DAME Judi Dench, star of stage and screen will open the eighth edition of the Boswell Book Festival 2018 on Friday, May 4. Her audience will be treated to a first hand account of her remarkable career in conversation with Glasgow Citizens Theatre Director Dominic Hill.

Dame Judi’s Friday evening talk will be recorded and screened at 10am on Saturday 5th May, after which she will hold a book signing session.

Also sharing the limelight are:

  • Anthony Horowitz, worldwide bestselling author on his life and the challenges of writing tales of mystery from Midsomer Murders to Sherlock Holmes and on to Bond!
  • Sally Magnusson, BBC presenter delves into her Icelandic roots to tell the true story of pirates and slavery in one of Iceland’s greatest sagas.
  • Matthew Parris, charismatic presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Great Lives, renowned commentator and broadcaster, tells us what he thinks makes a ‘great’ life.
  • Helen Pankhurst, women’s rights activist and great-granddaughter of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst joins the cast both to mark and reflect on the 100th year since women got the vote.
  • Alexander McCall Smith, celebrates the 20th year since the publication of his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series which has sold over 20 million copies.
  • Cardinal Vincent Nichols discusses his life and work from his fight against human trafficking and slavery to his passion for sacred music, in conversation with composer Sir James MacMillan.
  • Maggie O’Farrell Costa Novel Award Winner reveals a whole life in tense snapshots of seventeen of her own brushes with death.
  • Michael Heath – Legendary Cartoonist Speaking at his first UK festival with a career of 60 years in Fleet Street, from Punch to Private Eye (Great Bores of Today) to The Spectator, Heath’s observational genius started with his dysfunctional Marxist parents.
  • Giles and Mary from Channel 4’s Gogglebox
  • Are you sitting comfortably? Hilarious switched-on couple Giles Wood and Mary Killen dare to head north from their cosy Wiltshire fastness.
  • The Royal Collection – Life Passion and Power Michael Hall, special adviser to the BBC4 TV series was given unprecedented access to the royal residencies.

Other top guests include Jackie Kay, Andrew O’Hagan, Judy Murray, WW2 Veterans of the Arctic Convoys, Four Mums in a Boat, Chris Mullin, Darren McGarvey plus the intriguing prospect of Kilted Yoga with Finlay Wilson – seated stretches included