A new book, Demarco’s Edinburgh, will be launched at an event next week telling tales of the racehorse winnings which paid for seed capital for the first festival, and a scoop interview with David Frost.
This new book is written by the two people who know Edinburgh and the Festival better than anyone else – Richard Demarco, CBE, and journalist Roddy Martine. It is a real treasure trove of their memories and stories about the entire run of the festival since 1947.
Demarco has been at every single festival since the beginning in the post war period, and in the same year Martine was born. Their lives have criss-crossed many times since they first met – and each of them has their own views on the future of the Edinburgh Festival.
Demarco owned a gallery, is an artist and was a teacher.
Martine was 16 when he edited an Edinburgh Festival magazine in 1963. Along with a couple of friends they published a weekly magazine which John Menzies distributed, and had access to the Press Bureau even though none of them was old enough to buy a drink at the bar.
Both were dazzled by the greatest international festival of the arts the world has ever seen and in this book they share their memories.
The Edinburgh Reporter drew up a chair with Mr Martine to find out more about the book:
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
