Thanks to everyone who came along to see our events over the weekend
and to all our lovely contributors. Here’s a selection of photos from
an informative, entertaining and most enjoyable weekend.
Sunday 3rd October – 3.30pm
Click the YouTube link below to watch this event
Peter Geoghegan, the well-known writer, journalist and broadcaster, talks about his recent, highly acclaimed book Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics. According to the Observer, ‘This should be the most discussed political book of the year. The subject could not be more urgent.’
Chair:Â Peter McColl
Unfortunately, Val McDermid is now unable to join us in person this evening. However, through the wonders of technology, she will be joining the live audience and chair via Zoom. The event will still take place in the library at 5pm, chaired by Louise Fairbairn, and will not be streamed online. Those attending will still have the opportunity to put questions to Val.
The queen of crime talks about her latest thriller, the first in her new series. In the winter of discontent, Allie Burns and her fellow journalist Danny Sullivan, at the risk of making powerful enemies, are exposing the criminal underbelly of respectable Scotland.
Books by all our participating authors are available to order from The Portobello Bookshop.
Click here to visit the PBF page
Saturday 2nd October – 12.00 noon
Click the YouTube link below to watch the event
Join the Caledonia Crime Collective (CCC) as they discuss the thrills, spills and sometimes chills of everything Tartan Noir and all its facets. From gritty police procedurals to psychological thrillers – and even a splash of the supernatural – the panel will discuss and debate the diversity of modern Scottish crime fiction.
Hosted by Portobello author and CCC founder Emma Christie (The Silent Daughter).
There’s just one day to go before the 2021 Portobello Book Festival begins and we thought it would be useful to give you some information about attending events. Some things are different from previous years so please do make yourself familiar with what is going to happen this year.
Entry to each event will be five minutes before it is due to start.
If your event is in the library upstairs, you will enter and leave by the fire exit door to the left of the main entrance. If you require to use the ramp, that will still be possible of course.
If your event is in the library downstairs, you will enter and leave by the usual main library doors.
As rooms will be cleaned between events, even if you have a ticket for the following event you will need to leave the building.
You must have your ticket with you. Regretfully, we cannot admit anyone without a ticket, no matter the reason. The only exceptions are guests of the contributors whose names are on the guest list.
There are no tickets available on the door before events this year. If you have a ticket you now can’t use, please return it to the library as soon as possible. Many events have no tickets left so this will give others a chance to attend.
You must register attendance by either checking in with the QR code, or via the Check In Scotland website or by giving your contact details to the staff.
You must wear a face covering at all times in the library, unless you are exempt.
We will be filling up the events from the front and after each event, we will ask those at the back to leave first.
As windows will be open for ventilation throughout all events, please wrap up warmly!
We will, as always, be delighted to receive any donations. Buckets will be available on the way out after each event. If you do intend to donate, it would be helpful if you could have your money ready as you leave to avoid queueing.
With all these precautions in place, we hope that you will feel safe and enjoy the events over the weekend. We are looking forward to seeing everyone and listening to all our fabulous participants.
Books by all our participating authors are available to order from The Portobello Bookshop.
Click here to visit the PBF page
As you’ll be aware, we are required to take contact details for everyone attending book festival events at the library for Test & Protect contact tracing purposes. To make this as quick as possible, and to minimise queuing, we’d really appreciate if people could scan the Check in Scotland QR code while waiting to get in to each event. There will be posters up at the library you can scan with your smartphone or you can use the website as mentioned on the poster below.
If you don’t have a smartphone, staff will take a note of details on a paper record. Details will be stored in accordance with data protection rules and kept for 21 days. Details will only be used to get in touch with you to advise if you may be a close contact of someone who has tested positive.
Please remember that you must wear a face covering at all time during events, unless you are exempt.
As you’ll know, Covid regulations mean that our audience numbers are smaller this year. Tickets for several events have already all been snapped up. So if you have tickets for an event and now find you can’t come, please return them to the library so that others can have the chance to attend.
With all tickets having to be picked up in advance, and none available at the door on the day, we’d really appreciate if any that can’t be used are returned. Thank you.
Library opening hours are: are Monday and Wednesday 1-5pm, Tuesday and Thursday 10-5pm, Friday and Saturday 10am-2pm.
Books by all our participating authors are available to buy or order from our local independent bookshop, The Portobello Bookshop.
You will find the bookshop at 46 Portobello High Street. Opening hours are 10am – 6pm, seven days a week. You can order books in person or by phone or online, either to Click and Collect or for delivery. The phone number is 0131 629 6756.
The lovely people at the bookshop have created a page especially for Portobello Book Festival. Just click on the link below and you’ll find details of all our events, with books by the authors listed after each one.
Portobello Bookshop – PBF page
Thanks to Hazel Darwin-Clements who has put together a brilliant podcast about this year’s festival. You’ll hear from Joanne, who is on the organising committee, as well as three of the authors taking part: Emma Christie, Grahame Howard and Lesley Kelly.
