1. The Edinburgh International Book Festival, where I’ve spent many happy summers over the years, begins next Saturday, 13th August. Watch for free or pay as much as you can afford. Full list of events here: https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/events

Here’s a baker’s dozen to consider that I’m hoping to attend online (not quite sure online is always an option, though):

Merve Emre and Daniel Mulhall https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/events?author_id=9419

Howard Jacobson https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/events?author_id=177

Nadifa Mohamed https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/events?author_id=486

Antony Beevor and Allan Little https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/events?author_id=1833

Geoff Dyer https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/events?author_id=812

PJ Harvey and Don Paterson https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/events?author_id=9348

Mieko Kawakami https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/events?author_id=8539

Devi Sridhar https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/events?author_id=7038

Patrick Radden Keefe https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/events?author_id=9318

Philippe Sands https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/events?author_id=577

Oliver Bullough and Ian Rankin https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/events?author_id=1284

Tsitsi Dangarembga, Dipo Faloyin & Howard W French https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/events?author_id=8170

Henry Marsh https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/events?author_id=3190

2. Slightly wacky and very idiosyncratic, yes, but also fun: give the Language Hat blog a go https://languagehat.com/author/languagehat/

3. Grammarly used to annoy me as its advert made me wait to watch YouTube videos, but I think I may be changing my mind a little: they have an interesting blog that I’ve just discovered https://www.grammarly.com/blog/who-vs-whom-its-not-as-complicated-as-you-might-think/

4. As do Collins Dictionary with their Language Lovers blog https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/language-lovers/

5. And, finally, a quote from one of my favourite non-fiction writers, Daniel Kahneman: “Thinking is to humans as swimming is to cats; they can do it, but they’d prefer not to.”

Here’s his Wikipedia entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Kahneman

and here’s a TED talk of his that explores our notions of fact and fiction https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory?language=en