Book Festival staff - always eager for volunteers!

We were wandering along, minding our own business, when suddenly we noticed an intruder in our midst!! Here comedian and radio presenter Fred Macaulay alerts us to (the very lovely and very welcome) Kate Silverton, from BBC Radio 5 Live, who were broadcasting live from Charlotte Square gardens this morning, masquarading as one of our own!

Let's hope she's keen to man the Box Office and do some ticket-selling.

The Adventures of Petunia

Petunia. A lovely name for a lovely... trolley.

She was born in the Valley and rescued from a garden centre that had so callously deemed her “surplus to requirements”. A shadow of her former glory, Petunia left for the city to seek her fortune. Upon arrival in Scotland’s bustling capital, she was nursed back to health, spray painted gold, strewn with flowers, and welcomed with open arms into the Sponsorship Team at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

There she thrived. She carried all manner of wonderous things, from wine (with which she filled herself heartily) to newspapers – and even the occasional Site Manager...

At the end of each day Petunia was parked for a well-earned rest. But this happy-go-lucky existence was not to last. One evening Petunia parked herself for the night and awoke to find herself...

... clamped!!

We explained to the dear Sponsorship trolley that anything staying still for too long at the Book Festival will eventually get clamped. Anything and anyone.

So really, Petunia shouldn't feel too bad.

Site Build Day 12

The walkways have appeared and are looking very aesthetically pleasing as they wind their way through the trees. They're also incredibly useful for providing a handy circuit around Charlotte Square gardens: all the better for taking photographs in geographical order. Gone are the days when I was taking site photos from the bushes (which never happened anyway).


The Highland Park Spiegeltent is also looking particularly impressive as it heads towards completion. As presented by our masterful Site Manager Robin!

Free events at this year's festival

We've always had a range of free events at the Book Festival, but this year we've given you even more to choose from. Programme Manager Roland talks us through your myriad penny free possibilities:

And here's those daily options in writing: Ten At Ten, a short ten minute reading at 10am in our Writer's Retreat; StoryShop, a chance to hear some new, local writers reading at 4pm in our bookshop; Amnesty International Imprisoned Writers where we pay tribute to persecuted writers from around the world; Unbound, a mini festival within a festival where we invite writers to try out new approaches to writing; and last, but not least, our specially commissioned short stories on the theme of Elsewhere.

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.

Site Build Day 5

I ventured out into the post-weekend grey to see how the site has progressed. New tents, walkways and confusing piles of raw material are springing up all over the place.



And now for something mysterious...

Elsewhere updates and meet our Booksales Officer!

Above: Elsewhere writer Jason Donald

The homepage of the Edinburgh International Book Festival is looking particularly delicious nowadays, because on it we’ve now got links to Elsewhere pieces by Jason Donald, Michel Faber, A L Kennedy, Eleanor Thom, Allan Radcliffe, James Robertson, Louise Welsh, Denise Mina and Doug Johnstone. That’s a very tempting group of very talented writers with nine very weird, wonderful, striking, funny pieces, all on the theme of Elsewhere.

As the Book Festival continues to advance towards an exciting August, we thought we’d give you an insight into what happens behind the scenes. Read on for a Q+A with Tracey Rosenberg, Booksales Officer of the Book Festival team.

What was your career path before you came to the Book Festival, and what is your role here?

I've worked in several independent bookshops, both in the States and the UK, so was thrilled to be hired last year to work in the festival's bookshops. This summer, I'm Booksales Officer, so I work with the Booksales and Retail Manager to ensure the three on-site bookshops run smoothly. In the build-up to the festival, I primarily do admin work - entering books onto the EPOS system, preparing signage and information for the shops, helping to interview and hire bookshop staff, using approximately eighteen zillion spreadsheets to keep track of books and authors and events, organising stationery boxes, that sort of thing.

When the festival goes live, I'll be overseeing goods inwards, the signing tent, and the cash office, and will be one of the people dashing around the site while talking into a radio. Our shops are extremely busy - it's like being a Christmas temp, except in August - so my job is never dull.

Originally, I wasn't too sure about the title Booksales Officer, but it does have a nice ring to it, and occasionally - as with last year's Guest Director, Richard Holloway - people decide that as I'm an officer, they should salute me!

What qualities do you need in order to thrive at the Book Festival?

In general, enthusiasm and a lifelong love of literature, but of course every area has its own particular combination of essential qualities. I'd say the most important tools in my kit will be stamina, a thorough knowledge of the programme and the books in the shops, and the ability to communicate with the customers as well as all my colleagues. The most difficult part will be refraining from nipping into the main bookshop after my shift 'just to tidy that shelf'. Given that I'll be spending hours on my feet, I'm grateful that my dad gave me an incredibly good pair of boots for my birthday.

What events are you most looking forward to this year?

Cartoonist Garry Trudeau, as I grew up reading Doonesbury, and quite a few poets, some of whom I've had the honour of appearing with myself: Ryan van Winkle (who's appearing as part of the Word Express event) and Ron Butlin and I were all previously involved in an ESRC Genomics Forum event run by science fiction writer Ken MacLeod. Don Paterson, Adam Foulds, and (of course) Seamus Heaney are also on my hope-to-see list.

As a writer yourself, do you see yourself performing at the Book Festival in the future?

I would certainly love to! One of the things I like about the festival is that even though we attract some of the biggest names in literature, there is always space for new writers - two examples this year are the Elsewhere short stories project (which has several related events) and the City of Literature's Story Shop, which takes place daily in the main bookshop. I'm quite keen on the Unbound programme, which should also give new writers a chance to shine, and there's at least one event specifically focusing on graduates of Scottish creative writing programmes. Hopefully, if I keep working on my own writing, I'll be deemed good enough to invite - though I suspect it will be some time before I'm able to sell out the RBS Main Theatre....


What's the most exciting part of your job?

I know I should say 'meeting the authors', and indeed it's always a thrill when someone like Garrison Keillor turns up at the till, but to be honest, what gives me a buzz is when a customer vaguely remembers a book - it was a crime novel, and it had a reddish cover, and the author's name maybe begins with a vowel...? - and I'm able to track down that book and put it in their hands. One of my favourite bookshops, the late lamented Cody's of Berkeley, California, used to treat bookselling not as a job but as a vocation - which is not only my personal attitude but an approach which, I think, fits very well into the overarching ethos of the Book Festival.