If you’re a reader, a writer, a listener, a fan of poetry or comic books, or even a hill walker, there’s something on for you in Edinburgh this November. From Beowulf to Miss Blaine and Robert Louis Stevenson to Rebel Girls, there are events for all ages throughout the city.
Thursday 1 November
Storytime for ages 3-5. 10.30-11am, Children’s Library, George IV Bridge. Free, no booking needed.
Farewell, King Coal – Professor Anthony Seaton discusses his new book, which looks at the rise and decline of the coal industry and its effects on the health of the miners, of those who worked with coal products and of almost all of us who have breathed in the pollution from its combustion. 6.30pm, Blackwells Book Shop, South Bridge. Free tickets from the shop (0131 622 8222) or via Eventbrite
Friday 2 November
Tiger Tales – Craft and Stories for ages 4-8. Today and every Friday, 2 – 2.30pm, Balgreen Library, 173 Balgreen Road. Call 0131 529 5585 or email balgreen.library@edinburgh.gov.uk for more information.
Saturday 3 November
Red Squirrel Press invites you to the launch of Avanti! from Tim Turnbull and Walking Between Worlds from Brian Whittingham. 1-3pm Scottish Poetry Library, Crichton’s Close. Free, book via Eventbrite.
Sunday 4 November
Sunday Stories – for children aged 3-7 years (but all welcome). Each session features a hand-picked book followed by some crafts or games based on the story. Free, no booking required, but may be busy – arrive early! Adults can enjoy a proper browse in the shop whilst sipping a fresh coffee! Today and every Sunday, 11-11.45am, Golden Hare Books, St Stephen’s Street, Stockbridge.
Monday 5 November
Farewell, King Coal – in the beautiful surroundings of St Mary’s Cathedral Song School, Professor Anthony Seaton discusses his new book, which looks at the rise and decline of the coal industry and its effects on the health of the miners, of those who worked with coal products and of almost all of us who have breathed in the pollution from its combustion. 6.30pm, Song School, St Mary’s Cathedral, 23 Palmerston Place. Free tickets via Eventbrite.
Readers’ Salon. No theme or set text to be read in advance, just come along to this monthly salon and talk about what you’ve been reading, soak up others’ recommendations and chat about all things book related. Free, no booking is required, wine and nibbles provided. 6.30pm, Golden Hare Books, St Stephens Street, Stockbridge. For more information call 0131 629 1396.
The Only Home They Knew – Anne Black presents an illustrated journey through her book, which chronicles the First World War through the experiences of the staff and boys of the Aberlour Orphanage as recounted in their diaries and letters. 2pm, National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge. Free; book via Eventbrite or phone 0131 623 3734.
Tuesday 6 November
Swan Song: Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott gives a glamorous and fascinating talk on the rise and fall of Truman Capote and the beautiful, wealthy, vulnerable women he called his ‘swans’. A tale of betrayal, society, romance and rupture that moves between cocktail-soaked Manhattan parties and Capote’s childhood in Depression-era Alabama, Swan Song spans three decades of friendships, and the gossip-riven world its characters inhabit. 6.30pm, Golden Hare Books, St Stephens Street, Stockbridge. Tickets (£5, or £12.99 with book) available via website.
The 51st (Highland) Division 1914-1919. The 51st Division recruited from the counties above the Forth and Clyde Canal and Renfrewshire, but also incorporated the Royal Scots battalions from Edinburgh and Lothian. It began as a Territorial Force with a home defence role, and rose to world fame as a first class assault division. Ahead of the reprinting of his book: The 51st (Highland) Division in the Great War; An Engine of Destruction, Colin Campbell charts this division’s remarkable story. 2pm, National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge. Free; book via Eventbrite or phone 0131 623 3734.
Pentlands Book Festival: A Conversation with Jackie Kay, Scotland’s Poet of the People. Scotland’s Poet Laureate discusses her latest collection Bantam, her autobiography Red Dust Road and her connection with World War I and its poets. 7-8pm Currie Community High School, 31 Dolphin Avenue. Booking essential via Eventbrite. Admission free, donations (£2 per person or more) appreciated.
Wednesday 7 November
PressReader – come and find out about using PressReader to access over 6000 worldwide daily newspapers and magazines, including most of the big UK papers. You can read daily newspapers such as the Scotsman, Edinburgh Evening News and The Herald for free, delivered directly to your own device or within the library. Bring along your tablet, phone or laptop and staff will help you get set up, or show you how to use it on library devices. Help will also be available for other Library2go services too such as ebooks and audiobooks.2-3.30pm Blackhall Library, 56 Hillhouse Road. Call 0131 529 5595 for details.
