Listings: Books

Martin Stepek. Martin Stepek talks about his English/Polish bilingual book For There is Hope, about his Polish ancestors' experiences of deportation to Russian slave labour camps during the Second World War. Also covering material from his next book, the biography of his father, Jan Stepek (1922-2012) who survived a…

Lakin McCarthy Entertainment Ltd / The Assembly Rooms. Polly Toynbee, the renowned Guardian columnist, dissects Cameron's dogma and disarray and predicts a brightish future for progressive forces across the British political landscape. Polly has been a political and social commentator for the Guardian since 1998 and is…

Lakin McCarthy Entertainment Ltd / The Assembly Rooms. Best-selling author, psychologist and magician Richard Wiseman rummages around in your mind. Discover how to tell lies, read thoughts and transform a tea towel into a chicken. Several laughs. No Powerpoint. ★★★★★ 'you won't want to miss Psychobabble…

Was Burns truly the womaniser of folklore, or simply a lad with a twinkle in his eye? Contrary to popular belief Burns preferred women of intellect rather than a pretty face. His wife was well aware of his sexual misdemeanours. He once described himself as 'a proven fornicator'. Was he mocking the establishment or saying…

Lakin McCarthy Entertainment Ltd / The Assembly Rooms. Only performance on the Fringe. Very fast talking about Darwin, Feynman and sponge crabs. Presenter of Radio 4's Sony Gold award-winning Infinite Monkey Cage. May tell secret of Professor Brian Cox's lovely hair. Robin Ince is now predominantly known as a science…

Is it all over? What’s left of the communist ideal, now that the great revolutions of the last century have been defeated? UK Slam champion David Lee Morgan spits rhythm, rhyme and intense lyrics over music composed by Michael Harding of Animat.

Lakin McCarthy Entertainment Ltd / The Assembly Rooms. Simon Hoggart of the Guardian is one of the leading sketch writers at Westminster, and will be giving a hilarious talk about the prime ministers, the poseurs, the pseuds, poltroons and pratfalls he has seen, from Ted Heath to David Cameron, via Margaret Thatcher…

PBH Free Fringe Spoken Word Showcases and Competitions bring you some of the best performers, open mics, and live competitions on the UK scene today. A raft of talented, experienced, lively spoken word collectives staging some amazing shows: Word House, I’m Sorry I Haven’t Haiku, The Anti-Slam, Flea Circus, Hammer and…

Had it up to here with hilarity? Fed up with the feel good factor? Well, commiserations, because the Stand-Up Tragedy team are here to wipe that smile off your face! After successful London runs at the Leicester Square Theatre and the Hackney Attic, Sony Award-nominated Dave Pickering's ‘entertaining bunch of…

Lakin McCarthy Entertainment Ltd / The Assembly Rooms. Award-winning cartoonist Steve Bell reveals the deep dark secrets of the world of political cartooning and his ongoing mission to tear holes in the political establishment. Steve has created the daily If… strip in the Guardian newspaper for over thirty years, and…

Lakin McCarthy Entertainment Ltd / The Assembly Rooms. The popular TV and radio presenter, journalist and author talks about his new book and epic radio series, a social history of modern Britain told through pop singles. Stuart is the UK's best-selling travel writer of non-TV tie-in books. He also co-hosts the…

Tea Fuelled. 'A more mind-bending deconstruction of the concept of the story is difficult to imagine.' ★★★★ (Scotsman). It's raining, everywhere, and it won't stop. Superbard (Radio 2, Radio 4) returns with an apocalyptic tale of obsession, statistics and sing-along choruses. In Edinburgh's first show to be both an…

A poetic comedic rage through the trivialities and irritations of modern life. A show of biting wit, wry humour, blatant vulgarity and the occasional smidgeon of social conscience. Join Jim in his quest to rid the world of all the things that have ever angered, annoyed or aggravated you. Review of the show - 'a whole…

Fishing for freshness? You’ll get what’s coming with Threesome. Hook up with us for the un/spoken word lifted off the page in surprising ways. Jay Walker’s excerpts from Explicit embody poetic licentiousness. Everyday language made queerly transfixing. ‘The nearest English translation of jouissance I've ever seen…

Fair Pley / The Assembly Rooms. MP Tom Watson talks about taking on the Murdochs and the all-powerful, corrupt media. Tom will also leaf through Leveson and consider implications for the media in the digital age. MP for West Bromwich East since 2001, he is the former Minister for Digital Engagement and former member of…

Get Involved. Created and hosted by the UK's sharpest poets, storytellers and comedians who perform with improvised soundtracks from the genre-hopping Tongue Fu Band (Nostalgia 77). Created and hosted by performance poet Chris Redmond (Scroobius Pip's Spoken Word Surgery - BBC Radio One, Bespoken Word, Pick Of The Week…

Fair Pley / The Assembly Rooms. Tony Benn publishes the final volume of his diaries, A Blaze of Autumn Sunshine, this October and he returns to the Edinburgh Fringe to share his recollections of the past and his thoughts about the future with Richard Holloway, another strongly independent public figure, with whom he…

Nadia Brooks / Free Festival. Northerner Brooksy packs Yorkshire Tea and takes her trusty Ford Focus on a solo quest across the United States. Along the way she: ventures through labyrinths; encounters possible serial killers, Terminator-esque cops, folks who sent men to the moon and those who witnessed Roswell's…

Keith Jarrett explores the obsessions of our label-driven society, going on an interactive, tragi-comic tour of mistaken identity, beginning with the birth of his name to the death of his gay poem.

Lakin McCarthy Entertainment Ltd / The Assembly Rooms. Ahead of the release of her 27th chilling thriller, No. 1 best-selling crime writer and 'acknowledged queen of the psychological thriller' (Guardian) Val McDermid discusses the fatal attraction of crime fiction. Since publishing her first novel in 1987, McDermid…

Fair Pley / The Famous Spiegeltent. Scotland's rich campaigning tradition comes under the spotlight as some of our most radical organisations take to the stage to fight their corner. A different event each day guarantees the best of activism, agitation and action. From fair trade to disability rights, peace, socialism…

Fair Pley / The Famous Spiegeltent. Sponsored by Sunday Herald: the finest chat show at the Fringe chaired by Iain Macwhirter and featuring really good people with something interesting to say and some decent chat. In conjunction with Scotland's leading Sunday newspaper a daily lunchtime chat show / interview / debate…

Lakin McCarthy Entertainment Ltd / The Assembly Rooms. When an agony aunt reaches sixty, she can lie like a trooper, jump off a bridge or take to the stage. In Virginia Ironside's case, she's still an agony columnist (for the Independent) and writes a column for the Oldie. In her talk she explains why unlimited free…

Feel like you've been badly coded? A show about happiness, self-acceptance – and the orange ghost from Pac-Man. Spoken word poet/performer and Canterbury Laureate Dan Simpson's debut solo show. www.dansimpsonpoet.co.uk/orange-ghosts