Edinburgh Book Festival

We spent a few hours at the book festival, mostly at the book store. The only two writers I was really interested in, Margaret Atwood and Alain de Botton, were both long-sold-out. All events are ticketed--not "free and open to the public."

The Edinburgh International Festival was in

full swing when we arrived. It goes on the

better part of a month and is really a cluster

of festivals...music, theatre, literature, etc.

And then there is the Festival Fringe, which

is all manner of other arts and entertainments,

hundreds of things from plays and musicals

to street performers.

Not least of the festivals is the book festival, begun in 1950,

one of the oldest and largest there is. It goes on for two weeks

and this year featured some 750 authors. Edinburgh, in large

part because of the festival, was the first city to be recognized

a UNESCO "City of Literature."

The whole book festival is held in Charlotte

Square, in the Georgian New Town. Well,

the book festival itself is held in temporary

structures on the square. Very compact...

but nice.

Here is the authors' yurt

And the whole thing proceeds a few blocks

from the Walter Scott Memorial, one of the

more impressive literary tributes around