One thing to note though is that there is mention of the possibility of events being available to watch online, but, with a couple of exceptions, this will not be happening. We know a lot of people enjoyed the online events last year and we did consider trying to do some more online this year. However, as a small free volunteer run festival, regrettably we simply don’t have enough people to be able to comply with the Covid regulations while also trying to stream or film for later. The only events online are ones we have planned well in advance and which will be pre-recorded.
Grab yourself a coffee and settle down to listen and find out more about the festival, taking place over the weekend of 1st-3rd October.
Portobello Book Festival – 1st – 3rd October 2021
All events are free, but ticketed.
Tickets in person, in advance from Portobello Library
No tickets available at the door this year.
www.portobellobookfestival.com
Twitter @portybookfest
FRIDAY 1st OCTOBER
WRITING WORKSHOP WITH JIM HURFORD
10.30-11.30am LIBRARY UPSTAIRS
This year’s writing event is on the fun of writing limericks. Jim has recently found pleasure in expressing and reflecting life in limericks. He hopes to show how versatile they can be with topics including balancing rhyme with content, beauty with sadness, politics with humour, local scenes with global issues and so on. This will be a hands-on fun workshop for writers of all experience and inclination. Bring paper, pen and ideas.
HANNAH McCOOKE: CAPABLE HANDS
12.00noon-1.00pm LIBRARY UPSTAIRS
Portobello poet Hannah McCooke has been published in
Dear Damsels, The Selkie, Bloodbath Literary Zine, The Last Anthology and Umbrellas of Edinburgh. She recently released her debut pamphlet, Mortal Magic, and will be discussing her love of DIY publishing, collaboration and the role of queer community in her creativity, as well as her current project – Capable Hands – a collection of love poems for her LGBT+ heroes. Hannah will read from both collections.
Chair: Paul Hudson
READING HIGHLIGHTS OF THE LOCKDOWN
2.00-3.00pm LIBRARY UPSTAIRS
Local readers including Ian Pryde, children’s literature specialist at Portobello Library and Joanne Baird, Portobello Book Blog, talk about their most memorable reading from the time when reading was one of the few things we were actually allowed to do.
Chair: Bill Jameson
PANDEMIC PORTOBELLO: BOOK LAUNCH
8.00-9.30pm – LIBRARY DOWNSTAIRS
Due to covid restrictions, this event is for contributors to the publication only.
This evening of words and music celebrates local writing and launches the Festival’s publication Pandemic Portobello. Portobello actor Cal MacAninch will read a selection of stories from this unique collection and the event will be hosted by David Francis.
Free copies of the book will be available from Portobello Library.
This event will be online: details will be available via the library and website nearer the time.
SATURDAY 2nd OCTOBER
ANNE PIA: KEEPING AWAY THE SPIDERS
11.00am-12.00 noon LIBRARY UPSTAIRS
Author, poet and essayist Anne Pia has published two poetry collections, Transitory and The Sweetness of Demons, and is perhaps best known for her stunning creative memoir Language of My Choosing which was shortlisted for the Saltire Award. Here, Anne speaks about her work, specifically her recently published book Keeping Away The Spiders: Essays on Breaching Barriers, a series of illuminating reflections on life as a writer and a woman.
Chair: Paul Hudson
CALEDONIA CRIME COLLECTIVE
12.00 noon ONLINE EVENT
Join the Caledonia Crime Collective (CCC) as they discuss the thrills, spills and sometimes chills of everything Tartan Noir and all its facets. From gritty police procedurals to psychological thrillers – and even a splash of the supernatural – the panel will discuss and debate the diversity of modern Scottish crime fiction.
Hosted by Portobello author and CCC founder Emma Christie (The Silent Daughter).
This event will be online: details will be available via the library and website nearer the time.
WOMEN IN HISTORICAL FICTION
12.45-1.45pm LIBRARY UPSTAIRS
Flora Johnston is the author of What You Call Free. Set in 17th Century Edinburgh, it follows the story of two women who don’t conform to society’s expectations. Caroline Dunford’s novels include historical mysteries featuring Euphemia Martins at the time of The Great War and her daughter Hope Stapleford in WW2. Join them as they discuss researching and writing historical fiction set in very different eras and giving voice to women from those times.
Chair: Janis Mackay
CRIME THRILLERS
2.30-3.30pm LIBRARY UPSTAIRS
Join Lesley Kelly and William McIntyre in conversation, as they discuss their entertaining and often humorous crime thriller series. Lesley Kelly’s The Health of Strangers books are set in the aftermath of a global pandemic, though the series began well before recent events. William McIntyre is a criminal defence solicitor who draws on his own courtroom experiences to turn fact into fiction with a string of legal thrillers all featuring Linlithgow-based lawyer, Robbie Munro.
