REVIEW: Gordon Brown, Edinburgh International Book Festival *****

Interviewed by Lyce Doucet. 28th August 2026

Two of the people I most admire were in conversation this morning at the Book Festival, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and BBC international affairs journalist Lyse Doucet. Unlike most former political leaders, Brown has been busy trying to make the world a better place in all sorts of ways. At home, he’s thrown himself into supporting the Fife Multibank, the charity that redistributes surplus goods from warehouses to poor or on benefits. Abroad, he’s a global ambassador on poverty, particularly with a focus on improving access to education for girls. In that respect he and Lyse Doucet have common cause, and there was clear respect and chemistry between the two. There was a little plug for the Linda Norgrove Foundation which brings some girls from Afghanistan to Scotland to complete studies.

Here, he had a new book to promote, The Future Starts With Us. Brown talked for much of the time about the factors and individuals who are responsible for the breakdown of community, peppered with amusing anecdotes – he’s surprisingly funny. Brown has been a major player on the world stage for so long that he’s met many global figures, and can count many as personal friends. I can see why; this is a genuine man with real passions, not fake.

Eventually, he moved on to the thrust of the book, how to improve our sense of community, both local and global. My biggest takeaway was when he drew on his fellow Kirkcaldy writer, the eighteenth century philosopher Adam Smith, author of The Wealth of Nations. It’s a much-misunderstood book, of course, one in which Smith writes of ‘circles of empathy’. Naturally, we empathise more with those we know and love far more than those in far-off countries, but that changes if we learn more about them. Trading with them more is simply part of that process, of course. Brown encourages us to think in terms of ‘circles of empathy’ rather than the zero-sum game of ‘them and us’.

It’s always good to have something worthwhile to take away from any meeting.

Till the next time,

Gordon

REVIEW: Lyse Doucet, Edinburgh International Book Festival *****

Interviewed by Sally Hayden, 27th August 2026

Everyone loves Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s foreign correspondent who goes to parts of the world where angels fear to tread. In recent years that’s mainly been in the Middle East, and here she was fresh off a trip to Afghanistan and now talking to Irish journalist Sally Hayden. She was also promoting a book The Finest Hotel in Kabul – her first – a social history of modern Afghanistan told through the story of the city’s Intercontinental Hotel and its inhabitants.

Despite the capacity of over a thousand, this show in the McEwan Hall was the first Book Festival event to sell out and it wasn’t difficult to see why. Despite the audience size, and the difficulty of seeing past the strong stage lighting, she made every effort to engage with audience members both collectively and individually. She and Ms Hayden compared notes on being in war zones (the latter has just spent a couple of years in Lebanon. Ms Doucet is incredibly self-effacing, keen to promote Sally Hayden and her own books, too, even although everyone was present to hear Doucet herself. Hayden came with some prepared questions, but to be honest Lyse Doucet could simply have spoken unprompted. Indeed, some of her best answers came in response to audience questions, particularly on the future of the BBC.

At one point she let something slip about how her peers see her. While describing how she uses her basic Arabic, Pashto and Daro to negotiate her way past Afghan checkpoints and security – along with jokes! – she said people would just wave her through. “Oh it’s all right,” she said, “it’s Lyse. She can go through.” ‘Lyse‘. I bet that’s exactly how it is, she’s often simply known by her first name.

I had a front row seat. One person asked if she ever managed to make it home. Her answer was that she often feels at home while abroad, unsurprisingly given how warm and friendly she seems to be. She’d be very welcome in my home any time.

Tomorrow, Lyse Doucet turns interviewer, appearing with former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, another person I admire. I suspect they work together at times to promote girls’ education in countries where it’s hard to access. I can’t wait.

