Word is out...
The EIBF full programme dropped this week
From the opening event on August 15th featuring Anne Enright to the last hurrah on August 30th, a celebration of Agnes Owens, we now know the details of the 600 or so events that go to make up this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival. That’s more than 600 writers from 41 countries, coming together to explore the overriding theme of ‘Changing Your Mind’.
Needless to say, I’m not going to list the all here!
From Festival Director Jenny Niven:
“Our theme ‘Changing Your Mind’ speaks to the moment we’re in. At a time when opinions seem increasingly polarised and online debate is so divisive, we’re creating space for thoughtful, nuanced conversations - exploring the reasons for our increasing social and political divides, and how we might change each others’ minds, or at least agree to disagree, more agreeably. We’re also looking at the potential of the human brain to adapt and relearn, and at the unparalleled power of stories to change our thinking.
Changing your mind is a lifelong process of staying open to new ideas. By bringing amazing speakers and curious audiences together, around knowledge and perspectives that help us challenge our assumptions and see the world differently, we hope the Festival programme this year will help us gain a deeper understanding of both ourselves and each other.”
The highlights are outlined on the EIBF website as follows:
Major public figures include former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, technology writer Cory Doctorow, best-selling author Michael Pollan, and award-winning poet Claudia Rankine,alongside leading writers from across the world
A landmark rare event brings one of the bestselling writers of all time, John Grisham, and iconic Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin together on stage, crowning The Front List line-up at the McEwan Hall.
Other renowned fiction writers appearing include Maggie O’Farrell, Ann Patchett, Ali Smith, Jenni Fagan, Colm Toíbín, Matt Haig, Louise Welsh, Nao-Cola Yamazaki, Candice Carty-Williams,Ben Lerner, and 2026 International Booker Prize winner Yáng Shuāng-zi
Greyfriars Kirk becomes a Book Festival venue for the first time, hosting Scotland to the World - a new series connecting leading Scottish writers Ali Smith, Len Pennie, Kathleen Jamie, and William Dalrymple with international musicians, artists and performers.
A strong focus on trust and information runs across the programme, with journalists, analysts and researchers examining misinformation, data, and global narratives, including The New Yorker’s Fergus McIntosh, The News Agents podcast co-host Lewis Goodall, and journalistYi Ling Liu
We’re exploring the AI revolution and its regulation, with pioneers in the development of AI tools and their application - including Steve Crossan, part of the original DeepMind team; Sarah Wynn-Williams, former Director of Public Policy at Facebook; and Tim Wu, inventor of the term ‘net neutrality’ - weighing its impact and risks
Tickets are already on sale for Champions, and go on sale for the different Friends levels on Monday and Tuesday, going on sale to the general public on Thursday.
June 16 - full programme announcement
June 19 - full programme advance booking for Champions
June 22 - full programme advance booking for Friends Plus
June 23 - full programme advance booking for Friends
June 25 - full programme tickets on sale to public
There’s so much to choose from, it’s hard to whittle one’s wish list down to a manageable number of events, but that’s the beauty of the book festival. I wish you luck in securing all the tickets you’ve got your eye on.
As usual, give me your thoughts in the comments, and let me know of any events that I’ve missed. And please, please share this widely with all your Edinburgh friends.
This week’s events
June 22
7pm, Waterstones West End, Princes Street
Join us for an evening of folklore to celebrate the summer solstice with crafts and a folklore-themed quiz (with prizes!). We will be making a ‘Citrus Suncatcher’ and beaded sun charms. We will also have some themed drinks and snacks.
Plus there will be 10% off a selected number of our favourite folkloric books both fiction and non-fiction – so if you love folklore and want more bookish recommendations, we have you sorted!
Tickets £5
June 22
Meg Kobza for The Masquerade
7pm, Topping & Company, 2 Blenheim Place, Edinburgh EH7 5JH
Glittering masquerades, held at the most fashionable London venues, dominated the calendars of the Georgian elite. A thrilling opportunity to gather, flirt, and consume, hosts such as “Empress of Pleasure” Teresa Cornelys welcomed the great and the good in elaborate costumes-including bear suits, harlequin outfits, or, in the case of Elizabeth Chudleigh, very little at all. The masquerade was a place of make-believe and revelry, and a party like no other.
Meghan Kobza invites us into these dazzling gatherings, and shows how they became a wider cultural obsession. Organised by wealthy impresarios, the masquerade allowed the aristocracy to flaunt their status and enjoy themselves behind the closed doors of opulent ballrooms, theatres, and gardens, dressed by an industry of ever more inventive habit makers. For the rest of society, the masquerade was notorious for mischief and misbehaviour, and a focus for voracious gossip.
Lavishly illustrated, full of life and originality, The Masquerade is a revelatory account of an event which captivates us to this day.
Tickets £10/Ticket plus book £25
June 22
Andrew Lownie for Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York
7pm, The Royal Scots Club, 29-31 Abercromby Pl, Edinburgh EH3 6QE
THE SUNDAY TIMES #1 BESTSELLER
‘This book has changed the way its readers think. Possibly the most important book that touches on the British monarchy since the days of Thomas Payne’ WILL LLOYD
‘As represented in the book’s pages, the royal family, with its appendages and penumbra, can be seen as an impossible entity, toxic to those in it and attached to it, and subtly contaminating the rest of us.’ DAVID AARONOVICH
Drawing on four years of research, numerous FOI requests and interviews with over a hundred people who have never spoken out before, the book traces the lives of the late Queen’s second son and his ex-wife through their childhoods, courtship, marriage, divorce, careers, and royal and charitable activities.