GRAHAME HOWARD: LOVE AND HUMOUR
4.00-5.00pm LIBRARY UPSTAIRS
Love and humour are often present in the work of Portobello author Grahame Howard. Here he talks about his two books published during lockdown. Coda, Fantaisie and an Intermezzo, three love stories with a musical theme and The Norris Sanction, a light hearted humorous tale featuring a terminal loser.
Chair: Paul Hudson
ANDREW O’HAGAN
5.30-6.30pm LIBRARY DOWNSTAIRS
Andrew’s latest novel Mayflies is an elegy to a teenage friend. Set in Scotland, it is a poignant story of lost youth, music, and male friendship. Andrew has been nominated for the Booker Prize three times, is Visiting Professor of Writing at King’s College London and Editor-at-Large of The London Review of Books. Andrew will be joined in this special event by Rt Hon Nicola Sturgeon MSP, First Minister of Scotland, who also hails from Ayrshire.
SUNDAY 3rd OCTOBER
GAVIN FRANCIS
11.00am-12.00 noon LIBRARY DOWNSTAIRS
Award-winning author Dr Gavin Francis’s latest book Intensive Care is written from the perspective of a GP working in both urban and rural communities during the Pandemic. Gavin will be in conversation with Dr John Budd, GP at the Edinburgh Access Practice, which provides care for patients who are homeless. They will discuss how Covid has changed lives, the amazing work of Edinburgh’s Inclusion Health outreach teams and the city’s response in terms of housing people who would otherwise have been rough sleeping.
ANGELA JACKSON
11.15am-12.15pm LIBRARY UPSTAIRS
Angela’s latest novel The Darlings is a compelling exploration of the power of unconditional love. Set in Edinburgh, it is a fast-paced, funny and unflinching story of infidelity. Angela, a former psychology lecturer, won Edinburgh International Book Festival’s First Book Award with her debut novel The Emergence of Judy Taylor. She is a Tutor in Creative Writing for Open College of the Arts. She will be joined in this special event by Louise Kelly.
WILDERNESS WAYS
12.45-1.45pm LIBRARY UPSTAIRS
A conversation between Rona Gray and Patrick Baker, author of The Unremembered Places: Exploring Scotland’s Wild Histories. ‘There are wild landscapes which transcend our modern notions of utility and purpose whose importance may never be fully understood yet which continue to resound with mystery and meaning.’
AMBROSE PARRY
2.00-3.00pm LIBRARY DOWNSTAIRS
Chris Brookmyre, one of Britain’s most acclaimed authors and winner of the UK’s top crime awards, is joined by his wife Marisa Haetzman, a consultant anaesthetist, to discuss their co-authored crime series, set in the medical world of 1840s Edinburgh, under the pseudonym Ambrose Parry.
Chair: Doug Johnstone
NATURE PRESCRIPTIONS
2.15-3.15pm LIBRARY UPSTAIRS
Photographer Anna Deacon and journalist and author Vicky Allan’s books For the Love of Trees and Taking the Plunge: The Healing Power of Wild Swimming for Mind, Body and Soul show how time spent outdoors can help physical and mental wellbeing. They are in conversation with local GP, allotment enthusiast and wild swimmer Dr Rachel Harrison who is an advocate of the RSPB’s and Edinburgh GPs’ joint pilot scheme Nature Prescriptions. This initiative is giving GPs in five Edinburgh practices the opportunity to prescribe nature, where appropriate, as part of a patient’s treatment plan, connecting them with nature in ways that are personal, emotional and meaningful.
DEMOCRACY FOR SALE?
3.30-4.30pm ONLINE EVENT
Peter Geoghegan, the well-known writer, journalist and broadcaster, talks about his recent, highly acclaimed book Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics. According to the Observer, ‘This should be the most discussed political book of the year. The subject could not be more urgent.’
Chair: Peter McColl
This event will be online: details will be available via the library and website nearer the time.
LIVING WITH AN ‘INVISIBLE DISABILITY’
4.00-5.00pm LIBRARY UPSTAIRS
In 2002, still in her teens, Gemma Bromley was in a serious car accident in which she suffered a traumatic brain injury. Half a Head recounts her long journey of recovery. Gemma is in conversation with Edwin Jesudson, Consultant Rehabilitation Physician at Astley Ainslie Hospital, Edinburgh.
VAL MCDERMID: 1979
5.00-6.00pm LIBRARY DOWNSTAIRS
The queen of crime talks about her latest thriller, the first in her new series. In the winter of discontent, Allie Burns and her fellow journalist Danny Sullivan, at the risk of making powerful enemies, are exposing the criminal underbelly of respectable Scotland.
Chair: Louise Fairbairn
Books by all our participating authors are available to order from The Portobello Bookshop.
Click here to visit the PBF page
Portobello Book Festival 