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More Footprints in the Sand with Archie Foley

Joanne 2020, Authors, Home

Friday 2nd October – 7pm – online

Forty years of publication for a community newspaper deserves to be celebrated, the more so if that paper has always been produced entirely by local volunteers and financed solely by advertisements placed by local businesses. That is why Archie Foley and Peter E Ross decided to draw attention to this achievement by compiling another selection of articles from the history pages of the Portobello Reporter. The articles chosen span the years from 1980 to 2020 and record “Portobello’s history and reminiscences” thus fulfilling one of the key aims of the paper’s founders.

Archie Foley will take you on a tour of Portobello to see some of the places featured in the book. You will be seeing them as they are today but Archie will be able to show how they feature in the Portobello story and that Portobello is not just Edinburgh’s seaside suburb.

Books by all our participating authors are available to order from The Portobello Bookshop.
Click here to visit the PBF page

Watch the launch of the 2020 Portobello Book Festival Programme online

Joanne 2020, Home

Usually by now, we would have held the launch event for the Portobello Book Festival at the Dalriada and have handed out copies of the programme at the Village Show. Sadly, as we know, neither of these events have been able to take place this year.

But the 2020 Portobello Book Festival is still going ahead and today you can watch Mae Shaw talk about how we have adapted the book festival this very unusual year.


Keep an eye on the website tomorrow where full details of all events you can watch over the course of the weekend of 2nd to 4th October will be revealed.

All the events will be on line and to watch, all you need to do is come to the website during the weekend and click on the post to watch each event. All will be available to watch afterwards too so if you are busy, you don’t need to miss out!

Portobello Book Festival is going online for 2020!

Joanne 2020, Home

We are pleased to tell you that there WILL be a Portobello Book Festival this year!

Like many festival organisers, we have been considering whether we could hold our festival in any kind of physical way. With the uncertainty regarding Covid-19, we decided the safest way to be able to run the festival this year is online.

We are delighted that many of our contributors who had already agreed to take part are still willing to take part in a virtual format. We think we have a very exciting line-up with a great variety of authors and events.

We will let you know what’s on the programme and how you will be able to take part nearer the time. In the meantime, you can mark our usual dates of the first weekend in October in your diaries.

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Photos from our School Events with Justin Davies @flyingscribbler, Lindsay Littleson @ljlittleson, @jillcalder and @janismackay. @scottishbktrust

Joanne 2019, Home, Uncategorized

Four of our local schools enjoyed visits from authors on Friday as part of the book festival. Here are some photos from these events.

The children at Brunstane Primary had monster fun with Justin Davies, author of “Help! I Smell a Monster”.

At Duddingston Primary. Lindsay Littleson told the P4-7 assembly lots of funny stories from her childhood, explained how she became an author, spoke about the importance of never giving up and about her latest exciting adventure story “The Titanic Detective Agency”.

Towerbank Primary were visited by Jill Calder who had a very appropriate book to talk about – “The Sea”. There was lots of artistic activity as part of this session as the children learned about the importance of looking after our oceans and had a go at illustrations themselves.

Primary 2 at St John’s Primary enjoyed a visit from Janis Mackay. Here’s what one of the teachers had to say about the event:

St Johns P2 had a visit from Janis Mackay – a local Scottish author from Portobello who entranced the pupils with her stories of writing poems in the north of Scotland by the sea. While there she describes finding a baby Seal on the beach, which is the inspiration for her book ‘The Wee Seal’. The children sang songs, talked about the different things you could find on a beach and listened to Janis tell the story. It was a fantastic experience and the P2s loved meeting a real-life author!

Our thanks to all the authors for coming along, to the children for taking part so enthusiastically, to the schools for having us and to the Scottish Book Trust for making the sessions possible through Live Literature Funding.

Coming soon – the 2019 Portobello Book Festival Programme

Joanne 2019, Home

PBF prog zoom

Not long to go now until you can find out what’s inside the programme for the 11th Portobello Book Festival. We are looking forward to revealing the line-up which, as always, includes local authors as well as those from further afield. The Festival, which runs from Thursday 3rd – Sunday 6th October, offers the diversity of subjects and authors that has become a distinctive feature of our programme. And yes, you are reading that correctly – we are beginning a day earlier than normal with a special event on Thursday 3rd September. All will be revealed soon.

You can pick up a copy of the programme from our brilliant bookstall at the Village Show in Rosefield Park this Sunday 1st September from 2-5pm or it will be available from Portobello Library and various local businesses from next Monday. Tickets for all events are free and must be collected in person from the library from Monday 2nd September. Some tickets will be available 15 minutes before events.

The full programme will be published here next week with more detailed posts on each event following in the lead-up to the festival.

The State of the World 10 Years On: For Better or Worse with Sian Bayne @sbayne Jill Mackay @jillymackay & Donald Bloxham

Joanne 2018, Home

THE STATE OF THE WORLD 10 YEARS ON: FOR BETTER FOR WORSE

          Sian Bayne Jill MacKay  Donald Bloxham wwwushmmorgmimg2451127168x168jpg

 

How has the world changed in the decade since the first Portobello Book Festival in 2009?  What are the prospects for the next decade?  Three distinguished University of Edinburgh academics address these questions in their different and distinctive ways: Sian Bayne, Professor of Digital Education, Jill MacKay, Research Fellow in Veterinary Medical Education, and Donald Bloxham, Professor of History.

Chair: Ian Martin

Sunday 7th October 5.00-6.30pm                                                         LIBRARY UPSTAIRS

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

St Kilda: A Different Perspective with Alex Boyd @alexboyd

Joanne 2018, Home

ST KILDA: A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

Alex Boyd’s St Kilda: The Silent Islands is a stark and reflective collection of photographs that capture the archipelago of St Kilda in a new light. They show the reality of the crumbling military base as well as the wild beauty of the natural landscape. He is joined by composer Jessica Danz who is working on a new composition focusing on the largely unknown and ill-fated 1852 migration of 42 islanders to Australia. 

Chair: Jim Gilchrist

Sunday 7th October 3.30-4.30pm                                                            LIBRARY UPSTAIRS

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

The Times on Cinema with Brian Pendreigh

Joanne 2018, Home

THE TIMES ON CINEMA

Brian Pendreigh, local journalist and freelance film correspondent, has had a lifetime fascination with film. He has authored many books, guides and reviews for papers such as the Scotsman, Herald, Times and Guardian. Brian shares stories of meeting famous film stars, the Oscars and discusses his latest book The Times on Cinema.

Chair: Peter E. Ross

Sunday 7th October 3.30-4.30pm                                                 LIBRARY DOWNSTAIRS

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