Sunday 8th October, 12.30-1.30pm, Library Upstairs

Nathan Gale came out to his mother Shirley Young as transgender on their 20^th birthday.  In this session, mother and son discuss their book on families, gender and coping with transition.

Chair: Christina McMellon

Tickets for all Portobello Book Festival events are free and can be picked up from Portobello Library in Rosefield Avenue.

Sunday 8th October, 11.30am-1pm, Library Upstairs  

How does being outside in the natural environment – particularly in its wild places – affect what happens on the inside, within the human psyche? Three authors show us how they ponder such questions in their books: Robbie Nicol Canoeing around the Cairngorms; Victoria Whitworth Swimming with Seals; Geoff Allan The Scottish Bothy Bible. 

Chair: Rona Gray

Tickets for all Portobello Book Festival events are free and can be picked up from Portobello Library in Rosefield Avenue.

Sunday 8th October, 11am-12noon, Library Upstairs

Martin Fowler is a writer returning to his Portobello roots to talk about his work on history, prisons and what inspired him. Steve Harvey has travelled many different routes and explores the experiences that have led him to write Between Dreams: Difficult Paths and Dangerous Places.

Chair: Bill Jameson

Tickets for all Portobello Book Festival events are free and can be picked up from Portobello Library in Rosefield Avenue.

Saturday 7th October, 8-10pm at The Dalriada on Portobello Prom

After a busy day enjoying listening to the many authors taking part in the festival, why not round off Saturday by showing off your literary knowledge at a book quiz at the Dalriada on the prom? No tickets are required and it costs just £1 per person to enter. The quiz begins at 8pm and will run until approximately 10pm. It’s a good idea to get along early though as the quiz is very popular and once it’s full, it’s full!

Saturday 7th October, 5.30-6.30pm, Library

Acclaimed science fiction writer Ken MacLeod reads from the latest of his seventeen novels, and discusses how science fiction engages with science and society.

Chair: Grahame Howard

Tickets for all Portobello Book Festival events are free and can be picked up from Portobello Library in Rosefield Avenue.

Saturday 7th October, 5-6pm, Library Upstairs

One hundred years after its inception at Longniddry, the SWI is still dedicated to friendship, learning and skill sharing. At this session the challenges and opportunities facing the organisation as it stands today will be discussed and we will take a glimpse inside the SWI’s celebratory Centenary Cook Book.

Chair: Linda Bradley      

Tickets for all Portobello Book Festival events are free and can be picked up from Portobello Library in Rosefield Avenue.

Saturday 7th October, 3.45-5.15pm, Portobello Baptist Church Hall

Three local authors explore past, present and possible future through the eyes of their characters. Caroline Dunford, Euphemia Martins Mysteries, R L McKinney, The Angel in the Stone, and Lesley Kelly, The Health of Strangers, discuss how social and political events affect their characters’ lives, relationships and identities.

Chair: Anne Gilchrist

Tickets for all Portobello Book Festival events are free and can be picked up from Portobello Library in Rosefield Avenue.

Saturday 7th October, 3.30-4.45pm, Library Upstairs

This anthology of work draws on the oral history tradition of minority ethnic communities to ‘shine a light’ on childhood. In a panel discussion, contributors to the book share their experiences of growing up in their country of origin whether overseas or here in Scotland.

Chair: Suzanne Munday of the Minority Ethnic Carers of People Project

Tickets for all Portobello Book Festival events are free and can be picked up from Portobello Library in Rosefield Avenue.

Saturday 7th October, 2-3.15pm, Library Upstairs

Discover the world of female Scottish writers and bloggers. Debut novelists Stella Hervey Birrell, How Many Wrongs Make a Mr Right, and Natalie Fergie, The Sewing Machine, have a blether with Joanne Baird, of Portobello Book Blog, about debut novels, writing that tricky second novel, the highs and lows of blogging and everything in-between.

Tickets for all Portobello Book Festival events are free and can be picked up from Portobello Library in Rosefield Avenue.