Actor Alan Cumming coming to book festival

Hollywood actor Alan Cumming and survival expert Ray Mears are among the big names taking part in the 2016 Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) in August.

American author Jonathan Safran Foer and cyclists David Millar, Chris Boardman and Mark Beaumont are also in the line-up.

Organisers of the festival – believed to be the biggest of its kind in the world – say this year’s theme can be summed up as “Project No Fear” and will explore the power of the human mind to imagine a better world.

More than 800 writers, poets, illustrators, politicians, journalists, historians, scientists, philosophers and playwrights are to take part in the 17-day event.