Free to Go – Journeys that Transform
Saturday 21 November 2026, 11am. Colinton Library, 14 Thorburn Road, Colinton, EH13 0BQ
Esa Aldegheri, from Scotland and Italy, is a multilingual writer, educator and researcher whose poetry has been read on Radio 4 and Radio Scotland and features in several anthologies. Her non-fiction debut Free to Go, moves beyond the parameters of a simple travel narrative to explore different aspects of freedom and borders, both geopolitical and personal.
Leaving their home in Orkney, Esa and her husband’s eighteen-month motorbike adventure took them through twenty international frontiers – between Europe and the Middle East, through Pakistan, China and India – many of which are now impassable.
Charting a story of shrinking and expanding liberties and horizons, of motherhood, womanhood, xenophobia and changing geopolitical situations, Free to Go examines the challenges of navigating a world where many assume that women ride pillion, both on a motorbike and within relationships. Part around-the-world adventure, part literary exploration of womanhood, Free to Go is about the journeys that shape and transform us.
“An exhilarating story of freedom and constraint, told with a confident and unwavering verve. This is a journey driven by boundless curiosity, and by the desire for connection – across borders, across languages, across time.” – Malachy Tallack
Pentlands Book Festival: 26 Oct - 25 Nov 2026 