The Traitors star and Booker winners join UK book festival's massive 2026 line up

The Edinburgh International Book Festival has today announced The Front List, its series of headline events at McEwan Hall during this year’s Festival (15–30 August), bringing together some of the most significant writers, historians, journalists and cultural thinkers working today. Taking place in the Festival’s largest venue, and presented in partnership with Underbelly, The Front List offers audiences rare opportunities to hear from internationally celebrated voices whose work helps shape how contemporary culture, politics, history and society are understood. From Booker Prize winning novelists and globally bestselling storytellers to frontline correspondents, historians and public intellectuals, the series places big ideas and major conversations at the heart of the 2026 Festival. The programme spans fiction, media, history, politics and performance. It opens with a timely examination of the future of the internet, as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Cory Doctorow consider who now holds power online and whether the early days of altruism and optimism about the internet are gone for good. Elsewhere, audiences can enjoy a rare appearance from Diana Gabaldon, marking thirty-five years since the publication of Outlander, as she reflects on one of the most successful literary franchises of recent decades, credited - alongside its screen adaptations - with transforming both Scotland ’s tourism and its film and television industry. World-leading fiction sits at the heart of the series, featuring an array of celebrated authors. Colson Whitehead, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist behind The Underground Railroad , joins journalist and broadcaster Samira Ahmed. Douglas Stuart, the Booker Prize-winning writer of Shuggie Bain , will appear in conversation with poet, novelist and former Makar Jackie Kay. The line-up also includes Booker Prize winner Kiran Desai and Ann Patchett, the Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner-winning novelist. They are joined by Elif Shafak, the internationally bestselling writer and global public intellectual. Together, these writers explore memory, migration, identity, belonging, race and the moral responsibilities of storytelling. Want to hear the latest books news and reviews from The Mirror's resident bookworm? Follow Aimée Walsh on Tiktok and Instagram The Front List also places contemporary journalism at the centre of the programme. Lyse Doucet, the BBC ’s Chief International Correspondent, reflects on decades reporting from conflict zones and geopolitical fault lines. History and public memory are explored in depth during the series. David Olusoga also appears amid a new season of A House Through Time. Fresh from his role unpacking power, loyalty and betrayal on The Traitors , he considers empire, memory and Britain’s contested past. Performance, warmth and joy also run through The Front List. Kae Tempest, the multi-award-winning poet, novelist and musician reflects on language, identity and creativity across a body of work spanning poetry, fiction and performance. Charlie Mackesy, creator of the global phenomenon The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse – winner of the Waterstones Book of the Year and adapted into an Academy Award winning animated film – appears in a family friendly event centred on kindness, vulnerability and connection. At a moment when public debate can often feel polarised or diminished, The Front List reflects the Festival’s belief in the value of open, inspiring and nuanced conversation. Bringing together readers and audiences with some of the most compelling voices of our time, the series underscores the Edinburgh International Book Festival’s position as one of the world ’s leading forums for literature, ideas and public exchange. Love reading? Join Dr. Aimée Walsh and our community of fellow readers in the Mirror Book Club to dive deeper into the books everyone is talking about.