Behind the Scenes with Kate Atkinson
Thursday 29 October 2026, 7pm. Colinton Episcopal Church, Colinton Road, Colinton, EH13 0BB
Kate Atkinson is a novelist, short story writer and playwright. In her stories much is not what it seems and chance is a recurring theme.
Kate won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Life After Life, which was made into a BBC TV series, won the South Bank Sky Arts Literature Prize and Costa Novel of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. A God in Ruins, also a Costa winner, is a companion to Life After Life.
Her five bestselling novels featuring former detective Jackson Brodie were also made into a BBC series.
Her latest, Our Noble Selves, is set in 1951 and everyone is looking to put the dark days of the war behind them. For foreign correspondent turned war reporter Harry Flynn, it might offer redemption and he reluctantly joins an oddball team of misfits helping to ready the Festival of Britain for launch. Flynn’s attempts to resume some semblance of a romantic life founder when one of his dates goes missing. Could he be in some way responsible?
Kate was awarded an MBE in 2011, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2025 she was awarded the Saltire Lifetime Achievement Award.
Pentlands Book Festival: Nov each year 