Saturday 10 August 2013

The 2013 Book Festival is here!

The 2013 Edinburgh International Book Festival is well and truly up and running! The first visitors to Charlotte Square Gardens this morning were greeted by the rousing rhythms of The Edinburgh Samba School kicking of the day – and the Festival – to a glorious start in the sunshine. 





















First up was Julia Donaldson who brought an entire team to enthral and entertain young and old in the packed Baillie Gifford Main Theatre. We caught a glimpse of one of the team chilling out backstage just before curtain up.




 











There are plenty more great events later on today and tickets are still available for many, so if you’re in the area and looking for some top-quality entertainment of a bookish kind why not drop by and see one of these fantastic events…

Novelists Patrick Flanery & Philipp Meyer explore the darker side of the American Dream with their latest books, one a tense literary thriller, the other an epic depiction of an ambitious family in the American West.
At 6.45, tickets cost £10 (£8)

For families and children there’s a chance to get Hooked on Drawing with author Vivian French and illustrator Cat Rayner, as they explore the process of drawing pictures for words and offer tips for budding picture book artists.
At 6pm, tickets cost £4.50.

Harold Davis went from plucky young Scot facing bullets in the Korean War to celebrated professional footballer. He shares his astonishing life story at 7pm, tickets cost £10 (£8).

The importance of Gaelic fiction to the 21st century will be explored when novelist and poet Angus Peter Campbell joins German-Gaelic author Michael Klevenhaus and Màiri E MacLeod. At 8.30pm. Tickets cost £7 (£5)

This is just a mere handful of the events we have on offer. See a full list of what’s lined-up for, today and the rest of the Book Festival, on our website. 


Say hello to the Open University
This weekend we're delighted to welcome The Open University who are hosting two Open Days in our Bookshop. They're here to spread the word about their wonderful range of study options - including courses on creative writing - so if the Book Festival has inspired you to put pen to paper, or you're curious to find out more about their other courses, pop in and say hello - they'd love to see you.