Having still lived together until their departure from Royal Lodge in 2025, they claimed to be “the happiest divorced couple in the world”. The book investigates the reality of their relationship and their love lives. It charts Andrew’s record in the Falklands, his business activities and reveals details of how the couple have been able financially to sustain their extravagant lifestyles. It also recounts the full story of their links with Jeffrey Epstein.
Chronicling their lives in parallel, the picture that emerges is of a spoilt former prince unable to connect and a former duchess pushed by her insecurities into a desperate need to maintain the attention her ‘royal’ status brought. Rigorously researched and packed full of revelations, this is eye-watering biography at its best.
Ticket plus book £10.99
June 23
Uprising: Tahmima Anam on fiction and rebellion
7pm, Lighthouse Bookshop, 43-45 West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9DB
Any moment now, we would grow up, and we would become them, waking late and hungry and with a job that had no name.On a desolate, sinking island, a group of children witness their mothers living lives of cruelty and servitude. Bought and sold by Amma, the sadistic madam who was once herself sold into slavery, the women have learned to accept their fate.
Yet their children weave fantastic tales of escape, imagining that someday they will leave the island and enjoy a life of freedom. When Kusum Khan, a young, educated woman from the city, is forcibly brought to the island, she too is subjected to Amma’s violent induction. Yet Kusum refuses to yield, and soon the collective complacency of her fellow prisoners turns into ferocity and defiance.
Together, they begin a rebellion that will upend their island, their world and the very order of things. An earth-shattering drama of resistance and female power, Uprising gives voice to the silenced through the story of a revolution no one saw coming.
Tickets £4/Ticket plus book £16.99
June 23
Arcana: break the curse, reclaim your future - discover a world of magic in a tarot-inspired graphic novel series
17.30pm, The Garden @ Lighthouse Bookshop, 43 West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9DB
Join us for an exciting event celebrating Arcana - the stunning new YA fantasy romance graphic novel series by Sam Prentice-Jones!
If you love the magical drama of Lore Olympus and the heartfelt vibes of Heartstopper, this is your next obsession! The second title Arcana: The Cursed Fate publishes on 23rd June, and what better way to mark the occasion than celebrating with the creator himself!
Meet Sam, the brilliant author-illustrator behind the new series, as he shares his creative journey, insider tips, and advice for aspiring authors and artists. Explore gorgeous artwork, discover the secrets of building epic worlds, and get inspired to create your own stories.
Whether you’re a fan of fantasy, queer romance, or incredible art, this event is your chance to connect, learn, and celebrate something truly magical. In an interactive workshop Sam will guide you through a hands‑on collaging session where you’ll create your very own tarot card!
Tickets £4/Tickets plus book £14.99
June 23
7pm, The Edinburgh Bookshop, EH10 4DF
It’s time for a midsummer ghost story...
Celebrate the launch of Saltwater, the second book in Elaine Thomson’s exquisitely haunting quartet of ghost stories set in the wilds of Scotland. Elaine will be in conversation with fellow author Olga Wojtas.
The Isle of Stroma, 1896.
Tom Torrance has been sent to oversee the completion of a new lighthouse, which will guide ships through one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the United Kingdom. The construction so far has been plagued by difficulties, giving rise to superstitious whisperings amongst the men, but Tom is a man of sense and science. He will not be cowed by stories of hauntings and bad omens.
Yet Tom is unprepared for the conditions on the island: the isolation and delirium of the endless summer nights. He soon learns that the real dangers on the island have nothing to do with the wild waves. There are some problems that science cannot answer, and some threats so ancient and strange, that nothing can keep them at bay.
Tickets free/Ticket plus book £18.99
June 23
Celebrate The Someday Garden with Ashley Poston!
7pm, Christchurch Morningside, 6a Morningside Road, EH10 4DD
Join us for an in-person event with Ashley Poston to celebrate her new magical romance The Someday Garden!
Sophie Drear never expected to fall in love. But over a summer in Maine, she does: with the dazzling flowers and the towering hedge maze of Lilymoor House. But then, a door appears.
Never in the same place twice. Leading only to a dishevelled garden, and a beguiling thundercloud of a man, confined inside. Battling with the vines – just as much as she is with Lilymoor’s owner’s two inconveniently handsome nephews – Sophie knows that she is the only person who can help Lilymoor bloom again.
But when you're stuck between the men on the outside, and the one trapped within, can the seeds of romance bloom into something more…?
Tickets £6/Ticket plus book £9.99
June 23
Steve Brusatte for The Story of Birds
7pm, Pilrig St. Paul’s / LARCH, Leith Walk, Edinburgh EH6 5AH
Join us in conversation with the brilliant Steve Brusatte, acclaimed author of The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs, as he turns his hand to the riveting story of the winged prehistoric creatures, The Story of Birds: An Evolutionary History of the Dinosaurs That Live Among Us
Billions of birds share the planet with us. With their flamboyant plumage and joyous dawn serenades, many of them are impossible to miss. But how did they get here, how did they break the bounds of Earth and begin to fly, and how does their legacy shape our world?
