Edinburgh book festival blog

August in Edinburgh is of course, usually completely taken up by the Fringe Festival (just try walking through the tourists on the Royal Mile to see what we mean!). We’d like to take a quick blog post to tell you about another festival that is running in Edinburgh: the Edinburgh International Book Festival. It’s not surprising that we here at the library would be more interested in this festival. But we imagine a lot of other people will be overlooking it in favour of the Fringe. So we’d just like to tell you a little about one of the largest book festivals in the world.

Book Festival Ongoings

Since its beginning in 1983, the Edinburgh International Book Festival has been a celebration of literature and culture. And going strong for over forty years. It has seen some changes along the way. Initially it was held biennially before switching to annual in 1997. As well as changing venue a few times (it’s currently held at the Edinburgh Futures Institute) but has consistently remained a place that encourages discussion and debate, celebrating art and culture both within and outwith Scotland, with events being both educational and entertaining. These events include panel discussions, book signings, writing workshops, talks by creatives about their work, or public readings of works.
In addition to the main adult programme, there is also programmes of events tailored for children and young people. These have story time and educational events for children, and games and quizzes for young adults.

Book Festival

Previous years have included events such as 2024 hosting a 200th anniversary celebration of Scottish gothic satire The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner and 2017’s festival seeing then-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon popping in to take part in a talk about living life under public scrutiny.
>The primary theme for this year’s festival is Repair, with events focused on examining how aspects of our society feel broken and what can be done to address them. Events will be based around activities that help restore a sense of purpose and calm in the modern world. There have been events promoting the therapeutic benefits of gardening, readings from local writers and poets on the theme of repair, and discussions of modern climate activism.
>Other themes from this year have included New World Orders, focusing on international and domestic politics, and Brainwaves, which explores all aspects related to the brain, such as psychology and neuroscience. You can find more themes of this year’s festival on the festival website.
>I’m personally looking forward to the festival hosting the first Scottish presentation of Mark Kermode Live in 3D this year, which sees the popular film critic being joined by several Scottish screen actors to discuss upcoming film releases and their personal history with cinema.

As you might have noticed from some of the name dropping I’ve been doing so far. The festival has regularly played host to celebrities from all around the world. These have of course included authors and artists, but also political thinkers and politicians. The alumni of the festival including as disparate a group of people such as American author Toni Morrison, Pakistani political activist Tariq Ali, linguist Noam Chomsky, and essayist Susan Sontag.
>In addition to celebrities from around the world, the festival has also hosted events by Scottish celebrities such as Glasgow based comedian Brian “Limmy” Limond. This year will see local singer-songwriter Hamish Hawk appear to celebrate the works of eccentric Scottish poet Ivor Cutler.

You can find a full list of all of this year’s events on the festival’s website. We hope to see you there!

By Matthew Ferrie

photo by Evy Prentice

 

All about the Fringe this august