Portobello Book Festival: 5th – 8th October 2023
All events are free, but ticketed. 

The programme for this year’s festival was officially launched at the library last night. Copies are now available to pick up from the library and you’ll find them in various places around Portobello too. Tickets will be available to collect in person from the library from 10am on Monday morning, 4th September.

Website: www.portobellobookfestival.com
X/Twitter: @portybookfest
Instagram: @porty.bookfest
Facebook: Portobello Book Festival

THURSDAY 5th OCTOBER

PLOT TO PLATE  – 7.00-8.00pm at PORTOBELLO BOOK SHOP

Join Art Walk Projects for an event to celebrate their latest publication, Plot to Plate Cook Book, the result of their collaboration with artists Felicity Bristow, Susie Wilson and Craigentinny Telferton Allotments. The book, which has evolved through a continuing friendship with the working group who volunteer at the allotments, is to share recipes that are about place, people and a community.

FRIDAY 6th OCTOBER

THE ZEKAMERON: BEHIND BARS IN BELARUS

1.00-2.00pm LIBRARY UPSTAIRS

This book is a collection of 100 vignettes about life behind bars in Belarus today which were smuggled out of prison. The author, Maxim Znak, a brilliant lawyer and opposition activist, is currently serving a 10 year sentence. This session is a collaboration between Amnesty International and the People’s Consulate of Belarus in Scotland, whose members introduce the book and read selections from it. 

Chair: Cathy Crawford, Portobello Branch of Amnesty 

LOCAL VOICES

2.00-3.00pm at JAMESON GATE

Portobello-based authors Grahame Howard and Bill Flockhart talk about their work. Grahame has written both fiction and memoir, his work characterised by his sympathy for his characters and ability to see humour in almost all situations. His most recent novel, The Norris Sanction, is a humorous tale in the style of Tom Sharpe. Bill has written the Operation Large Scotch series of thrillers inspired by Alistair MacLean, Frederick Forsyth and Wilbur Smith. His most recent novel, Vengeance in Valescure, is a tense thriller in which MI6 attempts to thwart rogue arms dealers in the south of France.

Chair: Paul Hudson

WRITING FROM LIFE

2.30-3.30pm LIBRARY UPSTAIRS

The most resonant writing often comes from deep personal experience. Portobello resident Jane Chisholm’s Memories of Zambia recounts her experience as a young VSO nurse in the 1970s taking charge of a remote mission hospital deep in the African bush. Frances Hider is a writer of creative non-fiction who has a special interest in the overlap of nature with art and literature, science and medicine.  She is winner of the 2021 Women on Writing Creative Nonfiction Contest. Catriona Windle is a Musselburgh-based author. Her new novel, NFF, tells the tale of her rocky transition from teenage to adult life as she navigates the stormy waters of the 1980s NHS system and comes face to face with the leviathan that calls itself psychiatric care.

Chair: Allan MacRaild

Left to right: Jane Chisholm, Frances Hider, Catriona Windle

Frances Hider photo (c) Frank Alford Smithers

OUR FATHERS FOUGHT FRANCO                                                 

4.00-5.00pm LIBRARY UPSTAIRS

Why did four young men (including Donald Renton of Portobello and Geordie Watters of Prestonpans) put their lives on the line and go to fight fascism in Spain with the International Brigades in 1936? How did they all end up in the same prison cell? And what is their legacy today? Family members/authors Willy Maley, Jennie Renton, Tam Watters and Lisa Croft tell their stories.

WHISKY – DISCUSSION OVER A DRAM

5.30-6.30pm LIBRARY UPSTAIRS             

Jake King has written an invaluable guide, The A-Z of Whisky Place-Names: Landscape, Language and Inventions. This is essential to those with an interest in the history of whisky.  There will also be a chance to try a dram and discuss the unique and complex flavours, courtesy of Annabel Meikle, Director, Keeper of the Quaich.              

Chair: Bill Jameson

TRIAL BY JURY                                          

7.00-8.30pm LIBRARY DOWNSTAIRS

Mark Bridgeman, best-selling author of Blood Across the Water and The Nearly Man, brings a real life murder trial to the Portobello Book Festival, in which YOU the audience become the jury! With a PRIZE for the winner, the verdict revealed, and a Q&A with the author, this promises to be an evening to remember – don’t miss out. Will you send a man to the gallows?

SATURDAY 7th OCTOBER

WRITING WORKSHOP                                                                    

10.15am-12.15pm  THE WASH HOUSE

Creative writing workshop open to writers of all abilities and all forms. Come along for some writing inspiration and exercises in the company of other local writers and writing enthusiasts. Led by local writer J L Hall.

