2016 Edinburgh International Book Festival

A Life on the Scrap Heap In 2001, almost 150 tattered notebooks were discovered in a skip in Cambridge. They were a small part of an intimate diary that began in 1952 and ended half a century later. It took Alexander Masters five years to uncover the identity and real history of their author. In A Life Discarded he shares the true, shocking and poignant story of this mysterious diarist, and a stunning final revelation in his pursuit. Chaired by James Runcie.