2021 Boswell Book Festival Events

Andrew Marr - Boswell the Man

When young and impressionable and growing up in Scotland, Andrew Marr was given a copy of Boswell's 1762 London Journal by his mother. Boswell fast became one of Marr's literary heroes and indeed was chosen by him for his BBC tv series Great Scots: The Writers who Shaped a Nation.

Simon Heffer & Hugo Vickers

The celebrated historian and journalist Simon Heffer is the editor of the unexpurgated diaries of society figure and politician, Henry 'Chips' Channon.

Letters from Prison

My Father's Letters with Sigrid Rausing and Georgia Thomson. Poignant letters of love and loss that stand as a testament to 16 men imprisoned during Stalin's Great Terror.

Kapka Kassabova & Rory Stewart

Two travel writers with Scottish roots discuss the use of diaries in their art. Discover how Kassabova and Stewart craft their outstanding talents as writers, which transcend genre, to summon up the beauty, tragedy and humanity of foreign lands.

Alberto Angela – Cleopatra

One of Italy's most revered cultural figures, paleontologist, naturalist, journalist, author, and popular television host - Angela's tv documentary Meraviglie attracts over six million viewers per episode

Alex Renton & Geoff Palmer in conversation with James Knox

Two personal stories - a descendant of slave owners and a descendant of enslaved people discuss how their actions help us to address Scotland's colonial and slavery past.

Charlie Gilmour & Mohsin Zaidi

Two highly acclaimed coming of age memoirs from young men who hail from very different backgrounds, have been on different sides of the law but have in common childhoods moulded by parental behaviour and an understanding today of the power of love

Amanda Owen & Gavin Francis

Two writers from very different spheres of life, but both rooted in their own communities and both having created influential platforms through their writings based on their vocations.

Celebrating National Biographer's Day

Broadcast LIVE from Auchinleck Churchyard, Ayrshire. With Peter Ross & Gordon Turnbull

Janey Godley

She has kept us laughing during lockdown - but who is Janey Godley? Renowned for her 2020 sketches on the First Minister's daily coronavirus updates - her hilarious Nicola Sturgeon voice-overs winning 'Best Online Content' at the Scottish Comedy Awards

Hella Pick

Hella Pick was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1929. A Kindertransport evacuee at the age of eleven - number 4672 - with her mother who followed her to Britain three months later, she experienced the struggles of life as a Jewish refugee.

Deborah Frances-White

I'm a feminist but ... one time I went on a women's rights march, and I popped into a department store to use the loo, and I got distracted trying out face cream. And when I came out the march was gone.

Helen Lewis & Chris Bryant

Two groups of people making history but airbrushed from the history books as inconvenient truths.

Fredrik Logevall with James Naughtie

The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Fredrik Logevall, inspired by a gap in our historical knowledge, has spent much of the last decade combing through material unseen or unused by previous biographers taking us as close as we have ever been to the real John F. Kennedy.

Desmond Cole & Lee Lawrence

In a compelling conversation, Cole and Lawrence explore the parallels and similarities between the British and Canadian Black experience, and how the trajectories of their lives have led them to fight for justice, for peace, and for change.

Andrew Cotter

The BBC Sport commentator Andrew Cotter who was brought up in Troon became an internet sensation after videos of his dogs Olive and Mabel went viral during the Covid-19 shutdown.

Professor Jane Ridley: How to Do Biography

If you are thinking about writing biography (or not?) about a famous person, or a member of your family, then this masterclass is for you. (Event limited to 30 people)

Melanie Reid: Do You Have a Story to Tell?

Memoir is one of the most popular and widely read forms of literature generating serious sales. It is endlessly inventive, ranging from covering a whole life to focussing on a moment in a life. (Event limited to 30 people)

Ned Sedgwick: Why and How to Become a Podcaster

Podcasting is booming. There are 16 million podcast listeners in the UK. Spotify and Apple are involved in a nine figure investment arms race and advertising revenues. (Event limited to 30 people)

Frances Wilson

Live event from Boswell Book Company Milwaukee. Frances Wilson has been lauded for her revelatory new biography of D H Lawrence, who though no longer censored is still on trial – and we are still unsure what the verdict should be, or even how to describe him, one hundred years after the publication of Women in Love.

2021 Online Festival for Schools 11-16 June

The Boswell Book Festival School programme is designed with fun and engaging events for those from primary 1 to secondary 3. Each event explores ways to tell both our own stories as well as those of others. There are workshops, talks and performances that develop research, writing and debating skills.

Events explore the lives of great authors, scientists, environmentalists and campaigners and are ideal for topic work across the CfE. In addition, giving young people an opportunity to explore, share and articulate their own experiences is a valuable support to health and wellbeing.

2021 Children's Festival Events

Boswell Schools and Family 2021 Programme

The World's Only Festival of Biography and Memoir

9-11 May 2025