BBC Radio 4 launches new book strand Take Four Books with author James Crawford

Take Four Books is a new half hour book strand coming to BBC Radio 4 presented by author and broadcaster James Crawford. Produced in Scotland, the programme will interview authors about their new work and three other books that have influenced them and their writing.

James Crawford says: “I’m thrilled to be presenting Take Four Books for Radio 4. In many ways this is a dream gig: being able to delve into the creative process with a host of wonderful authors, uncovering fascinating or unexpected influences, and examining the unique power of writing - from the epic sweep of an entire book all the way down to the great weight or significance of a single sentence. I hope it will really bring literature and writing alive for listeners.”

Mohit Bakaya, Director of Speech and Controller Radio 4 says: “Coverage of literature has always been an integral part of the Radio 4 schedule and I’m delighted to launch this new series for book lovers everywhere. James will bring listeners in depth conversations with new and established writers as they talk about their work and discuss, in detail, the writing and the writers that have inspired them.”

There will be 40 editions of Take Four Books each year, replacing Open Book which ended last month. The first programme will broadcast on Sunday 24 November.

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Edinburgh International Book Festival announces James Crawford as new Chair of Board of Directors

The Edinburgh International Book Festival today announces celebrated writer, broadcaster, and publisher James Crawford as the Festival’s new Chair of the Board of Directors.

The author of ten books including The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World, which investigates the shifting geopolitics of a world beset by climate change, James joins a number of new faces on the board as the Festival enters a new era under director Jenny Niven and in its new home at Edinburgh Futures Institute.

Bringing a nuanced understanding on topics ranging from law, history and technology, to globalisation and mass migration, James brings practical expertise on both the media and publishing landscapes thanks to his current roles as Editor-at-Large for the celebrated independent Scottish publisher Birlinn/Polygon, and as writer and presenter of landmark BBC One series Scotland from the Sky; and from previous experience, including as Chair of the Board at industry body Publishing Scotland.

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Wild History Longlisted for Highland Book Prize 2023

James Crawford’s Wild History: Journeys Into Lost Scotland has been longlisted for the 2023 Highland Book Prize.

Now in its seventh year, this year’s list sees strong representation from non-fiction, reflecting current publishing trends, as well as literary fiction, poetry, and commissioned works from well-known Scottish authors on key moments in Highland history.

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The Edge of the Plain shortlisted as Non-Fiction Book of the Year at Scotland's National Book Awards

James Crawford’s The Edge of The Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World has been shortlisted for Best Non-Fiction Book at Scotland’s National Book Awards.

Sarah Mason, Executive Director of The Saltire Society, said: “The 2023 shortlists for Scotland’s National Book Awards show the outstanding talent, scale, diversity and excellence that we are so lucky to have in Scotland today.  These Awards have a proud history of celebrating the extraordinary richness in the work of our authors, publishers and designers and we congratulate everyone who have been shortlisted this year. "

The Edge of the Plain - Paperback Publication

The paperback edition of The Edge of the Plain: Howe Borders Make and Break Our World was published today, 4 August 2023. Here’s what reviewers have said already:

“Excellent” - Guardian

“Ambitious” - New York Times

“Fascinating” - CNN

“Eye-opening” - Literary Review

“Lyrical” - The Washington Post

“Powerful” - David Rooney

“Vital” - Publishers Weekly

"Timely and valuable" - Library Journal

“Erudite and engaging” - Irish Times

“Beguiling” - Slate

“Beautifully observed” - Gavin Francis

"Thoughtful" - Kirkus Reviews

Wild History: Journeys Into Lost Scotland - Out Now

James Crawford’s new book ‘Wild History: Journeys Into Lost Scotland’ is out now (May 2023).

You scramble up over the dunes of an isolated beach. You climb to the summit of a lonely hill. You pick your way through the eerie hush of a forest. And then you find them. The traces of the past. Perhaps they are marked by a tiny symbol on your map, perhaps not. There are no plaques to explain their fading presence before you, nothing to account for what they once were – who made them, lived in them or abandoned them. Now they are merged with the landscape. They are being reclaimed by nature. They are wild history.

In this book acclaimed author and presenter James Crawford introduces many such places all over the country, from the ruins of prehistoric forts and ancient, arcane burial sites, to abandoned bothies and boathouses, and the derelict traces of old, faded industry.

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TIME Magazine - Why borders won't survive the century to come

‘Walls appeal to voter bases who want to see strength on the frontiers’ writes James Crawford in TIME magazine. ‘Meanwhile, the real bordering increasingly happens elsewhere, far beyond the lines of national territory…’

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The Guardian, Big Idea - 'Do Nations Really Need Borders?'

In an era of global heating, fixed boundaries may soon be unsustainable. What are the alternatives? Read James Crawford’s ‘Big Idea’ in the Guardian.

Last November, Simon Kofe, the foreign minister of Tuvalu – a nation formed out of a series of low-lying atolls in the South Pacific – addressed the Glasgow climate conference from a wooden lectern. Exactly what you’d expect at an international summit. Except that the lectern, and Kofe in his suit and tie, were part-submerged by several feet of ocean. In his speech, which had been pre-recorded on location in Tuvalu, he told delegates that his nation was “living the reality” of climate change. “When the sea is rising around us all the time,” he said, “climate mobility must come to the forefront.” . . .

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Canongate signs 'remarkable and timely' book on borders by James Crawford

Canongate has landed James Crawford's The Edge of the Plain, a blend of history, travel writing and reportage tracing the evolution and cultural significance of land borders. 

Simon Thorogood, editorial director, acquired world all language rights from Maggie Pearlstine Associates. US rights have been pre-empted by W W Norton. 

In the book, Crawford argues that society's enduring obsession with borders has brought us to a crisis point: that people are entering the endgame of a process that began thousands of years ago when we first started dividing up the Earth. The book takes in the history of borders — from the earliest marker which denoted the edge of one land and the beginning of the next, to the walls going up around the world today. It is a story told in four parts, each exploring a different aspect of the lifecycle and experience of borders all around the world and throughout history — how they are created, how they can change and evolve, how they are crossed or breached, and, finally, how they are overcome or broken.

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Scotland From the Sky - Series 3 Dates Announced

Series 3 of Scotland from the Sky will begin on Monday 1 November, at 9pm on BBC One Scotland.

In the first episode of the new series, presenter James Crawford explores how we have managed to surmount the challenges of our tough terrain to connect communities and places across the centuries. He takes to the air in a seaplane, landing in Loch Ness to reveal its geological secrets, uncovers traces of our Viking past, explores how we have crossed the treacherous Pentland Firth and flies above the stunning West Highland line. Finally, he visits the Highland crofters, going where no crofter has gone before, at Scotland's first spaceport.

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