Firefighters of Belfast – former Firemaster of Edinburgh Brian Allaway tells stories from the front line of firefighters working during the Troubles years in Northern Ireland, including his own experiences and the first hand accounts of the people who lived through these events. 6.30pm, Blackwells Book Shop, South Bridge. Free tickets from the shop (0131 622 8222) or via Eventbrite
Finding a Voice: Amrit Wilson on Britain’s Asian Women. Wilson’s book Finding a Voice: Asian Women in Britain was published in 1978, exploring South Asian women’s struggles in Britain for the first time, and winning the Martin Luther King award. Finding a Voice was, and remains, an influential feminist book. Based on interviews, discussions and intimate one-to-one conversations with South Asian women, the book explores what it was like to be a migrant, a worker, and a woman straddled between two cultures in late 1970s Britain. The new edition of the book includes a remarkable new chapter titled ‘Reflecting on Finding a Voice in 2018’ in which young South Asian women in Britain describe what the book means to them today and in what ways their lives are different, and similar, to those of the women in the book. In this context they write about organising against violence against women, Islamophobia, racism of the white middle-classes, struggles against heteronormativity, the battles for justice at Yarlswood detention centre, commemorating the Grunwick strike and the ups and downs of mother-daughter relationships in South Asian families. 7.30-8.30pm Lighthouse Bookshop 43-45 West Nicolson Street. Free tickets from Eventbrite. This is the closing event in the 2018 Radical & Independent Book Fair.
Scottish Fiction reading Group – Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Golden Samova. Author Olga Wojtas will join this monthly group to discuss her debut novel over coffee & biscuits. 10.30-11.20am, Waterstones West End, 128 Princes Street (0131 226 2666). Limited places: contact the shop to reserve yours.
Kingdom of Ash Fan Event with Sarah J Maas. Join the internationally bestselling author at this special event for super fans. Celebrating the launch of Kingdom of Ash, Sarah J Maas will be interviewed on stage by Katherine Webber about the breathtaking conclusion to her smash hit Throne of Glass series. 7pm, McEwan Hall at the University of Edinburgh,Teviot Place. Tickets £10/£18 – book via website.
Thursday 8 November
Storytime for ages 3-5. 10.30-11am, Children’s Library, George IV Bridge. Free, no booking needed.
Fiction Book Group – Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. All welcome at this discussion of Gail Honeyman’s No.1 Sunday Times Bestseller. 6-7pm Waterstones West End, 128 Princes Street (0131 226 2666)
Daniel Shand – Crocodile. Award-winning novelist Daniel Shand will be in conversation with novelist and editor Moira Forsyth to launch his new novel, the powerful story of a mother who cannot cope, a young girl who is growing up too fast, and the final summer of childhood. 6.30-8pm, Waterstones West End, 128 Princes Street (0131 226 2666). Free but booking required.
The Mere Wife: Maria Dahvana Headley discusses her new novel, a fierce feminist retelling of Beowulf that gives sharp, startling currency to the ancient epic poem. 6.30pm, Golden Hare Books, St Stephens Street, Stockbridge. Tickets (£5 or £12.99 with book) available via website.
Friday 9 November
Chatterbooks isn’t just a book group; you can write stories, do crafts, play board games AND have a lovely snack! For ages 8-12. 3-4.30pm today and the 2nd Friday of every month, Corstorphine Library, 12 Kirk Loan. Free, but places are limited – drop into the library for a chat, call 0131 529 5506, or email corstorphine.library@edinburgh.gov.uk.
Saturday 10 November
‘Na Balaich Aighearach / Na Buachaillí Aeracha’. As part of this year’s Seachdain na Gàidhlig – Edinburgh Gaelic Festival, two gay poets who write in the Gaelic languages of Scotland and Ireland will present their work. Marcas Mac an Tuairneir writes poetry, prose, drama and journalism in Gaelic and English; Scott De Buitléir writes prose and poetry in both English and Irish. This event will be presented in Scottish Gaelic and Irish, with some English explanations / translations for the poetry in Irish. 8-10pm, The Waverley, 3-5 St Mary’s Street. Free: tickets available from the venue.
Sunday 11 November
Robert Louis Stevenson Day: Sing Me A Song. A multimedia show on the life and works of Robert Louis Stevenson, through which the audience can experience the wit and wisdom, the adventures and heartbreaks of Scotland’s best-loved author. Performed by Judy Turner and Neil Adam on a special visit from Australia, where RLS enjoyed a couple of visits, albeit plagued by ill health, on jaunts away from his home in Samoa. 2pm, The Writers’ Museum, Lady Stair’s Close, Lawnmarket. Drop-in event, free admission.
