So that’s Portobello Book Festival over for another year. We hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did.

Over the weekend, there were about 1000 people in and out of the library and the Baptist Church Hall, and comments across the board have been very positive indeed.  Our intention is always to try as far as possible to make sure that those who make up the community of Portobello see themselves, their experience and their interests reflected in the programme – to be inclusive and local but never parochial! This year’s festival was perhaps the most diverse to date.  The programme is also designed to bring together a distinctive mix of subjects, writers, commentators and readers creating what we hope is an atmosphere that is convivial and stimulating

The organising team would like to thank:

The talented musicians and writers who took part in our SongBook opening event

All our participating writers for inspiring us

Our fantastic chairs for keeping everything running smoothly

Our soundman Hamish for making sure that everyone could be heard

Jock, our resident joiner!

Blackwell’s Bookshop for providing staff for the weekend and making sure all our authors’ books were available for sale after each event

Portobello Baptist Church for their help and use of the premises

Jon Davey who took some amazing photographs

A special thanks to Paul Hudson and the staff of Portobello Library, a fantastic resource on our doorstep, without whose help and time we would not be able to run our festival

And of course, thanks to everyone who came along to the events and created such a vibrant atmosphere.

The 2018 programme – our 10th festival! – will be launched early September with tickets available shortly afterwards. The organising team will be starting to plan for this very soon. Any ideas and suggestions will be warmly welcomed.

The 2018 Portobello Book Festival will run from 5th-7th October.