FEEL-GOOD FICTION

10.30-11.30am  LIBRARY UPSTAIRS                                                

Sam Canning (Virtual Strangers), Niamh Hargan (The Break-Up Clause) and Nina Kaye (Just Like That) discuss their funny, feel-good novels, the enduring appeal of a happy-ever-after and why romantic fiction deserves as much respect as other genres.                             

Chair: Joanne Baird

BOOKBUG and KIRSTY OXLEY

11.00am LIBRARY DOWNSTAIRS

The usual mixture of fun, songs and rhymes, followed by local author and illustrator Kirsty Oxley who will read from her book Pablo Goes To Portobello and talk about her work.

FREE TO GO

12.00-1.00pm  LIBRARY UPSTAIRS

Esa Aldegheri and Frances Guy discuss Esa’s Free to Go, a travel book which explores aspects of freedom, borders, motorbike journeys, motherhood, pandemic restrictions and Brexit. Esa is a poet, a multilingual writer and researcher at the University of Glasgow. Frances, CEO of the International Development Alliance, is an expert on the Middle East and gender politics, formerly UK Ambassador to Lebanon and Yemen and was UN Women Representative in Iraq.

WOMEN OF PORTOBELLO HERSTORY WALK

1.00-3.00pm TOP OF KING’S ROAD                                                                    

With Louise Meiklejohn and Fiona Watt

There are lots of plaques commemorating men’s history in Portobello, but only one for a woman. We know that women have done some cool stuff in history – it just doesn’t get talked about enough. Come on this walk to hear about the achievements and stories of notable Portobello women!  Donations invited for Scottish Women’s Aid.

CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION

1.30-3.00pm  LIBRARY UPSTAIRS

Research shows that translated books are on the rise. This is an opportunity to hear four Edinburgh-based translators, Siân Reynolds,  Ian Giles, Vineet Lal and Tim Gutteridge, discuss their experiences.  Subjects for discussion could include analysing the original novel, determining the original authors’ intentions and reinterpreting historical novels for modern tastes with fascinating anecdotes between authors and their translators. 

Chair:  Duncan Beattie, Crime Writers’ Association judge

PLAYWRITING IN SCOTLAND

3.30-4.30pm  LIBRARY UPSTAIRS

Join Hannah Lavery, Edinburgh Makar, poet, playwright and performer, and Jemima Levick, Artistic Director of A Play A Pie and A Pint, as they consider opportunities for playwrights and the role of theatre to educate, enlighten and entertain the people of Scotland.

BIOGRAPHY, HISTORY AND  IMAGINATION

5.00-6.30pm  LIBRARY UPSTAIRS

Jean Barr, author of The Legacy: A Memoir, which explores one family’s role in Britain’s cover-ups, Chitra Ramaswamy, whose latest book, Homelands, traverses a century of history and her friendship with 99-year-old German Jewish refugee Henry Wuga, and Eleanor Thom, whose novel Connective Tissue interweaves narratives from 20th century Germany to 21st century Scotland, discuss the historical in the present.

Chair: Donald Bloxham, Professor of History, University of Edinburgh

THE QUINE OF CRIME AND THE PRINCES OF POETRY

7.00-8.30pm  LIBRARY DOWNSTAIRS

A Saturday Treble Fandango with Val McDermid, Michael Pedersen, William Letford and special guests. Poetry, readings, and music.

SUNDAY 8th OCTOBER

HUGH MILLER – THE CASTAWAY

11.00am-12.00noon  LIBRARY UPSTAIRS

Brian McLaughlin and Anna Tallach in conversation. Hugh Miller was both a part of and apart from his tumultuous times. Brian’s three-part novel, An Edinburgh Suicide: The Death of Hugh Miller, traces Hugh’s rise and fall and Anna is exploring his time in Orkney as a clue to his character. Much has been made of Hugh’s active participation in geological research, the formation of the Free Church of Scotland, the political debates of his day and his defence of Scottish culture. But he died alone, in many ways an outcast. How did this come about?

DOOKING DISCOURSES

11.00am-12.00noon  LIBRARY DOWNSTAIRS

Take a stroll down the promenade any day and you’ll spot plenty of people bobbing about in the Firth. The benefits, history and magical lure of cold-water swimming runs much deeper than the dry-robe dipper fad. Join us in conversation with local author Kellan MacInnes and writer, broadcaster and social media legend Calum Maclean as they share their passion for the water. Kellan’s evocative memoir The Wild Swimmer of Kintail beautifully retraces the steps of a pioneer in the field while Calum brings us his authoritative and engaging 1001 Outdoor Swimming Tips. 

