Tiny Tales: Story Pockets. A chance for children aged 1-3 to enjoy rhymes, songs and simple stories with storyteller Beth Cross. Beth has developed Story Pockets, which encourages parents and children to make small crafts and a pocket place to keep them, so that their creations are ready to pop out again whenever they want to return to the magical world of imagination. 10am or 11.30am, Storytelling Bothy, Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High Street. Tickets cost £5 per child (accompanying adult free) and may be booked in person, by calling the Box Office on 0131 556 9579 or online here. Please remember also to select a free ticket for yourself when purchasing your child’s ticket.
National Chatterbooks Week – Meet Lari Don, Chatterbooks Champion! A chance for any primary 4 to 7 children to meet this fantastic author, who engages brilliantly with younger audiences and is a great enthusiast for the love of reading. Hear how she collected the folk tales from around the world that appear in her new book, Serpents and Werewolves; these fabulous and magical stories about animal shapeshifters include the girl whose stepmother turned her into a dragon and the boy who changed places with a buzzard! 6-7pm, Central Library, George IV Bridge. Free but booking is required (accompanying adults do not need tickets) and may be made via eventbrite here.
Cameo Silver Screen: if you are over 60, join the Silver Screen Club (it’s free to join – ask at the Box Office) and get tickets for just £5, plus free tea, coffee and biscuits, at these special weekly screenings. Today’s films are Macbeth (15) showing at 1.30pm and 3.30pm, Life (15) showing at 12.50pm and 3.20pm, and Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’ (12A) showing at 4.10pm. Cameo, Home Street. Tickets may be purchased from the Box Office in person, by calling 0871 902 5723 or online. Non-members are also welcome at these screenings but will be charged standard ticket prices.
Lunchtime Concert: The Edinburgh Quartet. Tristan Gurney (violin), Gordon Bragg (violin), Fiona Winning (viola) and Mark Bailey (cello) play Tom Harrold Silent Shores and Haydn String Quartet Op.20 No.1. 1.10pm, City of Edinburgh Methodist Church, Nicolson Square. Free.
Leith Folk Club: Blueflint + support Reece Hillis. Blueflint (songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Deborah Arnott and Claire Neilson)’s atmospheric and evocative performances have proved them to be a formidable live act and gained them a strong reputation and following through the UK. They supported The Proclaimers for six weeks on their 2012 Like Comedy UK album launch tour. 7.30pm, Victoria Park House Hotel, 221 Ferry Road. Tickets cost £9 and may be reserved by completing the online form here or texting the club’s dedicated booking line on 07502 024 852. Reserved tickets must be collected by 7.30pm on the night.
Edinburgh World Justice Festival continues this week. Today: Accompaniment in Palestine – what is accompaniment and how do organisations working in Palestine provide it? An opportunity to hear from speakers with direct experience of accompaniment in Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) from the International Solidarity Movement, Christian Peacemaker Teams and the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. Find out what the work involves and how the various organisations operate. 7.30-9pm, St Andrew’s & St George’s West Church, 13 George Street. Organised by the Scottish Palestinian Forum; for more information please contact Maureen Jack on 01334 472697 or 07753 805 920, or email maureenjack2000@yahoo.com.
Golden Hare Book Group: this month discussing Alan Warner’s Their Lips Talk of Mischief, a ‘brilliantly written and very funny picaresque novel about high ambition in low circumstances that brings Thatcher’s London vividly and unforgettably to life’. 6.30pm, Golden Hare Books, St Stephen Street, Stockbridge. All welcome; for more information please contact the shop on 0131 629 1396. Next month’s book will be Suspended Sentences by Patrick Modiano.
Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival: films for all tastes (‘from the foodies to the fanatics!’), primary and secondary school screenings, a gastronomic evening and opening and closing events. Today’s films, both showing at Filmhouse, Lothian Road, are;
(1) at 6pm: Aces/Os fenomenos (PG) (in Spanish and Galician with English subtitles). Neneta lives without responsibilities or plans in a motor home on the coast of Spain. When her partner, Wolf, disappears without explanation she decides to go back to her hometown in Galicia… Also showing at 8.30pm on Wednesday 7th October. Both screenings will be followed by Q & A sessions with director Alfonso Zarauza.
(2) at 8.45pm: Map/Mapa (PG) (in Spanish with English subtitles). A young Spanish director, León Siminiani, is fired from his precarious job in television. Returning to his dream of making films, he travels to India to ‘find’ his first feature film, only to realise that his true search is not in India, but in Madrid….
Tickets may be purchased from the Filmhouse box office in person, by calling 0131 228 2688 or online; prices vary.
Morningside Heritage Association: The Reverend Dr Derek Browning delivers the Charles Smith Lecture; Morningside, Mussolini and the God of Calvin: Theology and a certain Miss Jean Brodie in her Prime. 6.45 for 7.15pm, Morningside Parish Church Hall, Braid Road/Cluny Gardens. The Association, founded in 1982, exists to promote the study of the history of Morningside; it holds monthly talks, arranges summer visits to places of historical interest and undertakes projects exploring the history of the area. The annual subscription is £12, but if you would like to attend a meeting first, the entry fee of £3 will be deducted from your subscription if you decide to join at that meeting; please contact the Membership Secretary, Dr Eleanor Updale, on memmha@gmail.com.
Campbell’s Ceilidh. A 21st century old style shindig with Mairi Campbell, whose easy and fun approach will facilitate harmony singing for everyone, plus songs, stories or poems from Mairi and participants. Each event is unique. No experience required. 7pm, Storytelling Court, Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High Street. Tickets cost £8/£6 and may be booked in person, by calling the Box Office on 0131 556 9579 or online here.
College of Naturopathic Medicine Open Evening: find out about the courses offered by one of the UK’s largest natural medicine training providers. 6.30-8.30pm, Room B2, Ground Floor, Napier University Merchiston Campus, 10 Colinton Rd. Free but please register via eventbrite here.
Picturehouse Documentaries: new and topical documentaries covering issues around the world. Today’s film is Cartel Land (15): writer, director and cameraman Matthew Heineman takes us on a shocking, action-packed voyage into the murky world of the drug trade as seen through the efforts of two men leading the close-range fight against it: Tim Foley heads a small paramilitary group trying to seal the Arizona border off from Mexico’s brutal and well-organised traffickers; Jose Mireles is a doctor doggedly marshalling his fellow citizens against the Knights Templar cartel in his small Mexican township. 6pm, Cameo, Home Street. Tickets may be purchased from the Box Office in person, by calling 0871 902 5723 or online here; prices vary.
Charlotte Eriksson: the Swedish singer/songwriter (aka The Glass Child), author, poet and founder of Broken Glass Records promotes her new album I Must Be Gone And Live, Or Stay And Die. Support: soul-influenced singer/songwriter Daniel Scott and acoustic alternative and rock artist Ross Arthur. For over 18s only. 7pm, Voodoo Rooms, West Register Street. Tickets cost £5 and may be purchased from TicketWeb here (transaction fee applies).
