Rob Reports

Hannah McGill (nearest to camera) and David Gaffney (far right, obviously)

Rob Reports: The Story Hour event at West Port Book Festival 2011

Book events with authors normally follow the same old routine – the author’s introduced, the author reads, the author answers questions – but at the West Port Book Festival on Sunday and The Short Story Hour, featuring David Gaffney and Hannah McGill, the assembled audience of around 30 was given exactly what it said on [...]

Rob Reports: Robert Shearman at West Port Book Festival 2011

The Edinburgh Book Festival may be the biggest literary event of the year in Scotland’s capital, but don’t think for one minute that outside of August Edinburgh is bereft of any decent book events. There’s plenty going on all year round (it is a UNESCO City of Literature after all), and a mouse with a [...]

Thank you EdBookFest, you’ve been amazing!

I’ve posted my last diary entry for this year’s EdBookFest (I still have reports to post), but I couldn’t leave it without thanking all those who have touched my heart and soul over these past couple of weeks. You already know of the authors who have moved me in oh so many ways during this [...]

EdBookFest 2011 Diary: Day #16 – Of Swiss literary legends and final diary entries

Note: remember to scroll down to the bottom for picture highlights from the day. Well this is it folks, my final diary entry of EdBookFest 2011. I know I post it a couple of days later than would have been ideal, but such is the pace and madness of EdBookFest, that I hope you will [...]

EdBookFest 2011 Diary: Day #15 – Of small community living and Polish ghettos

Note: remember to scroll down to the bottom for picture highlights from the day. It may have been my second last day of EdBookFest, but I had a couple of real highlights to keep the blues away. To kick off was an event in my most favourite of places, the Speigeltent (I especially favour it [...]

EdBookFest 2011 Diary: Day #12 – publicists, Kashmir, and the future of the city

Note: remember to scroll down to the bottom for picture highlights from the day. Before I continue with today’s diary entry, I just wanted to offer a quick explanation about my numbering of entries. If you look back on my past EdBookFest Diary posts then you will notice that I have missing days i.e. yesterday, [...]

Children on the first day of the RBS Schools Programme

EdBookFest 2011 Diary: Day #10 – Of kids, short stories and American road trips

Note: remember to scroll down to the bottom for picture highlights from the day. And so began the second full week of EdBookFest, and what a glorious morning it was to wake up to. Today also marked the start of the RBS Schools Programme, and so Charlotte Sq. was throbbing with schoolchildren, as it should [...]

EdBookFest 2011 Diary: Day #9 – Satirical Tenderloin and Champions

Note: remember to scroll down to the bottom for picture highlights from the day. And so it was that I entered my second week of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, with only a single event on my schedule – Tim Binding and John Butler in a session subtitled ‘social satire at it’s best’. Before I [...]

EdBookFest 2011 Diary: Day #7 – of apocalyptic events and island-hopping

Note: remember to scroll down to the bottom for picture highlights from the day. If you’re here every day at EdBookFest (or almost every day), then you realise, very quickly, that the pace of the world’s finest book festival is relentless. How the staff and journalists keep going at a hundred miles is beyond me. [...]

EdBookFest 2011 Diary: Day #6 – Of European writers, Swedish criminologists and Jenny Erpenbeck

Note: remember to scroll down to the bottom for picture highlights from the day. It was a slightly calmer day weather-wise as I headed into Charlotte Square for Day #6 of the Edinburgh Book Festival (you’ll notice I have no Day #5 entry because I had a day off from the festival yesterday (Wednesday)). It [...]