Opening day

We're up, we're running, and we're having a fantastic time.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival opened this morning with excitement, energy, and -- perhaps surprisingly! -- golden sunshine. The Soweto Gospel Choir welcomed droves of eager literature fans into Charlotte Square gardens, and after this terrifically successful first day we can look forward to continuing what promises to be an electrifying August.

Enjoy A Night In The Gutter on us

With a throbbing heart and bated breath (can the two co-exist?!) we’re all eagerly anticipating Unbound, our series of experimental performance evenings from 9pm in the Highland Park Spiegeltent. Glasgow-based Gutter magazine kicks us off on Sunday 15 August with A Night in the Gutter: McSex, all on the theme of Scottish erotic writing, and dubbed the “smuttiest” night of them all by Gutter editor Adrian Searle.

Chaired by Colin Begg and Adrian Searle and featuring erotica luminaries Michel Faber, Ewan Morrison and Zoë Strachan and five outstanding writers and performance artists, Cheryl Follon, Allan Radcliffe, Helen Sedgwick, Gamma Ray Dali and Lauren Nicoll, prepare to be enraptured by readings from Scottish erotica past and present, engaged in discussion as to whether a tradition of Scottish erotic writing exists at all, and serenaded by Scotland’s answer to Tom Waits, Grant Campbell.

McSex Poll - still time to vote!
The results of Gutter's public poll to find the nation’s favourite erotic Scottish writer will be announced on the night. Get your vote in before 4pm on Sunday and you could win a bottle of champagne!

All Unbound events are free and drop-in, except for the extended Unbound Grand Finale, 7pm-11pm on 30 August, £10 (£8). Due to licensing laws Unbound is only open to over 18s.
Full details of each night’s line-up are available on our website or at: http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/documents/Skinny_Supplement_Unbound.pdf

Look forward to seeing you there!

txt2win a pair of tickets to the Unbound Grand Finale

Are you an Edinburgh International Book Festival FLIRT or LOVER?



To get you in the mood, we’re running our own mini txt2win poll to find out
if you’re a LOVER and been to a ticketed event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival before or a FLIRT and this year will be your first time...

Text “BOOKFEST”
+ “FLIRT” or “LOVER”
+ YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
to 60777
and receive Edinburgh International Book Festival info & offers.

Standard network charges apply.

All entrants will be put forward to a prize draw to win a pair of tickets to the Unbound Grand Finale at 7pm on 30 August as well as Edinburgh International Book Festival goodies.

Site Build Day 16

This is the last day of the build; and a beautiful day for it too.


Okay, so that's us! Time to have a Book Festival.

Site Build Day 14

The site is right on track, looking grand and green as it nears its completion. Only a few more days until it opens!


And now for something mysterious...


Mind you, the mystery can be solved with this:

Are Friends Electric?

On Sunday 15th August, I'll be chairing an event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. I'm Peggy from the Scottish Poetry Library; we assisted Don Paterson in programming the poetry strand, and I blogged book festival events from this here very blog last year. The event is called Are Friends Electric? and the blurb runs thus:

Biologists have claimed we can only deal with a certain number of close friendships. Facebook’s 400 million active users average 130 friends each. Twitter averages 50 million tweets a day. With this much information and this many people, are we emotionally and personally connected, or just sharing information? Join Jason Bradbury, Gadget Show host and one of the world’s most influential Twitterati, and Mariann Hardey, social media researcher and blogger extraordinaire, for interactive chat.

Supported by ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum, in association with The Skinny, this event is an exciting chance to discuss and debate the impact of social media. Here at the SPL, in the last few years, we have whole heartedly embraced the social media developments available to us, so perhaps we are biased about the positive results it can have; we’re able to bring people and poetry together on a global scale, and that has to be a good thing! We're therefore delighted that the book festival has joined Twitter (@edbookfest), so we can keep up with the latest news, enter competitions for books and tickets and chat to fellow book lovers about book festival events!

But what do you think. Are friends electric? Do you feel that you have more than one online persona? Can you really be friends with someone you’ve only met online? We’d love to have your feedback before the event, electric friends!

Join in on Twitter: please make sure you speak to us by using the hashtag #Electricfriends. Or comment below...

Site Build Day 13

And now for something mysterious...

Yes, from pews to potential modern art installations -- Charlotte Square gardens has it all.

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!