In delightfully energetic prose, expert palaeontologist Steve Brusatte takes us through their 150-million-year history, from their origins among small carnivorous dinosaurs to the 10,000-plus species that thrive today. Along the way, we meet fantastic birds from all around the world, some known only through fossils. There are elephant birds that stand as high as a basketball hoop and lay eggs as big as watermelons; demon ducks that weigh more than cows; aeroplane-sized seabirds that soar the world’s thermals; and predatory penguins the size of gorillas.
Lively, majestic and full of wonder, The Story of Birds will ensure you never see birds the same way again.
Tickets £10/Ticket plus book £25
June 23
Rowe Irvin: Life Cycle of a Moth
7pm, Blackwell’s Edinburgh, South Bridge
We are delighted to be welcoming Rowe Irvin along to the shop as we celebrate the paperback publication of her haunting and tender exploration of maternal love, Life Cycle of a Moth.
Maya and Daughter live in complete isolation in a secluded woodland, their days aligned with the light and changing seasons, a complex pattern of routine and ritual. Daughter has never questioned the life her mother has chosen for them; the life that has meant she’s never met another soul, or known anywhere except their forest home.
But one day, when Daughter is almost sixteen, a red-haired stranger steps into the confines of their territory. Where there was always two, suddenly there are three - and the carefully constructed world that Maya has built to keep her daughter safe may not survive it.
Tickets £3/Ticket plus book £10
June 24
Cooks & Books: Georgina Hayden for Medesque
7pm, The Royal Scots Club, 29-31 Abercromby Pl, Edinburgh EH3 6QE
Escape to sun-soaked coastlines with the glorious flavours of MEDesquefrom Georgina Hayden (of the bestselling Greekish, Nistisima & Taverna)
Delicious and easy recipes to be cooked at home by anyone and everyone. Bring a touch of the Med to your table with iconic and inspired dishes including:
Gnocchi puttanesca
Spiced lemony roast chicken with crushed baby potatoes
One-pan ‘nduja, pepper and three cheese lasagne
Double chocolate pannacotta with cherries
From weeknight dinners to weekend feasts, travel through Italy, Spain, the Middle East and beyond in your own Medesque kitchen with effortless, sensational recipes.
Tickets £10/Ticket plus book £26
June 24
Sunyi Dean for The Girl with a Thousand Faces
7pm, Topping & Company, 2 Blenheim Place, Edinburgh EH7 5JH
Join us to discover Sunyi Dean’s fantasticly haunting, dark urban fantasy set in historical Hong Kong, where ancient myths and local legends combine in a story of ghosts, grief and women who will not forgive.
Mercy Chan is a triad exorcist with a mysterious past. After washing up on the shores of Hong Kong with no memory during World War II, she found a home in Kowloon Walled City, an infamous, ghost-infested slum full of lost and traumatised civilians. Since the war ended, Mercy has rebuilt her life and found work as a ghost-talker for the local triad, dealing with the angry and bitter spirits who haunt this place.
But the past she can’t remember won’t let her go. An unusually powerful ghost lurks in Kowloon’s waterways, drowning innocents and threatening the district. Unnervingly, it claims to know Mercy - and her forgotten childhood.
As Mercy is drawn into a deadly cat-and-mouse game with this malignant spirit, she begins to realise that the monster she fights within these walls may well be one of her own making.
Tickets £8/Ticket plus book £16.99
June 24
Andrew Sean Greer - Villa Coco
7pm, The Portobello Bookshop, 46 Portobello High Street, Edinburgh EH15 1DA
We’re delighted that Andrew Sean Greer is coming to the bookshop to celebrate the Edinburgh launch of Villa Coco. A coming-of-age novel, a love story and a tale of life-enhancing friendship: Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Sean Greer showcases his wit and warmth in this magical tale set amidst the Tuscan hills.
Broke and directionless, our young protagonist takes a job in the Italian countryside as the assistant to Lisabetta – better known to her friends as Coco – a strong-willed, wealthy aristocrat of great local renown.
Trained as an archivist, he thinks he’s been hired to catalogue the contents of the beautiful, crumbling mansion nestled in the green Tuscan hills. But what are his actual duties? Days are spent in a series of increasingly eccentric pursuits: entertaining an endless carousel of guests (from bohemian painters to elderly princesses to unnervingly handsome nephews), attending a funeral in order to make off with the urn, and aiding and abetting Coco’s great and final plan – to reunite with the lost love of her life before it’s too late.
As summer turns into autumn and the Italian countryside begins to work its magic, the secrets of Villa Coco and its inhabitants are slowly brought to light – and with them, an unforgettable story of the enduring power of friendship.
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £16.99
June 24
Haunted Happenings with Heba Al-Wasity and MK Hardy
7pm, Waterstones West End, Princes Street
We are positively *thrilled* to the bone to be welcoming Heba Al-Wasity and MK Hardy along to the shop as we celebrate the publication of their sumptuously haunting debut mystery novels, Weavingshaw and The Needfire.
Weavingshaw
The Saint of Silence trades coins for every sordid divulgence uttered to him. The darker the secret, the higher the price.
Leena has a secret, one that has haunted her since she was seventeen – she can see the dead. When her brother falls ill, she knows what she must do: seek the Saint. But Leena’s secret is more valuable to him that she could have imagined. To save her brother, she must make a deal with him to find the ghost he’s searching for.
All paths lead to Weavingshaw, a cursed estate on the moors. As Leena grows closer to the Saint, and is plunged into his world of danger, deceit and desire, she learns that he is hiding his own secrets – ones that have the power to destroy them all.