Monday 12 November
Robin Ince: I’m in a Joke and So Are You. Robin Ince talks about why we become the humans we are and how best to cope with that. 7.30pm, James Gillespie’s High School Library. Tickets £5 (redeemable against the price of the book if bought on the night) from The Edinburgh Bookshop on 0131 447 1917 or email mail@edinburghbookshop.com.
Tuesday 13 November
Merdeka with Chris Moorhouse. The founder of Edinburgh-based publisher Luath Press, Tom Atkinson, was instrumental in the fight for Indonesian independence. Merdeka (the Indonesian and Malaysian word for ‘independent’ or ‘free’) tells the little-known story of Tom’s life-long work for President Sukarno and the fight for freedom in Indonesia, based on compilations of Tom’s letters and conversations with his wife Rene, interviews with close friends and accounts of the historical events of the time. Chris Moorhouse, author of Merdeka: Tom Atkinson’s Long Fight for Freedom from Indonesia to Scotland will discuss the book and Tom’s part in the country’s freedom. 6.30pm, Blackwells Book Shop, South Bridge. Free tickets from the shop (0131 622 8222) or via eventbrite
Wednesday 14 November
PressReader at Blackhall Library – see 7 November for details.
Whale Poetry Group – A Hundred Poems. The group meets twice a month to write and share poetry and prose. It’s free to attend and WHALE provides refreshments. It’s a friendly, social and supportive group and you don’t need any experience to join. The sessions are led by the Scottish Poetry Library and Open Book alternately. 11.30am-1pm, WHALE Arts, 30 Westburn Grove. For more information or to book your place call WHALE on 0131 458 3267 or email info@whalearts.co.uk.
Black Sea: Caroline Eden launches her new book, a biography of a region, its people and its recipes, and the tale of a journey between three great cities. With a nose for a good recipe and an ear for an extraordinary story, Caroline travels from Odessa to Bessarabia and on to Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey’s Black Sea region, exploring their interconnecting culinary cultures. The recipes – Odessan Coleslaw, Mark Twain’s Debauched Ice Cream, Potemkin Cocktail, Sacred Onion Soup and Black Sea Börek – take the reader on Caroline’s journey. 6.30pm, Golden Hare Books, St Stephens Street, Stockbridge. Tickets (£5 or £25 with book) available via website.
Thursday 15 November
Storytime for ages 3-5. 10.30-11am, Children’s Library, George IV Bridge. Free, no booking needed.
Scottish Football, then and now – John Cairney (The Scotch Professors) and former Leeds United and East Fife player Henry McLeish (Scottish Football: Requiem or Renaissance?), two passionate football advocates, tell the story of Scottish football from past to present. 6.30pm, Blackwells Book Shop, South Bridge. Free tickets from the shop (0131 622 8222) or via eventbrite
Friday 16 November
The Crimes of Grindelwald. Events, prizes and games for the whole family to celebrate the launch of the next instalment of J.K Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts series, the latest chapter in the wizarding world of Harry Potter. 9.30am-6pm, Waterstones Cameron Toll, Cameron Toll Centre, 6 Lady Road.
The Crimes of Grindelwald. Activities, quizzes, crafts and treasure hunts
throughout the weekend to celebrate the release of the second screenplay in the Fantastic Beasts series. From 8am Friday until Sunday, Waterstones Fort Kinnaird, 31B Fort Kinnaird.
Saturday 17 November
Harry Potter Night – The Crimes of Grindewald. A Fantastic Beasts party to celebrate the release of the second screenplay in the series, with games, activities, a quiz, a fancy dress competition and prizes to be won. 5-7pm, Waterstones Ocean Terminal, 98/99 Ocean Terminal, Ocean Drive. Please note this event is ticketed – free tickets are available from the shop. Call 0131 554 7732 for more information.
Pentlands Book Festival Local Authors Event: come along at any time to chat informally with Amanda Berriman (All Roads Lead to Home), Norma-Ann Coleman (A Clockwork Mouse) and Geoff Akers (Last Letter From Somewhere) You can sign-up for one or more of the half-hour talks when you arrive, on a first-come, first-served basis: no tickets are necessary. The talks will begin at 2.30, 3 and 3.30pm. Colinton Library, 14 Thorburn Road. No tickets required, just drop in.
Sunday 18 November
Home Front/Front Line: as part of this year’s WWI commemorations, award-winning poet Chrys Salt presents a dialogue in poetry and prose between a pacifist mother and her soldier son. A fundraising event in aid of the work of Quaker Peace and Social Witness. 1-2pm, Edinburgh Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace. Free, donations appreciated. For more information call Sue Proudlove on 0131 2254825.
