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Leith Festival 2015: Trainspotting Tour. Great as an introduction to the book and film – and equally great if you’re a hard-core fan, as guide Tim Bell gives lots of insights you’ve probably never thought of before – whilst not missing any of the laughs. For adults only. 7pm, Port O’Leith Bar, 58 Constitution Street (starts here and ends at the Foot of the Walk 183 Constitution Street). £4/£3 per person – no advance booking, just turn up: for information please email mail@leithwalks.co.uk. Also at same time on Friday 19th June and Saturday 20th June 2015.
Onwards! LGBT Age Capacity Building Project: for LGBT community members and professionals working in older people’s services. 2.30-5pm, LGBT Health & Wellbeing, 9 Howe Street. Booking is essential and may be made by calling 0131 652 3284 or emailing katherine@lgbthealth.org.uk.
Help Contribute to Recovery in South West Edinburgh – Volunteers Needed! Community Health & Advice Initiative – Edinburgh Alcohol and Drug Partnership invites people who are in recovery, and interested in being part of a team to develop and shape recovery in this area, to an informal get together (with lunch provided). 10.30am, Wester Hailes Healthy Living Centre, 30 Harvesters Way. For further information and to book your place, please call Susan Butters at CHAI on 0131 453 9406.
Spells, Spaceships and Seashells: readings by Oxpens Creative Writing Group. 2-3pm, Oxgangs Library, 343 Oxgangs Road North. New members of the group are welcomed – please contact Morag at Pentland Community Centre on 0131 445 2875 or morag.grant@ea.edin.sch.uk.
Easel Sketching in the Gallery – June: led by artist Damian Callan. A different subject every month, sometimes with a model. 2-4pm, Scottish National Portrait Gallery (please ask at the information desk for exact location), 1 Queen Street. Free; no booking required; all materials supplied. Also at same times on Friday 19th June 2015.
Edinburgh International Film Festival continues today! For details of all films and other events see the programme here or pick up a paper copy at EIFF venues and many other locations throughout the city. Tickets are available in person from the Filmhouse, Lothian Road, Cineworld, Fountain Park, Odeon, Lothian Road and the Festival Theatre, by calling 0131 623 8030 or online here. Today’s highlights include The Closer We Get, Karen Guthrie’s ‘tender yet bittersweet’ Scottish documentary about of an apparently ordinary family having to deal with broken dreams and hidden secrets, and Hector, the story of a homeless man (a perfectly pitched performance from Peter Mullan) whose past life starts to catch up with him.
An Evening of Classical Music with Charles Whitehead: the New Zealander concert pianist plays Prokofiev Piano Sonata Op 8 No 84, Ravel Gaspard de la Nuit and Scriabin Deux poemes Op 32. 7pm, St Andrew’s & St George’s West Church, 13 George Street. All welcome: free admission.
Inspired Flash Fiction: a guided visit to the City Art Gallery followed by an art-inspired flash fiction writing workshop at the Central Library. Please note that this event involves about 20 minutes of walking, some of it uphill. 2pm, City Art Gallery, 2 Market Street. 
Free but booking is required via eventbrite here. This event forms part of In Their Own Write – Women and Words, a festival of talks, exhibitions and workshops organised by Glasgow Women’s Library, Edinburgh City Libraries and the Bonnie Fechters women’s group.
The Luvvies Present Love Match: ‘playing gay in the straight world’. Richard Hall’s play looks at what happens when a mainstream actor takes on his first gay role and considers the pressures of pretending (or not). ‘A comedy of manners for the gay world, going from love-all to match-point in two sets’. Plus two shorts by David Dalzell, Moved to Touch and Train to New Zealand, plays that represent a larger work-in-progress exploring LGBT people’s need to feel connected, or realising disconnection. For ages 15+. 7.30pm, Red Lecture Theatre, Summerhall, 1 Summerhall. Tickets cost £9/£6 and may be purchased from the Box Office in person, by calling 0131 560 1581 or online here. Also at same time on Friday 19th and Saturday 20th June 2015. The Luvvies exist to promote dramatic theatre that expresses aspects of the lives and experiences of the LGBT community, and to increase confidence and self-esteem. For more information email info@theluvvies.org.
Simon Armitage – The Great War: An Elegy. The award-winning poet, playwright, novelist, lyricist and broadcaster discusses the challenges of writing poetry for his BBC commission The Great War: An Elegy and shows film extracts. 6-7.30pm, Hawthornden Lecture Theatre, Scottish National Gallery, The Mound. Tickets cost £5/£4 and may be purchased in person from the gallery’s Information Desk or by calling 0131 624 6560 between 9.30am and 4.30pm.
