3 To See at Fringe By The Sea: Authors
Bookish big names heading to North Berwick include the household name behind Hamnet, a historian of Traitors fame, and a Gordon Burn Prize winner
2026 has turned out to be a big year for Maggie O’Farrell (The Famous Grouse Lodge, 1 August, 12.20pm) with Hamnet doing huge, tear-stained business in the film world followed by the publication of her latest epic, Land. She’s back on home soil here given that she attended high school in North Berwick. Historian, writer and broadcaster David Olusoga (Big Top, 6 August, 11am) also has family connections to East Lothian and here he reflects on how Britain’s present is inextricably linked with its past. Winner of the Gordon Burn Prize, Jenni Fagan (The Dome, 2 August, 1.15pm) is on the coast to talk about The Delusions, her fifth novel which we described in our review as ‘a scatological Scottish The Good Place with Orwellian overtones’. Who could resist that?
Picture: Heather Chuter.