The Needfire
Fleeing her mistakes in Glasgow for a marriage of convenience, Norah Mackenzie’s new home on an estate far in the north of Scotland is a chance for freedom, a fresh start. But in the dim, draughty corridors of Corrain House, something is very wrong. Despite their warm correspondence, her distant, melancholic husband does not seem to know her. She is plagued by ghost ships on the sea, spectres at the corner of her eye, by winding, grasping roots. Her only possible companion, the housekeeper Agnes Gunn, is by turns unnerving and alluring, and harbours uncanny secrets of her own.
As the foundations crumble beneath her feet, Norah must uncover the truth about Corrain House, her husband, Agnes, and herself, if she is to find the freedom she has been chasing.
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £14 or £23
June 25
Callum McSorley for Rat Race
7pm, Topping & Company, 2 Blenheim Place, Edinburgh EH7 5JH
A firm favourite among Booksellers, and one of Scottish Crime’s most rapidly rising stars, Callum McSorley joins us to celebrate the release of his latest book - Rat Race - the third installment in the DCI Ali McCoist series.
DCI Alison McCoist is up to the oxters in Glasgow’s shadiest police unit, with a list of guilty secrets growing longer by the day.
Fran Forbes has just bolted from the scene of a gangland massacre with only a shite-stained tracksuit and a memory stick full of cryptocurrency to his name.
Ally is tasked with looking into this latest underworld rammy and ends up working with some bampots even dodgier than her polis pals. Can she keep Fran from being turned into mince by a Russian OCG and finally free herself from the fankle of police corruption she’s caught in? An enemy from Ally’s past is determined her story won’t have such a happy ending...
Tickets £8/Ticket plus book £16.99
June 25
Daisy Dixon - Depraved: The Story of Dangerous Art
7pm, The Portobello Bookshop
The Portobello Bookshop is excited to welcome Daisy Dixon for an evening celebrating her book Depraved: The Story of Dangerous Art. Dixon will be in conversation with Rachel Ashenden.
From a vital new voice in cultural criticism, a fearless descent into art’s dark side through the works that have shocked, divided and scandalised us most. Depraved shows how these creations – and our reactions to them – reveal the most disturbing corners of the human psyche.
What makes an artwork immoral? Why do these troubling creations have such a hold on us? And how should we deal with them?
In Depraved, philosopher of art Daisy Dixon takes the reader on a journey through some of the most volatile and contentious works ever produced – from prehistoric sculpture to extreme metal music, Renaissance paintings to video games. She reveals how beautiful art can sometimes be the most insidious, and why the greatest threat might lie in our own judgements about the art we censor or condemn.
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £20
June 25
7pm, Waterstones West End, Princes Street
You are invited to thrilling evening of dark academia as we welcome Naomi Gibson and Lorraine Wilson to the shop to discuss their latest alluring works of dark academia horrormance/dystopian ghost stories, Man, Muse, Monster and The Salt Oracle.
Man, Muse, Monster
For over a century, the Great Alexanders have been celebrated for their musical, literary and artistic talents. Harry Alexander, the last and youngest of the family, will do anything to be counted amongst them.
But Harry is a struggling art student and on the brink of losing his family inheritance and the Alexanders’ ancestral home, Ashburn Hall. Greatness never felt further out of reach. Then, he stumbles upon the source of his family’s success: a muse. This supernatural being trapped in paint and canvas steps into Harry’s life in the form of a handsome young man . . . as dangerous as he is beautiful, as capricious as he is inspiring.
As the artist and the muse grow ever closer, Harry’s artistic reputation soars. But muses are made, not born, and Harry’s has a dark and bloody origin. And when enemies begin to emerge from the shadows, hungry for fame of their own, Harry will finally have to confront the true cost of greatness . . .
The Salt Oracle
It’s been seventeen years since the internet crashed and left the world broken…
Auli lives on the Bellwether, a floating college safe from the conflict of the mainland, where she studies the Oracle – an uncanny girl who channels dangerous ghosts and provides lost information about the world’s seas. Her peaceful world is shattered when her beloved mentor, Boudain, is found dead. While most aboard believe it was due to natural causes, Auli discovers hints that suggest he was not the benign leader he seemed – and that his death might be deliberate.
Surrounded by people with their own motives and secrets, Auli doesn’t know who to trust. Worse, the Oracle is attracting dangerous, mutating ghosts that threaten everyone aboard. With the Bellwether fracturing from internal and external pressures, she is forced to wrestle with a life-changing decision: save the Oracle or save the Bellwether – and all the lives that depend on it.
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £24
June 26
7pm, Waterstones West End, Princes Street
A thousand years ago, the Knights of the Round Table made an oath to protect the realm forevermore.
It’s safe to say they didn’t think it all the way through.
Join Sunday Times bestselling Thomas D. Lee, as he chats to Lindz McLeod about his sharp and witty caper, about what happens when knights in armour return to fix the problems of a more modern world... The Knight Watch.
Now Britain is embroiled in the Second World War, and the knights are still fighting the enemies of the realm. They’re also fighting each other - Kay and Lancelot haven’t spoken since Agincourt, and everyone wishes Agravain would stop speaking entirely.
Isolde - known in myth and legend for her tragic romance with the knight Tristan - is fed up with her tragic reputation. In a time when women have more freedom than ever before, she’s determined to strike out on her own. But when she discovers old enemies working alongside the Nazis, she realises she can’t fight all of them by herself. It might be time to get the old band back together . . .
