While The List in the 2010s was dedicated to year-round coverage of arts and culture in Scotland and beyond, I always felt that Edinburgh Festival season was when the team truly had a chance to shine. It was an exhilarating feeling to have so much happening right on our doorstep, with a seemingly endless array of options to explore when it came to recommending the very best things for our audience to experience.

When planning for our three annual August issues, the first thing we looked out for was great pictures. Then, and now, competition for eyeballs was fierce and having truly eye-catching covers for print editions was essential. So in 2017, when we received attention-grabbing images from a promoter for the then little-known clown Natalie Palamides (wearing a look of sheer disgust as egg yolk ran down her face), we all sat up a little straighter. 

It was her Fringe debut and nobody on the team had yet seen her perform. But there was something alluring about her work, which came with the endorsement of the truly surreal Doctor Brown, who had recently won the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Show. So I had a chat with Natalie, which turned into an engaging interview. Based on that, as well as the striking photos and gut instinct, we took a chance and put her on the cover for the very first edition that August. It was an excellent choice: her show, Laid, was incredible, sold out its entire Fringe run and, by the end of the month, she had won the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer.

It remains my favourite example of how my brilliant colleagues and I at The List loved uncovering new talent and giving it a platform, and how joyous that buzz of discovery can be, not just for us but for our readers too. The Edinburgh Festival was always my favourite time of year as editor, and working with the extraordinary team from that period is still one of my fondest professional memories.

Yasmin Sulaiman was editor of The List from 2014–2018, and later focused on building the creative and tech ecosystems in Scotland and the UK, working with freelancers, founders, and governments; she also just finished up a stint as a Trustee at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Classic feature of the 2010s

Frankie Boyle (5 January 2012)

The List has always been a publication that erred towards the sweary, which in the light of creeping censoriousness in public life remains a badge of fucking honour. Had we been an asterisk-addled magazine, this new-year Q&A with Scotland’s master of the profane, Mr Francis Martin Patrick Boyle, would have made for an eye-befuddling and mind-adjusting experience. In a previous decade the closest we came to interviewing him was via fax when he sent over a hilariously libellous cartoon he hoped we would use for a comedy special (but probably knew deep in his heart we never could). In 2012, we offered him a platform to let rip with utter abandon and boy did he use it. (Brian Donaldson)

Follow The List’s timeline for more reminiscences from magazine’s past:
< The List at 40: Nick Barley (editor 2003–2007) – ‘The List was intoxicated by devolution and an emerging national confidence’
> The List at 40: What our writers did next