Pentlands Book Festival: Rucksack-friendly Guidebooks for Walkers: How I Stumbled into Publishing. Jacquetta Megarry explains how and why she founded Rucksack Readers, which has been publishing award-winning guidebooks for long-distance walkers since 2000. Hers was a major career change – an unplanned by-product of various friends’ 50th birthdays – which led to a new breed of weatherproof guidebooks to adventurous walks worldwide. Rucksack Readers cover 37 routes so far. The session is intended not only for walkers and cyclists, but also for anybody with an interest in the role of printed books in the 21st century. 2-3pm, Colinton Library, 14 Thorburn Road. Free entry, donation of £2 per person invited. Register via Eventbrite.
Monday 19 November
Pentlands Book Festival: The Rebel That Time Forgot. Murray Armstrong, author of The Liberty Tree: the Story of Thomas Muir and Scotland’s First Fight for Democracy, will speak on Muir and his legacy. 6.30pm, Currie Library, 210, Lanark Road. Free entry, donation of £2 per person invited. Register via Eventbrite.
After Modern Art 1945-2017: author David Hopkins will be in conversation with Fiona Bradley to launch an updated edition of his guide to art since 1945 (OUP). This pioneering book presents a new look at the controversial period between 1945 and 2015, when art and its traditional forms were called into question. It focuses on the relationship between American and European art, and challenges previously held views about the origins of some of the most innovative ideas in art of this time. 6.30-8pm, The Fruitmarket Gallery, 45 Market Street. Free but please register via Eventbrite.
Photograph by Martin Shields
Tuesday 20 November
Book Week Scotland Poetry Slam: join top poets Nadine Aisha Jassat, Tom Pow and JL Williams as they do battle on the theme of Rebel for the 2018 Book Week Scotland Poetry Slam title. Co-hosted with Edinburgh City of Literature, this promises to be a pulsating night of competitive live poetry. 7pm, Netherbow Thetare, Scottish Storytelling Centre, 40 High Street. Tickets £3 from the SSC Box Office.
Wednesday 21 November
The Library of Ice. Poet and writer Nancy Campbell sets out from the world’s northernmost museum – at Upernavik in Greenland – to explore ice in all its facets. From the Bodleian Library archives to the traces left by the great polar expeditions, from remote Arctic settlements to the ice houses of Calcutta, she examines the impact of ice on our lives at a time when it is itself under threat from climate change. The Library of Ice is a vivid and perceptive book combining memoir, scientific and cultural history. 6.30pm, Golden Hare Books, St Stephens Street, Stockbridge. Tickets (£5 or £14.99 with book) available via website.
Pentlands Book Festival: Iain MacDonald speaks about his story The Gannet. Iain won the inaugural Isobel Lodge Award for New Scottish Writing in 2017 and the international Scottish Arts Club Short Story Competition with his unpublished story The Gannet, which Alexander McCall Smith chose as his favourite among all the finalists, calling it ‘atmospheric’ and praising the ‘clarity and the economy of the prose’. Iain will talk about the genesis of his story and his plans for future publications. This event is hosted jointly with the Colinton Parish Church Lit Society (‘The Lit’), which celebrates its 108th season this year and has welcomed the Pentlands Book Festival’s involvement in this inaugural joint event. 7.30-9.15pm, Dreghorn Loan Hall, 22 Dreghorn Loan, Colinton. Free to members of The Lit, non-members welcome on payment of £3 at the door.
Thursday 22 November
Storytime for ages 3-5. 10.30-11am, Children’s Library, George IV Bridge. Free, no booking needed.
Inventing Edward Lear. Sara Lodge discusses her new book on the life and times of Edward Lear, poet, naturalist and extraordinary polymath of the Victorian Age. Lodge draws on diaries, letters and new archival sources to paint a vivid picture of Lear that explores his musical influences, his religious nonconformity, his relationship with the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and the connections between his scientific and artistic work. He invented himself as a character: awkward but funny, absurdly sympathetic. 6.30pm, Golden Hare Books, St Stephens Street, Stockbridge. Tickets (£5 or £23.95 with book) available via website.
Report on Experience – Edmund Blunden and World War I. Launching her new edition of Edmund Blunden’s Selected Poems, SPL’s former director Robyn Marsack talks about Blunden’s war in France and Flanders, and discusses the aftermath with the poet’s daughter, Margi Blunden. 7-8pm, Scottish Poetry Library, Crichton’s Close. Tickets £8/£6, book via Eventbrite.