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £27
June 26
Benedict Anning for Atomic Coffin
7pm, Topping & Company Booksellers, 2 Blenheim Place, Edinburgh EH7 5JH
December 1984. SIS field asset Heidi Sperling [codename Thistle] exfiltrates from East Berlin with the sole copy of a critical intelligence leak: a naval log containing a solitary message received from a previously unidentified Soviet submarine.
Incredulously - impossibly - it seems the vessel, known only as TK-15, has been sitting motionless and undetected in the waters between Scotland and Iceland for three whole years. And now this latest message reads: ACTIVE.
Picked up by the Royal Navy’s submarine HMS Viking, Heidi is thrust into a ‘black ops’ mission: find TK15 and neutralise it at any cost. But as her only ally on board the Viking falls sick, she realises this modified vessel is far more than a Soviet experiment to gain an upper hand in the nuclear arms race. Here, in the crushing depths of the North Atlantic, it seems something darker has awoken - something that cannot be contained by any superpower.
As Heidi’s own reality twists around her, an unknowable force cripples the Viking’s defences and drives its crew to madness. Trapped in the deep, Heidi has no choice but to find a way to save the remaining crew and stop TK-15 for good, before it steals what’s left of her mind . . .
Tickets £8/Ticket plus book £20
June 26
Brandon Taylor - Minor Black Figures
7pm, The Portobello Bookshop, 46 Portobello High Street, Edinburgh EH15 1DA
We’re so excited to host Brandon Taylor in the bookshop for a discussion of his most recent novel, Minor Black Figures. Taylor is a celebrated author, known for his debut, Booker Prize nominated novel Real Life, and his 2022 short fiction collection Filthy Animals.
Over a hot summer in New York a painter falls for a priest, in this captivating modern love story from the Booker-Prize shortlisted Brandon Taylor
Wyeth is a newcomer to New York, a young Black painter who is trying to find his place in the contemporary Manhattan art scene. He shares a studio with his friends and earns money working for a gallery and an art restorer but he’s struggling with his portrait painting, unable to truly capture the life of his subjects.
Then he meets Keating, a white former priest struggling with his faith. The two men seemingly have nothing in common, and yet Keating shows Wyeth how to see the world anew. The hot summer progresses, filled with art openings, walks around the city, and Wyeth’s search for a long-forgotten Black artist. But as the men grow closer, the differences between them become more stark, until Wyeth and Keating must decide what they are willing to risk – for art and for love.
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £18.99
June 27
Victoria Bennett The Apothecary by the Sea
7pm, Wild Fungarium, 13 Randolph Place, Edinburgh EH3 7TA
We are delighted to be joined by Victoria Bennett, author of award wining memoir All My Wild Mothers to discuss her wonderful new book The Apothecary by the Sea: A Year in an Orkney Garden.
Her stunning book combines nature writing, folklore, memoir, botanical wisdom and practical gardening insight. And includes Victoria’s apothecary gardening advice, as well as recipes to make your own balms, tonics and brews. Also included, are beautiful black and white illustrations by Orkney artist, and Victoria’s husband, Adam Clarke.
With the years of early motherhood and elderly caregiving over, Victoria faces a time of change. She and her husband decide to take a leap, moving hundred miles north of everything they know to the Scottish islands of Orkney, where the winters are long and the summers filled with light. In an unfamiliar landscape, Victoria instinctively returns to the work of growing, setting out to transform her scrappy backyard into an apothecary garden by the sea, inspired by Orkney’s folklore and ancient landscapes. Shaped by tides and storms, wild plants and seaweeds, she creates a biodiverse backyard sanctuary filled with microhabitats, wildflowers and edible herbs. Here she crafts teas, tinctures and balms shaped by the surrounding soil and seas. As the year closes, Victoria finds belonging not only in the garden she has nurtured, but in the landscape that has quietly embraced her and become home.
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £16.99
June 27
Cake Picnic Pride Mixer at The Cookbook Shop
8pm, The Cookbook Shop, 19A Leith Walk, Edinburgh EH7 4AF
Come celebrate cake and queerness at The Cookbook Shop! Cap off Pride month with a chance to meet new people and sample cakes from the book Cake Picnic. We’ll have good tunes, foodie conversation starters, and a staggering variety of cake samplers from the newly released cookbook, Cake Picnic.
Your ticket includes a welcome drink and unlimited cake (while supplies last). Limited 2-for-1 tickets are available to help you bring a pal!
Tickets £11.55
June 27
Lorraine Kelly for The Island Secret
7pm, Tom Fleming Centre for Performing Arts, Stewart’s Melville College, Queensferry Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3EZ
We’re delighted to be joined by national treasure Lorraine Kelly to celebrate her latest novel, The Island Secret.
Evie has come home to Orkney and finally found peace.
She has rediscovered her passion for painting, mended broken friendships, and for the first time in a long time, truly feels a sense of belonging.
But then a surprise visitor arrives.
Mysterious Amelia McLean claims to be Evie’s long lost-relative. She looks strangely familiar, her stories seem plausible and she quickly slides into island life.
Yet Evie soon starts to feel unsettled and suspicious - and with her hard-won happiness slipping through her fingers, she knows she must uncover Amelia’s secret, before it’s too late...
Escape to wild and beautiful Orkney once more, where secrets never stay hidden for long!
