Bookfest Bedlam by Fran Brady
‘ Over 800 authors from over 45 countries in 750 events for adults, teens and children.’ That’s straight out of the Edinburgh Book Festival programme, which looks more like a heavy-duty glossy mag than an events list. If you live within striking distance of Scotland’s ancient and beautiful capital city and you like/love/read/write books, then there is no keeping away in August. Charlotte Square Gardens, in the west end of the New Town, becomes a tented village with auditoria, bookshops, coffee/ booze/ food outlets, picnic tables, benches and loungers on the grass in the middle of the square, posters of authors who have graced the Square with their presence over decades. Names like Muriel Spark, Solzhenitsyn, Brendan Behan . . . And more lately, Alexander McCall Smith, Ian Rankin and J K Rowling (all three of them residents of Edinburgh today). Sounds idyllic. Except that this is Scotland and it does rain quite a lot, stopping for some fog and wind occasionally. I have sa...