Day 17

Okay so I didn't go to eight events at the Book Festival today. I went to nine. Oho that's right. I've spent hours (sleepily) boasting about it and have been reliably informed that it's a Book Festival record. Allow me to boast some more by telling you about my day.

10:00 Ten at Ten. These have been consistently good-quality little events every morning at the Book Festival, and they ended this year on a high. Samkela Stamper read from her poetry and diary with contagious gusto.

10:15 Deborah Levy & Gwendoline Riley. Two powerful authors with a captivating way with words. There's something exciting about an author reading from their own works, and this event was a perfect example of that. Author readings have been among my favourite moments this August.

11:30 Kathy Lette. Kathy began her event with a mini highland fling! And it only got better from there. Full of outrageous true stories (from keeping Julian Assange in her attic to kissing Prince Harry on the lips), Kathy fused moving insights into her character's (and son's) autism, with laugh-out-loud humour.

14:00 Tom Bullough & Jane Sullivan. It's inspiring when speakers can work a small venue to great effect. Tom gripped the audience with tales of the deaf protagonist in his latest novel, and Jane shared the thinking and history behind her remarkable book about little people.

15:30 Harriet Walter. “We never tell older people that they're beautiful”, said Harriet. “So I went up to her and told her”. Harriet earned the adoration of a large audience as she shared her photography project celebrating the beauty of the older woman.

17:00 Robert Macfarlane. This was a motivating event about walking through landscape, and thinking as you do so. Robert is possibly the most instinctively articulate author I've heard at the Book Festival this year; and that's really, really saying something.

18:30 James Meek. This novelist writes about love as few others can; meticulously and without restraint. In his event this evening he gave us an insight into how, and why.

20:00 John McCarthy. Famously, John McCarthy is the BBC journalist who spent five years as a captive in Lebanon. He spent that whole time without a glimpse of sunlight. Tonight he gave a personal, fascinating account of his experience. It wasn't a surprise that the event was moving – but it was a surprise that it was hilarious. An absolutely extraordinary hour. Furthermore, it was the inaugural Frederick Hood Memorial Lecture at the Book Festival, celebrating the life of the late Frederick Hood, a young Charlotte Square-based investment manager who had a profound impact on those around him. Tonight, Hood's father presented John McCarthy with a Frederick-inspired fedora hat as a thank you and a memento.

21:00 Unbound. The Book Festival's late-night series of events has been a joy and – as ever – a phenomenal success. Sending it out on a high for another year was comedian Sian Bevan and the talented winners of Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. Lots of interaction, lots of brilliant readings, and LOTS of laughs.

The 2012 Edinburgh International Book Festival has come to an end for another year. But let us not mourn! Let us look back and sigh with great – and happily smug – contentment. And, of course, let us look forward. The Book Festival is getting better every year – so imagine what 2013 is going to be like.

Incidentally, it's not really the end of the Book Festival for this year...

Tomorrow is School Gala Day; a whole day in Charlotte Square Gardens open only to schools. So I'll report back to you tomorrow, and then – maybe – we can start thinking about closure...

Day 14 and a half

Here are a few recommendations for the next (and final!) few days of the Book Festival.

Tonight (Saturday 25th)

Jasper Fforde

Have you read 'The Woman Who Died a Lot'? Jasper Fforde has, because he wrote it. And as you can tell by the title, this is a writer full of humour and intrigue and brilliantly unexpected quirks. But you already know that. Come to his event at 8.30PM in the ScottishPower Studio Theatre this evening and you'll know it even more.

Will Self

Tonight at 9.30PM in the the RBS Main Theatre, the prince of pronunciation himself will be talking about his new novel 'Umbrella' and the implications therein. If you're not going to this event, go and sit in the corner and have a long hard think about your life. And then go to the event.

Tomorrow (Sunday 26th)

Susannah Clapp

There has been a fair bit of buzz on Twitter about this event, so I'll say it again: Susannah Clapp's event at 3.30PM in the ScottishPower Studio Theatre looks to be very interesting indeed. And not only that, but moving. Susannah will be discussing her novel about the great Angela Carter, with whom she was close friends.

Mark Billingham

He was a stand-up comedian, and now he writes crime fiction. That's what we at the Book Festival call a very, very, very promising event. He's on at 4.30PM in the RBS Main Theatre. Prepare to make all manner of intrigued noises.

The day after tomorrow (Monday 27th)

Deborah Levy & Gwendoline Riley

A powerful, likeable author with a remarkable novel. And there's two of them. In the same room. At the same time. To take full advantage of this fact, see you at 10.15AM in the famously atmospheric Guardian Spiegeltent.

 

Peter Robinson

A crime writer with intelligence, with passion, and with a brilliant character that's really getting people talking. This character, DCI Banks, recently starred in a four-part series on ITV, and is now back in book form with a vengeance. 7PM in the ScottishPower Studio Theatre.