Word Power Books Presents Barry Phillips and Grant Hill. Barry Phillips is a third generation Dundee supporter; his debut novel The Tartan Special One has gained thousands of fans worldwide with its surreal charm and violent hilarity – ‘Scottish football gets torn apart and stitched back together with due care and debauchery’. Grant Hill founded the now infamous Teckle Collective; his debut Clubbed to Death ‘weaves its way through the unforgiving nature of the music industry via the empty dancefloors of a club for the lost’. ‘A very funny, no-holds-barred, romp into the Dundonian badlands’ (Neil Forsyth). Both authors will read from their books. 6.30pm, Word Power Books, West Nicolson Street. Free: all welcome – donations also welcome!
LGBT Learning Disabilities Social Circle: a monthly group for LGBT people who also identify as having a learning disability or difficulty. This session’s theme will be EDG (Edinburgh Development Group) and Self Directed Support. 2-4pm, Lifecare Centre, Cheyne Street, Stockbridge. For more information and to join the group, please contact George Burrows on 0131 652 3281 or email george@lgbthealth.org.uk.
Leith Festival 2015: Trinity House – Maritime Leith. Visit Trinity House and take a self-led tour of Leith’s maritime history, using the latest technologies to uncover the local stories behind the collections. Meet the conservators to learn about the work they carry out on the vast painting collections, and watch digital recordings of Leithers talking about their memories. Today there will be object handling sessions (11am-2pm) and tours of Trinity House led by Junior Guides Tours (11am-1.30pm), Trinity House, 99 Kirkgate. Free. For more information please contact adam.gorysz@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or call 0131 554 3289.
Italian Cinema: Una Piccola Impresa Merionale (15). A group of family outcasts ends up in a remote lighthouse – ‘after a period of chaos, this small world gradually discovers that unity makes strength’. Directed by Rocco Papeleo. In Italian with English subtitles. 6pm, Italian Cultural Institute in Edinburgh, 82 Nicolson Street. Free: please reserve your place by calling the Institute on 0131 668 2232 or online here.
Edinburgh Festival of Cycling continues today! Rides, films, talks, drama, books, photos, workshops and lots more. Today’s events include The Brotique Pop-Up Fixie Shop, the King of Kaimes Hill Climb & Barbecue and a talk by Fraser Cartmell, Multiple Ironman and Ironman 70.3 Champion. For more information please see the festival’s website here or its Facebook page here, or pick up a programme from many venues across the city and beyond, including libraries, leisure centres and many shops. Ends 21st June 2015.
Nothing Ever Happens Here: James Blackshaw and Yusuf Azak. ‘Blackshaw sings in a gentle but assured voice, while his words combine his personal experiences, neuroses and fantasy through many layers of abstraction, poeticism and dark humour’. James’ new album Summoning Suns draws inspiration from 60’s and 70’s singer-songwriters, baroque/orchestral pop and folk music. Yusuf Azak is an Aberdonian living in Glasgow: his album Peace in the Underworld is out on Gerry Loves Records. Over-18s only. 8pm, The Dissection Room, Summerhall, 1 Summerhall. Tickets cost £10/£8 and may be purchased from the Box Office in person, by calling 0131 560 1581 or online here.
Leith Festival 2015: Leith Community Concert Band: the annual Festival concert. 7.30pm, St Margaret’s Episcopal Church, Easter Road. Entry by donation. For more information please contact leithcommunityconcertband@gmail.com.
Old Royal High School Preservation Trust: a community drop-in session to view plans for the proposed transfer of St Mary’s Music School to the old Royal High School. 5-8pm (drop-in), Canongate Kirk, 153 Canongate. All welcome.
Arthur and Merlin in Scottish History. Following a discovery on the shelves of the National Library, Adam Ardrey wrote Finding Merlin and Finding Arthur. These evidence-based, time-lined, supernatural-free books show how Scotland is linked to these world legends – now, for the first time, the wonderful legends of Arthur and Merlin are firmly fixed in Scottish history and geography. 2pm, National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge. Free but booking is required and may be made online here or by calling 0131 623 3734.
Hot Tin Roof Trio: Andy McKay-Challen, Gavin Jack and Kenny Miller bring their blues to the OCP. 9pm, Old Chain Pier, Trinity Crescent, Newhaven. Free.
Picturehouses Slow West Satellite Q & A/Preview Night: live via satellite from the Jameson Film Club, join director John Maclean, Oscar-winning producer Iain Canning and host Edith Bowman for a special preview screening, preceded by an acoustic set from Jim Dixon and Vincent Neff of Django Django. 
In Maclean’s first feature, shot in New Zealand, naive teenager Jay Cavendish searches for his estranged sweetheart – who has a price on her head. Rescued from a vicious bandit and henceforth accompanied by a roughneck drifter with his own agenda, Jay eventually learns what it is to be a man in an unyielding world. A complementary glass of Jameson’s will be served. 8.40pm, Cameo, Home Street. Tickets may be purchased by calling the Box Office on 0871 902 5723 or online here; prices vary.