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE FICTION                                        

12.30-1.30pm  LIBRARY UPSTAIRS 

Award-winning crime writer Doug Johnstone discusses how his background as a physicist has informed his recent science fiction thriller The Space Between Us. He is joined by debut author Sheila Averbuch, whose life as a tech journalist and copywriter inspires her fiction for teen readers. She discusses why her novel Friend Me tackles how AI and social media technologies impact on our lives. There will also be a chance to catch up with Doug about his latest book in the Skelf family crime series The Opposite of Lonely.                                             

Chair: Louise Kelly 

AS LONG AS WE’VE GOT A VOICE

12.30-1.30pm  LIBRARY DOWNSTAIRS

Lesley Fox’s book tells the life story of Jimmy McIntosh MBE, a well-known Edinburgh disability rights campaigner. Born in 1939, Jimmy spent most of his adult life in Scottish institutions, moving to Gogarburn Hospital in 1956. His generous spirit and tireless campaigning contributed to winning the vote for patients in 1981. His legacy reminds us of the cruelty of the institution and the necessity of everyone’s voice being heard. Jimmy was a survivor, a battler and above all a people’s champion who believed in the right to speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves.

Panel: Maureen Martin, Tom Frank and Steve Coulson

Chair: Howard Mitchell

BLUE SCOTLAND

2.00-3.00pm  LIBRARY UPSTAIRS

Inspirational adventurer Mollie Hughes who, by the age of 26, successfully summited Mount Everest from both the north and south sides, then followed that by skiing solo from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole, comes closer to home to talk about her new book Blue Scotland – a personal guide to exploring the waters of Scotland by paddleboard, kayak, swimming and surfing.  In conversation with Rona Gray

OUTSIDERS

2.00-3.00pm   LIBRARY DOWNSTAIRS

Angie Spoto’s The Grief Nurse is set in a world where the rich employ others to experience their negative feelings so they can live untroubled. When Lynx, the titular grief nurse, questions her role, her life is upended. Anya Bergman’s The Witches of Vardø, is set in Norway in 1662, during real witch hunts where accusations of witchcraft rained down on women who dared even to dance. This event discusses how thrilling storytelling and extraordinary settings help us explore sensitive topics and the role and fate of outsiders.                                      

 Chair: Susan Elsley

NEVER TELL ANYONE YOU’RE JEWISH

3.30-4.30pm  LIBRARY UPSTAIRS

Maria Chamberlain’s book is a story of her assimilated Jewish family in Nazi-occupied Poland. The last part covers her early life in Stalinist Poland and her family’s emigration to Edinburgh. In this session she is in conversation with Gica Loening, Portobello resident, family friend, and herself second generation German Jewish.

THE PUNK ROCK POLITICS OF JOE STRUMMER: RADICALISM, RESISTANCE AND REBELLION

3.30-4.30pm LIBRARY DOWNSTAIRS

Gregor Gall, Visiting Professor of Industrial Relations, University of Leeds and Affiliate Research Associate, University of Glasgow, draws on Joe Strummer’s lyrics, bootleg recordings, interviews and testimony from over 100 followers, to take the reader on a journey through the political influences and motivations that defined one of the UK’s greatest punk icons and produced a lasting legacy of progressive politics.

Chair: Joe Herzberg, drummer and Clash follower

WEAK TEETH

5.30-6.30pm  LIBRARY UPSTAIRS

Our very own Lynsey May (formerly one of the organisers of PBF) talks about her debut novel Weak Teeth – an emotional roller coaster of love, loss, family dynamics and odontophobia. Lynsey is in conversation with author Catherine Simpson.

HISTORICAL THRILLERS

5.00-6.30pm LIBRARY DOWNSTAIRS

Step back in time with DV Bishop (Ritual of Fire), Kate Foster (The Maiden) and Sarah Smith (Hear No Evil). Their thrilling historical mysteries bring the dark pasts of 16th century Florence, 17th century Edinburgh and 19th century Glasgow vividly to life on the page. 

Chair: Jane Simpson Anderson

VENUES

PORTOBELLO LIBRARY

14 Rosefield Avenue, EH15 1AU

JAMESON GATE

3 High Street, Portobello EH15 1DW

THE PORTOBELLO BOOKSHOP

46 Portobello High Street, EH15 1DA

https://theportobellobookshop.com

THE WASH HOUSE

3 Adelphi Grove

PORTOBELLO BOOK FESTIVAL is organised by a group of local book enthusiasts in collaboration with Portobello Library.  If you have ideas or would like to be involved, please contact portobellobookfestival@gmail.com Tickets are free and contributors are not paid. The festival is entirely dependent on donations to meet basic running costs. Books by contributing authors can be purchased at the festival bookstall in the library and from the Portobello Bookshop.