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Sally talks to award-winning novelist Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi about her latest novel The First Woman which addresses the complexities of womanhood and feminism against the brutal backdrop of Idi Amin’s regime in 1970s Uganda.

Turkish author Elif Shafak discusses the big themes in her latest book The Island of Missing Trees; separation, belonging, identity, displacement and the intergenerational inheritance of pain.

Sally sits down with Jennifer and Elif to explore their different experiences of feminism and how living with multiple cultural perspectives feeds into their writing.

TV writer Jack Thorne whose credits include Shameless, This Is England and the recent adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, will deliver the MacTaggart lecture at this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival on the subject of Disabled Representation in TV. Journalist Sanjeev Mann and Spoken Word artist Ross Wilcock examine what more needs to be done to fairly and accurately represent people with disabilities on screen.

In a special event recorded at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival, Sally Magnusson talks to Lisa Williams, founder of the Edinburgh Caribbean Society, and journalist Alex Renton whose latest book Blood Legacy charts his family’s story including his Scottish ancestors’ substantial involvement with slavery in the Caribbean. They also discuss Scotland’s wider role in the slave trade, the case for reparations and how we need to look at the past to ensure a different future.

No Alleluias - Requiem for 2020 is a new piece of choral music debuting at the Just Festival in the capital. The composition by Dr Anthony Hammond is based on the reflective writings of Rev Dr Karen Georgia Thompson from Ohio. She shares how this piece of music was inspired by the loss of her father to COVID, the importance of rethinking our priorities in life and the indivisibility of our human experience.

And with the situation in Afghanistan on everyone’s minds, Jonathan Powell, former Chief of Staff under Prime Minister Tony Blair and one of the chief negotiators of the Good Friday Agreement, tells Sally about Talking to Terrorists and How to End Armed Conflict ahead of his event at the Beyond Borders International Festival at Traquair House.