Tickets £10/Ticket plus book £20
Upcoming events
And for those who like to plan ahead…
June 29 - new listing
Publishing Scotland’s June Silent Reading Group with Luca Serra
6pm, Fruitmarket Gallery, Market Street, Edinburgh
In this National Year of Reading, Publishing Scotland is teaming up with Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature to host a monthly Silent Reading Group at the Fruitmarket throughout 2026. The next event will be on Monday 29 June at 6pm at the Fruitmarket in Edinburgh.
Each month, we’ll be giving readers the time and space to enjoy reading whatever they want—there is no assigned book—in a convivial and welcoming atmosphere. We’ll provide solid reading time, plus there will be a chance to chat with fellow readers. We’ll also have a guest author at each event to introduce attendees to new reading recommendations.
The guest author appearing at June’s Silent Reading Group is novelist, Luca Serra. He will be reading from his debut, This is Home, which explores the lives of immigrants in Glasgow and London.
Tickts £4, redeemable against a drink in the Fruitmarket cafe
June 29
Cooks & Books: Mowgli’s Nisha Katona for The Curry Bible
7pm, The Royal Scots Club, 29-31 Abercromby Pl, Edinburgh EH3 6QE
Nisha Katona’s warmth, authenticity and ability to conjure delicious flavour from just a handful of ingredients have led to her being one of our most trusted and recognisable voices in Indian cookery. In The Curry Bible, Nisha has created the ultimate guide to curry, featuring delicious recipes from across India, streamlined to make them accessible and achievable for home cooks.
Dishes range from definitive versions of curry house classics to homestyle curries that are rich with the warmth, intimacy and no-frills deliciousness of domestic cooking.
We hope to see you there!
Tickets £12/Ticket plus book £28
June 30
Eli Davis - The Spinster Cookbook
7pm, The Portobello Bookshop, 46 Portobello High Street
The Spinster Cookbook is a piercing exploration of what it means to cook for one in a society designed for couples and families. With sharp cultural insight, Eli Davies takes us on a culinary tour of the single woman’s kitchen, a space shaped as much by a search for freedom as by appetite.
The kitchen has always been a complex space for women: a place of labour and gendered expectations, as well as a site of nourishment, care and company. But how does this change when you’re alone, not cooking for family or friends, but simply for yourself?
Eli Davies explores what happens when food is uncoupled from domestic duty and romantic relationships and what it means to cook (or not) for yourself and by yourself. How does this shape your mealtimes, the way you shop for food, the kitchen equipment you use, and your relationship to cleaning up and looking after yourself?
With warmth, humour and insight, The Spinster Cookbook explores shopping and leftovers, solo meals and dinner parties for one, joy and grief and the politics of living on your own. This is a book about making a home in the face of housing precarity, loneliness, heartbreak and social norms, and finding independence, pleasure and self-expression through cooking. It’s a cookbook of sorts, and a manifesto for living differently.
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £14.99
June 30
Two-time Academy Award Winner Sir Roger Deakins for Reflections: On Cinematography
7pm, Assembly Rooms, 54 George St, Edinburgh EH2 2LR
Sixteen time Academy Award nominee and two-time Academy Award winner Roger Deakins widely regarded as the greatest cinematographer of all-time.
Roger joins us to celebrate Reflections, a one-of-a-kind visual memoir, telling his life’s story by way of his iconic, beloved films, including The Shawshank Redemption, Skyfall, Fargo, Blade Runner 2049, The Big Lebowski, Prisoners, 1917, and No Country for Old Men, among others.
Roger will be joined by his wife and long-term collaborator, James Deakins.
Cinematography is both an art and science - capturing motion requires a combination of skill, ingenuity, and artistic genius. Lighting, camera movement, and framing are just a few of the important components in the process of turning words on a page into unforgettable moving images. Over the course of a brilliant 50-year career, Sir Roger Deakins has proven to be the greatest artist & visionary that the craft of cinematography has ever known.
Tickets £20/Ticket plus book £40
June 30
At Sea: a high stakes, high seas eco thriller from Y.M. Abdel-Magied
7pm, (Garden) Lighthouse Bookshop, 43-45 West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9DB
Being one of the boys was one thing. Being the boss of the boys was something else altogether.
A thrilling and emotionally complex novel of impossible choices, gender and power politics, and the machismo of Big Oil - At Sea is the new novel from award-winning Y.M. Abdel-Magied.
Explosive and thought-provoking, At Sea is an exhilarating story about the clash of ambition, principle and prejudice, and the unexpected consequences of our choices - it’s one of our most anticipated novels of 2026 and we can’t wait to share it with you!
Expert driller Zainab is called to take charge of a high-stakes oil rig operation. Unable to resist the opportunity, she leaves behind her pregnant sister and heads offshore for the job of her life. But there’s a catch. The rig is teetering on the edge of disaster – and Zainab is the only woman amongst a crew of hardened men who want absolutely nothing to do with her.
At the helm but forced to prove herself at every turn, Zainab labours to investigate the rig’s imminent collapse. She quickly grasps that the real danger lies in the cold calculations and base desires of the men she is forced to spend every waking moment with.
As tensions rise and secrets unravel, Zainab races to uncover the truth bubbling below and fend off the looming catastrophe.
Tickets £4/Ticket plus book £16.99
July 2 - new listing
7pm, Waterstones West End, Princes Street
Join us to celebrate the release of the final Heartstopper graphic novel. We will have some themed crafts and activities, as well as some drinks and snacks!
