Nick Eardley: Congratulations to everybody involved with Palace of the End, winners of the Fest-sponsored 2009 Amnesty International Freedom of Expression awa...
Comedy | Theatre
Lyle Brennan: Attempting to talk to six performers from as many different shows in a single sitting is, at best, a challenge. Having just stepped off the set of the...
Books
David Sedaris: On his profession It helps to surround yourself with people who do stuff - fucked up stuff. My oldest sister Lisa came to visit me in France this su...
Music
Fergus Weir: The spirit of Retreat! can be easily summed up. According to Bart Owl, who co-founded the festival alongside Emily Roff, it’s simply “a ce...
Ed Ballard: “I just tweeted absolute nonsense to the universe” says Neil Gaiman by way of an apology. For the next sixty seconds he’s absorbed i...
Comedy
Lloyd Langford: Blues musicians lead such extraordinary and interesting lives. Take for example Blind Lemon Jefferson, guitar, storyteller and the inventor and dogged...
Sam Friedman: It’s Thursday night and an exhausted Jane Berthoud makes her way to the tiny Pleasance Attic for her sixth comedy show of the day. The comedian ...
Fern Brady: Penelope Skinner is a curious person to be around. Like a glowering, sulky child, she responds to initial questions with suspicion. And her ability to...
Chris McCall: Out of all the numerous band reunions of recent years, few were as unexpected, or as widely welcomed, as Magazine. The story of Magazine is typical o...
Fergus Craig: The same reason it’s so good. The practicalities of making five 22 minute long programmes a week, every week on a small budget don’t reall...
Ed Ballard: There's a nice story behind the New York storytelling organisation founded by novelist George Dawes Green. It’s named after the insects that cam...
Simon Mundy: Ten years ago, Andrew Motion’s appointment as poet laureate was overshadowed by rumours surrounding a rival candidate: Tony Blair had ruled out ...
Fern Brady: "You should become a comedian when you grow up – and I'll be your manager," someone once told me. Except that someone was my high school science...
Jess Winch: "It’s always next to impossible making a final choice," says Edinburgh University's Professor Colin Nicholson of the James Tait Black Memorial p...
Chris McCall: Malcolm McLaren was educated at Goldsmith’s College in the late 1960s, where he failed to graduate. He managed a series of clothes shops based o...
