Book Competition Answer

Two weeks ago, we asked Book Festival ebulletin readers how many books we keep here on the office shelves...


The above is just a slice of our mighty collection! We received many guesses, from 35 to 35,000: and the real number is 1,482. From Alberto Manguel's unique All Men Are Liars to Nora Chassler's riveting Miss Thing, we in the Charlotte Square offices are very lucky to have this treasure trove of books within reach (or, at least, within reach of the taller members of staff we call upon for the top shelves!).

Congratulations to our competition winner, who has won Garth Nix's Lord Sunday and John Harris's Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll, with two tickets to each of these brilliant events.

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Site Build Day 9

Next week is the last week of the site build, and Charlotte Square gardens is looking more and more familiar to Book Festival regulars...

Roland shares some international gems

For a taster of some of the fantastic international authors appearing at this year's festival, listen to Programme Manager Roland Gulliver's pick of some hidden gems:

And just in case you missed them, or for some reason you can't listen just yet, here's the writers he mentions: Canadian authors Emma Donoghue and Lisa Moore, who have both been long-listed for this year's Man Booker Prize, as well as fellow Canadian Annabel Lyon, whose debut novel, "The Golden Mean", features Athenian philosopher, biologist and seeker of contentment, Aristotle. Roland is also very excited about pairing up Scotland's own Alan Bissett with Lars Husum, whose "My Friend Jesus Christ" is Roland's favourite book cover of the year. And last, but by no means least, he shoots the breeze on James Miller and Olga Slavnikova's event featuring two very different visions of the near future.