Boy meets boy. Boys become friends. Boys fall in love. The final installment in the bestselling LGBTQ+ graphic novel series about life, love, and everything that happens in between.
Everyone in school knows Nick and Charlie. Everyone knows they’re going to be together forever.
But Charlie’s busy with his bid to become head boy. And while Nick is preparing to leave for uni, he’s starting to wonder who he’ll be … without Charlie.
Contains discussions around mental health and eating disorders, and sexual references.
Please note that Alice Oseman will not be at this event.
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £17
July 2
The Heirs: Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
7pm, Lighthouse Bookshop - 43 West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9DB
Meet Lighthouse favourite Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé as she discusses her new YA novel, The Heirs, with Carnegie-winning author Margaret McDonald.
From the award-winning New York Times and bestselling author of Ace of Spades comes a mystery about five teen geniuses, their billionaire father, and the aftermath of his murder—perfect for fans of The Inheritance Games, Umbrella Academy, and Knives Out!
MEET THE HEIRS Octavius the Maestro. Fola the Brain. Bilal the Olympian. Perdita the Artist. Romeo the Failure.
FIVE PRODIGIES Everyone has heard of the Button heirs: the five genius children of infamous billionaire Leontes Button. Adopted and trained under the “Button Method”, they’ve had no choice but to be brilliant.
ONE DEAD FATHER But brilliance comes at a deadly price. Because at their father’s tenth annual Prodigy Ball, Leontes Button is murdered.
A MANSION FULL OF SUSPECTS As long-buried secrets come to light, one thing is clear: everyone at the ball had reason to want him dead. After all, their father was especially good at making enemies...
A rollercoaster of twists and turns with secrets, lies, murder and money.
Ticket plus book £9.99
July 2
Craft Night with Janisha Boswell
6.30pm, Lady and the Bear Cafe, 1 Hope Park Terrace, Newington, EH8 9LZ
Join us for an in-person craft event with author Janisha Boswell to celebrate her new rom-com release Unravelling! Readers will get the chance to meet Janisha, get their books signed, and spend the evening crafting bookmarks! Book Lovers Book Shop will be providing all crafting materials and books for the evening.
More about the book: Scarlett Voss has always been in control, but now her world is unravelling. Her family is in crisis and their fashion empire is on the brink of collapse. The last thing she needs is being paired with Evan Branson - the infuriatingly handsome blond she loves to hate - for a class project.
Evan Branson has enough on his plate, with old wounds resurfacing and a family member he never wanted to see again back in his life. Teaming up with Scarlett was supposed to be a distraction, but the more time he spends with her, the harder it is ignore the woman beneath the polished exterior. And when she unexpectedly asks for his help, he jumps at the chance to prove he can be the support she's never had.
But as their banter turns into something deeper, the two must decide: protect their hearts or risk everything for a chance at something real?
Ticket plus book £10.99
July 2
12.30pm, Waterstones West End, Princes Street
We are thrilled to be joined by internationally bestselling author Lisa Jewell, as she joins us to sign copies of her latest page-turning psychological thriller It Could Have Been Her.
It was the night she almost died.
Jane Trevally, newly divorced and feeling a little lost, agrees to accompany a man she doesn’t know to his house in the darkest corner of Hampstead Heath. She’s offered a drink, goes in, and then - a scream and the sound of something falling upstairs - Jane senses she’s in a bad place. She runs.
Twenty five years later, Jane finds herself outside the same house, this time to return a small white dog who’s been found near her home in the country; a dog whose owner has just been reported missing.
A fleeting glimpse of a haunted looking woman through the window sends Jane on a mission to uncover the house’s secrets - secrets more terrifying than she could have ever imagined, especially when she realises it could have been her...
A missing woman, a dysfunctional family and dark, dark secrets... prepare to be hooked.
Ticket plus book £12
July 2
Olga Wojtas: Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Parcel of Rogues
7pm, The Edinburgh Bookshop, EH10 4DF
Join us for the launch of Olga Wojtas’ new book Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Parcel of Rogues - the sixth book in the much-loved, award-nominated series Murder at Teatime, starring timetravelling Edinburgh librarian, Shona McMonagle. Olga will be in conversation with fellow author Elaine Thomson.
Morningside librarian Shona McMonagle is a proud former pupil of the Marcia Blaine School for Girls, and deeply resents a well-known novel she believes has unfairly tarnished its reputation.
In 1788 Edinburgh, the city is celebrating Robert Burns on his second visit to the capital. Burns would much rather be back in Ayrshire with his beloved Jean, but his publisher has him touring society – and his supposed muse, Nancy McLehose, is encouraging him to adopt a more marketable persona.
Shona finds herself caught up helping a teenager, Burns’s ardent admirer Walter Scott, while becoming part of a circle of clever, ambitious women. But when she is framed for the capital crime of housebreaking and condemned to the Tolbooth, she must rely on her ingenuity – and her allies – to clear her name. As events spiral, how will she resolve this muddle without bringing Enlightenment society crashing down?
Tickets free/Ticket plus book £10.99
July 2
M. John Harrison: The End of Everything
7pm, Blackwell’s Edinburgh, South Bridge
We are delighted to be joined by cult author M. John Harrison, as we celebrate the publication of his surreal, seductive and shrewdly funny new book, The End of Everything.
