Gordon Turnbull (16:45 BST)

Hungering for Fame

Two centuries before the term ’The Attention Economy’ was coined for our time, the great Ayrshire diarist and biographer, James Boswell, ninth Laird of Auchinleck, inhabited it. Best known to us for his biographical works on Samuel Johnson and his candid diaries and letters, Boswell was also a determined self-publicist, keeping himself visible in the public eye via the social media of his day.

Making his annual Festival appearance, Gordon Turnbull, former General Editor of the Yale Boswell Editions, reveals a Boswell burning with what Samuel Johnson called 'the Fever of Renown’ - source of both Boswell’s great literary achievements and his self-tormented restlessness - and asking whether all the self-tortured hungering for fame was worth it in the end.

Chaired by Peter Kennerley

Books will be available to purchase over the Festival weekend