stuart Kelly’s assessment of Cool Machine, its just-published concluding book, in Scotland on Sunday: “intelligent, emotional, stylish, funny, incisive, wise and – dammit – cool”. Then again, among his fellow-Americans, Ben Lerner (29 August) is no slouch in the coolness stakes, and I still have to find a novel by Anne Patchett (also 29 August) that I haven’t enjoyed. Patchett is on twice that day, the second time to launch her friend, New Zealand writer Meg Mason’s new novel Sophie, Standing There. Sophie, I should point out, is one of those indispensable people, a freelance sound technician for literary festivals.

Yet although I have mentioned three different ways of finding your way through the festival programme, in reality there is nothing better than making your own discoveries. After all, what does Gordon Brown (28 August, interviewed by Lyse Doucet, no less) really have in common with Yi-Ling Lei (15 August) explaining how the Chinese internet is so different from our own or former Booker winer Douglas Stuart chatting to Jackie Kay (30 August) about his fine novel, John of John, longlisted (as is Lerner) for this year’s prize? What has Margaret Drabble (20 August), reflecting on a lifetime in literature, in common with the FT’s Simon Kuper, chewing the fat about the World Cup with Stuart Cosgrove the previous day?

Answer: nothing. And that, ultimately, is the mark of a good festival. It’s so wide it is uncategorisable. Enjoy!

Edinburgh International Book Festival, 15-30 August, www.edbookfest.co.uk

The Scotsman’s arts newsletter is now sent twice a week - subscribe today

Enjoying the Arts & Culture journalism on scotsman.com? Make it easier to find by selecting us as a preferred Google source

Want the latest Scottish headlines sent directly to your phone? Sign up to our new WhatsApp channel here