Friday 23 November
Pentlands Book Festival: A Life of Mystery: Josephine Tey. Jennifer Morag Henderson talks about her acclaimed biography Josephine Tey: A Life. Josephine Tey was the pen name of Elizabeth Mackintosh, who was born in Inverness in 1896. Never out of print, yet somehow overlooked, this Golden Age crime writer was also the successful novelist and playwright ‘Gordon Daviot’. In her lifetime her work appeared in London’s West End and on Broadway, and was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock. Tey’s novels include The Franchise Affair, Brat Farrar, and the unique Richard III mystery The Daughter of Time – once voted the best crime novel of all time. 7.30-8.30pm, Porteous Service Room, 589 Lanark Rd, Juniper Green. Free entry, donation of £2 per person invited. Register via Eventbrite.
Saturday 24 November
Book Week Scotland: Rebel Girls Workshop. Taking inspiration from Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls, writer and poet Hannah Lavery will help young writers bring out their voice. Are you a rebel girl? For ages 8 to 12. 10.15-11.15am, Scottish Poetry Library, Crichton’s Close. Free; for booking information please contact SPL on 0131 557 2876.
Sunday 25 November
Book Week Scotland: Comic Art Festival 2018. The festival returns to the Drill Hall with a packed comic book market full of exhibiting authors and artists, plenty of workshops (free but ticketed), talks and events for comic book fans of all ages. 11am-4pm, Out of the Blue Drill Hall, Dalmeny Street, Admission free.
Monday 26 November
Rugby – Talking a Good Game. Join Ian Robertson, the ‘Voice of Rugby’, as he shares stories from 47 years of sports broadcasting and much more in conversation with fellow broadcaster John Beattie. The former Scotland fly-half looks back on the most eventful of careers, during which he covered nine British and Irish Lions tours and eight World Cups, including the 2003 tournament that saw England lift the Webb Ellis Trophy and ‘Robbo’ pick up awards for his spine-tingling description of Jonny Wilkinson’s decisive drop goal. He also writes vividly and hilariously of his experiences as a horse racing enthusiast, his meetings with some of the world’s legendary golfers and his dealings with a stellar cast of sporting outsiders, from Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor to Nelson Mandela. Blackwells Book Shop, South Bridge. Free tickets from the shop (0131 622 8222) or via Eventbrite.
Tuesday 27 November
Bookbug: weekly free sessions for children aged 0-4 and their parents and carers:
10.30am at South Queensferry Library, 9 Shore Road, Central Children’s Library, George IV Bridge (this session is ticketed), Moredun Library, 92 Moredun Park Road, Morningside Library, 184 Morningside Road, Muirhouse Library, Pennywell Court, Oxgangs Library, 343 Oxgangs Road North, Stockbridge Library, 11 Hamilton Place and Wester Hailes Library, 1 West Side Plaza.
11am at Granton Library, 29 Wardieburn Terrace.
11.30am at Mornngside Library, 184 Morningside Road.
2.30pm at Colinton Library, 14 Thorburn Road and Drumbrae Library Hub, 81 Drum Brae Drive.
Craigmillar Books for Babies – Rhymetime. 11am, Craigmillar Library, 101 Niddrie Mains Road.
Wednesday 28 November
Whale Poetry Group – A Hundred Poems. The group meets twice a month to write and share poetry and prose. It’s free to attend and WHALE provides refreshments. It’s a friendly, social and supportive group and you don’t need any experience to join. The sessions are led by the Scottish Poetry Library and Open Book alternately. 11.30am-1pm, WHALE Arts, 30 Westburn Grove. For more information or to book your place call WHALE on 0131 458 3267 or email info@whalearts.co.uk.
Thursday 29 November
Storytime for ages 3-5. 10.30-11am, Children’s Library, George IV Bridge. Free, no booking needed.
Pentlands Book Festival: Killing People for Fun and Profit – an evening with the Queen of Crime. Val McDermid talks to Philippa Cochrane of the Scottish Book Trust about (among other things), Val’s brand new Karen Pirie thriller, in which a Highland peat bog gives up a secret that has lain buried for seventy years. 7.30-8.30pm, Juniper Green Parish Church, 498 Lanark Road, Juniper Green. Free entry, donation of £2 per person invited. Registration essential via Eventbrite.
Friday 30 November
John Cooper Clarke: ‘the people’s poet’ returns to The Queen’s Hall with his latest show, a mix of classic verse, new material, ponderings on modern life, riffs and chat. 7pm, Queen’s Hall, South Clerk Street. Tickets £30 + booking fee from the Queen’s Hall box office in person, online or by calling 0131 668 2019.
