This Autumn we’ll be opening our doors to acclaimed historian, publisher, and BBC broadcaster, James Crawford. His first work of non-fiction, Fallen Glory: The Lives and Deaths of the World’s Greatest Lost Buildings, was met with universal acclaim, featuring on the Independent, New Statesman and the Scotsman’s Best Books of 2015 list, and was latterly shortlisted for the Saltire ‘Non-Fiction Book of the Year’ Award.

Following on from his various successes, James presents us with: The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World. In which he argues that our enduring obsession with borders has brought us to a crisis point: that we are entering the endgame of a process that began thousands of years ago, when we first started dividing up the earth. Beginning with the earliest known markers denoting the end of one land and the beginning of the next, Crawford follows the story of borders into our fragile and uncertain future – towards the virtual frontiers of the internet, and the shifting geography of a world beset by climate change. In the process, he travels to borders old and new: from a melting border high in the glacial landscapes of the Austrian-Italian Alps to the to the Sonoran Desert and the fault lines of the US/Mexico border.

Combining history, travel and reportage, The Edge of the Plain explores how borders have grown and evolved to take control of our landscapes, identities and, ultimately, our futures. Is it time to let go of the lines which divide us? Join James in the Bookshop to find out!

Stanfords welcomes James Crawford to talk in conversation with Tim Marshall about his new book The Edge of the Plain, examining the history of borders and their role in shaping our world today.

Today, there are more borders in the world than ever before in human history. In this book James Crawford argues that our enduring obsession with borders has brought us to a crisis point: that we are entering the endgame of a process that began thousands of years ago, when we first started dividing up the earth.

Combining history, travel and reportage, The Edge of the Plain follows the story of borders from the earliest known boundary markers toward the virtual frontiers of the internet, and the shifting geography of a world beset by climate change.

Crawford encounters borders of all kinds, from a melting border in the Austro-Italian Alps to the only place on land where Europe and Africa meet; from Banksy’s ‘Walled Off Hotel’ in the West Bank to the fault lines of the US/Mexico border.

With nationalism, climate change, globalisation, technology and mass migration all colliding with ever-hardening borders, something has to give. Crawford also asks the seemingly impossible question: will borders one day collapse completely?

This evening we will explore how European writers deal with notions of border, identity and migration. The Scottish Sudanese-Egyptian writer, Leila Aboulela in her short story collection Elsewhere, Home, explores several immigrant’s stories and their constant search for a home and a sense of belonging as well as the loneliness, that their journey entails. Scottish writer Kapka Kassabova’s multi award-winning book Border is a journey in the Balkans on the borderland between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, in a search for an ancestral home through ancient, cold war and current times. The French-Mauritian writer Ananda Devi, with great sensitivity to the interconnection between identities and languages, also explores in her novels (including her latest one Mangerl l’autre issues of exclusion, otherness, deviance and suffering. They will be in conversation with the writer, publisher and broadcaster James Crawford, chairing the event.

The event will take place online. You can watch or download the event here

http://bit.ly/EuropeanWritersReplay… http://bit.ly/EuropeanWritersDownload… with the password EuropeanWriters1

The Scottish Explore Your Archive launch event will take place on 25 November, at the National Records of Scotland, inside the Dome.

We will be joined by our 2019-2020 Archives Ambassador James Crawford, who you might recognise from BBC One's 'Scotland from the Sky', and Dawn Sinclair, the archivist at Harper Collins, as well as representatives from Scottish heritage groups and organisations, who will be available to answer any questions. Additionally, we will be unveiling the new Explore Your Archive website and video, titled 'What is an Archive?', which we are very excited to publish.

This event is open to all - whether you are already involved in the archives and heritage sector, or you haven't yet explored what archives have to offer but are keen to get involved, we welcome you to join us for an informal evening of presentations and discussions.

James Crawford, writer, publisher and presenter of BBC's Scotland From the Sky, will discuss key themes in the Scotland’s Photograph Album exhibition with Blake L. Milteer, Curator, Photography (The MacKinnon Collection).

Innerpeffray Library is delighted to announce the 2019 Innerpeffray Lecture will be given by James Crawford, writer and broadcaster. Best known for the three-part BBC One documentary series Scotland from the Sky which he scripted and presented: Series Two broadcast in April and May 2019. He has also written a number of books including Who Built Scotland: A History of the Nation in 25 Buildings, Above Scotland, Victorian Scotland, Scotland's Landscapes, and Aerofilms: A History of Britain from Above.