Spectacular speakers at Festival

KEN Livingstone on Being Red: A Politics for the Future; Tam Dalyell on The Question of Scotland: Devolution and After; and David Torrance on Nicola Sturgeon: A Political Life - just three of the headliners taking part in the 2016 Speakers Festival, which runs from next Friday to Sunday at Augustine United Church, on George IV Bridge.

But it’s not all politics, other highlights include BBC reporter Andrew Hosken on the inside story on Islamic State.

Through extensive first-hand reporting, Hosken builds a comprehensive picture of IS, their brutal ideology and methods of extermination.

Dermot Turing, meanwhile, will present Alan Turing Decoded.

Bletchley Park code-breaker Alan Turing was an extraordinary man who crammed into a life of only 42 years the careers of mathematician, codebreaker, computer scientist and biologist.

He is widely regarded as a war hero who was grossly mistreated by his unappreciative country and it has become hard to disentangle the real man from the story.

Now, his nephew, Dermot, has taken a fresh look at the influences on Alan Turing’s life and creativity and the later creation of a legend.

And model Daphne Selfe on The Way We Wore.

Daphne has been photographed by Mario Testino, Nick Knight and David Bailey. She has modelled for Dolce and Gabbana, Red or Dead and high-street chains such as TK Maxx and regularly appears in newspaper fashion pages and glossy magazines.

One of Britain’s most in-demand supermodels she has worked since 1949, because extraordinarily she is now in her late eighties and the world’s oldest professional model

Other talks include Kenny MacAskill: The Lockerbie Bombing, Alan Taylor: Glasgow - The Autobiography, husband-and-wife team crime writing team Nicci Gerrard and Sean French aka Nicci French: Saturday Requiem, Johanna Holtan: CycleHack, and Ian Fraser: Shredded - Inside RBS, The Bank That Broke Britain.

The Edinburgh Speakers Festival’s most extensive programme yet, details of all talks and tickets are available from www.edinburghspeakersfestival.com or by calling 0333-666 3366