Till the next time,

Gordon

REVIEW: John Grisham and Ian Rankin, Edinburgh International Book Festival *****

Introduced by Jenny Niven, 25th August 2026

The Edinburgh International Book Festival is fortunate that characters like Ian Rankin have its back, and here he was surely partly instrumental in setting up this McEwan Hall event. Even by international crime-writing standards, John Grisham is a megastar, primarily known as author of The Firm, countless other legal thrillers, as well as more than a few other fiction and non-fiction works. This time – although it almost seemed incidental – he was promoting his latest novel The Widow.

Rankin is a brilliant interviewer. Rather than turning it into a question-and-answer show, he engages in a conversation with his fellow writer, comparing notes in a way that allows the audience far greater insights into his guest’s life and work. He began by asking Grisham about his early life mainly in the Deep South – and deeply conservative – state of Arkansas. Although growing up in a poor family, he somehow managed to train both as an accountant and a lawyer, and he practised as the latter for ten years before giving up after The Firm to focus full-time on writing. I didn’t know he’s also served as an Arkansas State politician for eight years before becoming disillusioned with politics around the same time as the books took off.

Then the event moved on to a comparison of writing techniques and approaches, Rankin’s slighlty fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach to plotting versus Grisham’s highly planned. There was a lot of interesting chat about modern-day reading habits and how writers should cater for them. I found that fascinating.

Brought up in a Baptist family, Grisham clearly likes his characters, especially his heroes, to be struggling with moral dilemmas and much of his work away from writing in the past couple of decades has involved attempting to rectify the hundreds of gross miscarriages of justice that take place in the USA every year. It’s a theme in many of his novels, too.

The EIBF broadcast this event live to eight public libraries across Scotland, and it’s more than possible that the website will eventually make it available for catchup, too. Highly recommended.

Till the next time,

Gordon

REVIEW: Raise Your Voice, Edinburgh International Book Festival ****

Astrid Jorgensen and Lauren Elkin in conversation. Chaired by Sinéad Gleeson, 23rd August 2026

This Book Festival event was billed as an audience participation event and it definitely lived up to that. But it was a slightly odd mix of two writers talking about their work. American Lauren Elkin grew up wanting to be a professional singer, attended music college but ultimately realised she wasn’t quite good enough. Her book, Vocal Break, dealt with her difficulties, particularly those faced by women in the field. Australian Astrid Jorgensen is the founder of Pub Choir, the community singing movement based (surprisingly!) in pubs; her book Average at Best is her memoir. A former music teacher, she had no aim to be outstanding, but she enjoys singing and wants others to as well.

There was quite a contrast between the two personalities. Elkin is a quiet, measured woman who describes herself as neurodivergent, and both her book and her contribution was relatively serious. Jorgensen came over as bubbly and irrepressible: a smile was never far from her lips and she was just plain funny. Their respective readings reflected that, too. Elkin’s was a reflective piece, while Jorgensen’s had the audience laughing. Nevertheless, there was clear chemistry between the two speakers, as if each understood how to give the other space.

I felt Elkin was a little too keen to single out men as a problem to be overcome. She told a story of how ‘the boys at the back of the class’ would snigger at a girl’s attempt to sing, presenting music as a gender issue. I doubt that it is. My wife and I both experienced that as well, and we were each at single-sex schools. A theme I’ve noticed more than once at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival has been that several women speakers have sought to over-generalise gender stereotypes. Any male attempt to counter that view simply invites further accusations of male dominance. Elkin also implied that good singing required proper musical training, which just seemed like snobbery. At any rate, her contribution docked this otherwise outstanding event one star.

Undoubtedly the highlight of the ninety-minute event was Jorgensen’s leading the audience in a two-part harmony rendition of Cindy Lauper’s hit Time After Time. It worked – the audience, including, for this part, both Elkin and Gleeson took their place in the audience. The result was, frankly, both bonkers and hugely enjoyable, Astrid Jorgensen operating like a runaway train.

The event was chaired by Dublin writer Sinéad Gleeson, who was excellent, well-prepared and careful to allow both speakers to feel involved.

Till the next time,

Gordon