Pentlands Book Festival celebrates its eighth year around Book Week Scotland, running from 9-22 November. The theme is Scotland’s Stories and it brings exciting books and their writers back to well-loved venues.

There will be almost certainly be controversy, with journalist and podcaster Lesley Riddoch. 

And challenge with Rosemary Goring, whose new book questions why Mary Queen of Scots got her heid chopped aff.  Was it just her own fault?  Or must our quarrelsome Scots ancestors bear the blame?

The Festival also welcomes Edinburgh medic and explorer Gavin Francis, who has recently written on the very topical subject of recovery.

And no Pentlands Book Festival would be complete without some serious crime. 

There’s lots of it this year with a panel of three crime writers, and a literary visit to “the territory of the dead”, aka Portobello, with the award-winning Mary Paulson-Ellis.

New and emerging writers also make an appearance, with a panel of Scottish debut authors organized by the Festival’s own debut writer Caron McKinlay.  And local poets Helen Boden and Dorothy Baird make a welcome return: this time showcasing their published work.

Firm favourites also return, like an afternoon meeting local authors; visits to archives at Central Library and Heriot-Watt University, and a history walk honouring local hero John Tweedie.  Scotland’s Stories will be told, in prose and in verse, at the 2022 Pentlands Book Festival!

All events are free and can be found at http://www.pentlandsbookfestival.org/

More details are available on the PBF Facebook page  or Twitter.

Lesley Riddoch
Mary Paulson Ellis PHOTO Chris Scott
Gavin Francis
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