
Edinburgh Book Festival has excluded me, says prizewinning author
An Orwell Prize-winning author and gender-critical feminists have condemned the Edinburgh International Book Festival, accusing it of exclusion, discrimination and blacklisting.
Darren McGarvey, who won the Orwell Prize for his book Poverty Safari and delivered a Reith lecture for the BBC, questioned the decision of festival bosses not to put him on the programme, saying that he felt excluded.
He asked if he had done something to upset festival organisers. 'I know I'm not a big deal in grand scheme of things but this is now the second book I've had out and no invite to come and do an event, at my home country's flagship book festival.
'My work on trauma is current , it ties in nicely to your themes. It's full of material that ticks all your boxes for creating conversation.'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mail
26 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Pamela Anderson breaks silence on Meghan Markle's ‘rip off' Netflix cooking show
Pamela Anderson has finally spoken out on viral claims Meghan Markle 'ripped off' her cooking show with Netflix series, With Love, Meghan. Fans of the Baywatch bombshell, 58, were left incensed when the former working Royal, 44, debuted her latest TV venture - which bore eerie similarities to Pamela's Cooking With Love, which premiered earlier this year on Prime Video. The Naked Gun star Anderson opened up on Sunday's Watch What Happens Live! - with host Andy Cohen asking her: 'On a scale from one to 10, how much of a rip-off did you feel like With Love, Meghan was of your show, Pamela's Cooking with Love?' Anderson, who was appearing alongside new love and co-star Liam Neeson responded: 'One. I didn't - I didn't really look, but I mean, I didn't invent cooking shows' adding that Markle 'is just doing her thing.' The drama erupted when Prince Harry 's wife gave People magazine some of her top domestic tips ahead of the release of With Love, Meghan, in March. These included how to 'elevate' a normal dinner – such as after ordering a takeaway, for example. Citing Chinese as a favorite delivery option, Markle told the US magazine: 'I like being able to do a hybrid, but even when I get a takeout I will try to plate it beautifully.' And discussing her new trademark As Ever – after she failed to secure copyright branding for her original name, American Riviera Orchard – she insisted: 'It's a learning curve. 'I appreciate everyone who gave me the grace to make mistakes and figure it out and also be forgiving with myself through that.' shows The two former TV stars live more than a thousand miles apart, yet both were smiling and giggling in brightly lit country kitchens, filming aspirational cooking with photogenic friends and famous celebrities. Both are seen carrying wicker baskets of fruit and vegetables picked from their gardens, dancing with joy, and gleefully high-fiving their celebrity guests. Both series are even the same length: eight episodes. When Meghan's first episode was shown, it prompted withering complaints that she had copied Pamela's winning formula. 'So similar it's freaky,' said one reviewer, while others branded Meghan's series 'inauthentic' and 'copycat'. More charitable observers might put this down to coincidence, as neither show seems to deviate from the wholesome template of many an aspirational cookery program. However, while Markle filmed her series last summer, with the first trailer making its debut in January, Anderson's was commissioned back in February 2023 by Canadian broadcaster Flavour Network. And its trailer has been available for all to see since last October. Last month it was claimed Markle and Prince Harry's hopes of a new Netflix deal are 'dead' after their two most recent shows flopped, Meghan's lifestyle show failed to break into Netflix 's top 300 programs for the first half of 2025 and was even thrashed by multiple seasons of Suits. A second season of With Love, Meghan, was announced by the Duchess herself as the first season came out in March this year as part of the couple's $100million deal with the streaming giant, which expires this year


Reuters
26 minutes ago
- Reuters
Stella Rimington, Britain's first female spy chief, dies aged 90
LONDON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Stella Rimington, the first female director general of Britain's MI5 security and counter-intelligence service who ushered in an era of greater transparency at the agency, has died aged 90. Rimington, who ran the domestic security agency between 1992 and 1996, was its first head to be publicly named and later wrote a memoir "Open Secret" about her career at the formerly secretive organisation. She went on to write a series of espionage novels and is also widely thought to have inspired actor Judy Dench's tough but playful characterisation of the fictional spymaster 'M' in several James Bond movies. "She died surrounded by her beloved family and dogs and determinedly held on to the life she loved until her last breath," a family statement quoted by local media said. Rimington was given one of the British state's highest honours when she was made a dame in 1996. She joined MI5 in 1969 and worked in roles including counter-subversion and counter-terrorism. Under her leadership MI5 took a more prominent role in Britain's fight against Irish republican militants, according to a profile on the MI5 website. "As the first avowed female head of any intelligence agency in the world, Dame Stella broke through long-standing barriers and was a visible example of the importance of diversity in leadership," current MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said in a statement. She committed the agency to a more transparent approach to its work, softening its post-Cold War image. "We are, of course, obliged to keep information secret in order to be effective, this is not to say that we should necessarily be a wholly secret organisation," she said in a publicly broadcast 1994 lecture. "Secrecy is not imposed for its own sake. It is not an end in itself." Foreshadowing her later literary career, Rimington opened that same speech with a nod to the British spy novel tradition and the fascination with the security services it had inspired among the general public. "It is exciting stuff and has led to the creation of many myths - and some lurid speculation - about our work. I must admit that it is with some hesitation that I set out tonight to shed some daylight," she said. "I have a sneaking feeling that the fiction may turn out to be more fun than the reality."


Times
26 minutes ago
- Times
For sale: £60m surrealist treasure trove of art world ‘grande dame'
The grande dame art collector who grew up in a two-up two-down in Manchester has unveiled the dazzling £60 million array of artistic treasures with which she decorated her London home. Pauline Karpidas's London collection was revealed on Monday and ranges from 11 works by René Magritte to a Jeff Koons poodle to Andy Warhol paintings capturing the artist's captivation with Edvard Munch. The auction house due to sell Karpidas's collection of about 250 pieces said they had been blown away by visits to her British home, which housed one of the world's greatest private collections of surrealist art. Andy Warhol's The Scream (After Munch) has a £3 million estimate SOUTHEBYS Thomas Boyd-Bowman of Sotheby's said it was like being hit in the solar plexus seeing the 'captivating works of art that filled the rooms in every direction'.