'Godfather of the legal thriller' John Grisham to speak at Edinburgh International Book Festival

The author, who has sold more than 500 million books across the world, will be interviewed by Ian Rankin as part of the festival’s Front List series at the McEwan Hall.

More than 600 writers from 41 countries are to take part in this year’s book festival, which will also see appearances from major public figures including former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

Children’s author Julia Donaldson is to launch her new Gruffalo book, Gruffalo Granny, at the festival as part of a children’s programme of events, which will include a Kids’ Zone sponsored by rail company LNER.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh’s Greyfriars Kirk is to become a venue for the festival for the first time, hosting Scotland to the World - a new series connecting leading Scottish writers Ali Smith, Len Pennie, Kathleen Jamie, and William Dalrymple with international musicians, artists and performers.

The series follows the success of last year’s festival-commissioned Life in a Scotch Sitting Room, Vol. 0, by Hamish Hawk - following a UK tour and sold-out Glasgow show - which will be revived again this year in the Spiegeltent.

Based around this year’s theme of Changing Your Mind, the festival will include events from a wide range of experts across three thematic strands, who will share information and nuanced perspectives, encouraging audiences to think critically, and flexibly.

“In a world where people are very certain in their positions, over all kinds of issues and we are all polarised in various kinds of ways, how do we stay flexible in our thinking, how do we open our minds to new ideas and new ways of thinking? That is the overarching question that sits at the heart of the whole programme this year.

EIBF director Jenny Niven said she expected tickets for Mr Grisham’s appearance to go “pretty quickly”.

She said: “John Grisham has sold more books than anyone else. You go round the pool on holiday and five out of ten books people are reading are John Grisham. We cannot think of a better person to bring here in the National Year of Reading. Somebody who reaches all kinds of audiences and all kinds of demographics and we’re really proud to be hosting him.”

She said the involvement of Ian Rankin, a long time supporter of the book festival, had been “what swung it for us”.

She said: “They’ve had a mutual, respectful friendship for a long time, but have never sat down together and had a conversation on stage, so it’s a bit of a highlight for all of us.”

The US author of the Pelican Brief, known as the “godfather of the legal thriller genre”, has had more than 50 consecutive number-one bestsellers and translations into almost 50 languages.

The festival’s 604 events are lower than the number held last year at 673, however, Ms Niven said the overall capacity was higher, due to an increased use of the McEwan Hall as a venue.

The line-up will also include a “highly experimental” production created by pairing Scottish author Kathleen Jamie’s writing with performance from Japan’s Noh Reimagined theatre company, as well as leading musicians Aidan O’Rourke and Brìghde Chaimbeul and Dutch contemporary classical collective New European Ensemble presenting four new pieces inspired by Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet, with the author reading alongside.

Fiction this year ranges from Colm Tóibín and Maggie O’Farrell to recent International Booker Prize winners Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and Lin King, and international stars Daniyal Mueenuddinand Japanese literary sensation Mieko Kawakami, with Scottish voices including Fern Brady, Jenni Fagan and Graeme Armstrong.

Well-known fiction writers including Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time writer Mark Haddon and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin author Louis de Bernieres are to speak on books they have written in the non-fiction genre.

The Front List, presented in partnership with Underbelly at McEwan Hall, will include already announced names including Diana Gabaldon marking 35 years of Outlander, Pulitzer and Booker Prize winners including Colson Whitehead, Douglas Stuart, and Kiran Desai. Meanwhile, the event featuring BBC chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet is already sold out.