In just a couple of days, this year’s festival will kick off with the Plot to Plate event on Thursday evening at The Portobello Bookshop.

On Friday and Saturday, most events will be in the library upstairs, as the library will be open during the day. The exceptions are Local Voices at Jameson Gate on Friday afternoon, Trial by Jury on Friday evening in the main library, the Writing Workshop in the Wash House on Saturday morning, the Herstory walk on Saturday afternoon meeting at the top of Kings Road and the Quine of Crime and the Princes of Poetry event on Saturday evening which is in the main library.

For Sunday events, please check your ticket to see whether your event is upstairs or downstairs, although you will be directed to the right place if you are unsure. As the library is closed to the public on Sundays, you will have to wait outside until just before the event begins so bear this in mind if the weather is bad.

Throughout the weekend, The Portobello Bookshop will be running a stall in the library with books by all our participating authors (and chairs if applicable) available to buy. After each event, there will be an opportunity to have your books signed.

As you know, since our festival is free to all, we are always very grateful for any donations which help cover our costs for printing the programme, hiring our sound crew and sound equipment and of course, paying our authors’ expenses. This year, as well as the traditional buckets for cash, if you wish you can donate using your smart phone via a QR code. You will find the codes around the library or just ask one of the committee members on duty.

If you have tickets you can no longer use, please return tickets to the library so others can have a chance to attend the event. Many of our events are fully booked but check with the library for returns. it’s always worth turning up on the day just before the event. Obviously ticket holders will be allowed in first but if there is space we will try to accommodate those without tickets. Of course, we cannot guarantee this but we often can find space. This is less likely for the writing workshop or Herstory walk which have smaller groups.

And finally, all of us on the organising committee hope you enjoy any events you attend over the weekend. We’d love to hear any feedback from you afterwards.