HIGHLIGHTS

EIGHT Man Booker Prize winners appearing at the 2012 Edinburgh International Book Festival include: Ian McEwan, James Kelman, Hilary Mantel, Pat Barker, Howard Jacobson, Anne Enright, John Banville and Ben Okri.

In addition, the Korean woman author Kyung-Sook Shin, who won the Man Asia Prize with Please Look After Mom, will also be appearing.

Ian McEwan will be interviewed on stage by First Minister Alex Salmond, while former prime minister Gordon Brown will give the keynote Donald Dewar lecture.

Kirsty Wark will interview chef Tom Kitchin and record producer Nile Rodgers. in Edinburgh in 1962 and with Scottish and international authors taking the city’s literary fame to festivals worldwide this year.

It includes a strong focus on literature and politics, from the Lockerbie case and the banking crisis to the phone-hacking campaigner Tom Watson MP and readings from the work of the jailed Chinese poet and human rights activist, the nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.

Tantalising first-time authors range from Gregory’s Girl star, Bafta and Olivier award winner John Gordon Sinclair with his first novel, to Lisa Klaussman with Tigers in Red Weath

the book by the American great-grandaughter of Herman Melville which earned a record

The festival also unveiled details of a World Writer’s Conference, inspired by the 1962 Writers Conference in Edinburgh. About 50 authors in Edinburgh will join sessions on topics like censorship, with writers from Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif and Costa Award winner Patrick ness launching a global tour of 13 countries.

The £565,000 programme backed by the British Council will see Scottish writers from Ian Rankin to poet John Burnside despatched round the world with top authors in 13 other countries to create global headlines for the city at literary events.