Phillip Tennent makes his living at the tideline, collecting artefacts that wash up from the Channel. It’s been years since the crisis changed everything, but its exact nature remains obscure. Government barely functions, the seas are full of new creatures, Europe has been mislaid. It feels like the end.
Now Phillip has fished out of the water an object he can’t keep. A creature that keeps changing. An artefact he must take inland, before it destroys everything he thinks he knows.
Ticket plus book £17
July 3
An Evening with Luna McNamara and Lizzy Tiffin
7pm, Waterstones West End, Princes Street
We are thrilled to be joined by bestselling author, Luna McNamara, as we celebrate the publication of her riotously exciting and hotly-anticipated feminist retelling of one of the greatest love stories in Greek mythology, The Witch and the Huntress.
Luna will be joined by the brilliant Lizzy Tiffin who will be chatting about her playful and perceptive new book, Heroes or Zeroes?: Myths and Legends from the Bad Boys of Ancient Greece.
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £18
July 3
Bookshop Signing with L.A. Jasper!
5.30pm, Book Lovers Book Shop, 6 Melville Terrace, Edinburgh, EH9 1ND
Join us for a Bookshop Signing at Book Lovers Bookshop with author L.A. Jasper to celebrate their new Queer Ice Hockey romance Trick Shot.
NHL captain Nick Tiernan has always played it safe. He’s responsible for leading his team to victory—and that’s all that matters.
Then Matt bursts into Nick’s world. Charismatic, openly gay, and gorgeous, Matt is the frontman of a rock band whose queer euphoria lights up every stage he steps on. Their chemistry is impossible to ignore, even as Matt challenges everything Nick thought he knew about himself.
Their secret dates soon spark something more intense than either of them expected. But with Nick’s career hanging in the balance and the hockey world watching his every move, can Nick risk it all for a love as thrilling and unpredictable as the game itself?
Ticket plus book £9.99
July 3
Chetna Makan: 5 Ingredient Indian
7pm, The Edinburgh Bookshop, EH10 4DF
We are delighted to welcome Chetna Makan to the bookshop for a delicious evening celebrating recipes from her brand new book, 5 Ingredient Indian. There will also be samples made by Chetna for you to try!
Making Indian food accessible is a driving force for Chetna Makan. For the last 10 years she has been on a mission to simplify Indian home cooking and in her new book, 5 Ingredient Indian, she has set herself the challenge of creating delicious, authentic tasting recipes with just five ingredients.
The five ingredients featured in each recipe include the meat or veg, pulses or dairy, the spices and the herbs. In addition to those five, there are, of course, a few basic store cupboard ingredients, things we all have readily available, such as salt and pepper, oil or ghee for cooking, chilli powder and sugar. And the key to achieving the flavour in many of the recipes are Chetna’s five spice blends or ‘masala’. Staying true to the book’s concept each spice blend includes just five ingredients, each of which can be prepared in advance for ease.
With 5 Ingredient Indian, Chetna shows how everyone, from students and first-time chefs to experienced cooks alike, can make a delicious Indian meal at home using her effortless yet impressive recipes which also save time and money.
Tickets £10/Ticket plus book £30
July 3
7pm, The Portobello Bookshop, 46 Portobello High Street, Edinburgh EH15 1DA
We’re delighted that Dave Eggers is coming to Portobello on the UK tour for his brand new novel, Contrapposto. Twenty years in the making, it’s a novel about art, life and the complicated beauty of both – from the author of The Circle and A Hologram for the King.
This is a wild and beautiful novel about two friends who believe they can change the world, if only they can start their own movement, dodge charlatans, remain open-eyed and open-hearted, avoid going mad, avoid dying young of rare cancers, stay true to their ideals and never tire of beauty. Not easy, but not impossible, either.
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £20
July 4
Book Bedazzling Event with Lauryn Hamilton Murray!
6.30pm, Lady & the Bear Cafe, 1 Hope Park Terrace, Newington, Edinburgh
Join us for an in-person craft event with author Lauryn Hamilton Murray to celebrate her new romantasy release Tides of Fortune! Readers will get the chance to meet Lauryn, get their books signed, and spend the evening bedazzling their books! Book Lovers Book Shop will be providing all crafting materials and books for the evening.
I am the girl who wove the storm that shook the world. And I’m coming for my crown. When Blaze came into the world, she almost drowned it. Blaze, a Rain Singer, is born into one of the most powerful fire-wielding families in the empire.
Her birth summoned a devastating storm that resulted in the deaths of thousands, and she has spent her life as an outsider, reviled and feared. When Blaze and her twin brother, Flint, are selected to compete in the Choosing Rite, the trials which decide the future rulers of the empire, she’s suddenly thrust into the limelight – and into battle. Threats abound at the Golden Palace, where intrigue and romance await with not one but two handsome suitors: the enchanting Crown Prince and a dangerously alluring newcomer at court.
As her powers strengthen and her fellow competitors fall, the throne is suddenly within her grasp. But in order to take the crown, she’ll have to leave behind the stories that others have told about her and find the courage to write her own.
Tickets £6/Ticket plus book £9.99
July 5
David Sedaris - public signing for The Land and Its People
12pm, The Portobello Bookshop, 46 Portobello High Street, Edinburgh EH15 1DA
We are excited to welcome David Sedaris to the bookshop for a public signing in celebration of his new book, The Land and Its People. This collection of comedic autobiographical essays has already been praised by the likes of Graham Norton, Adam Kay, and Ian McKellen. Join us on the afternoon of Sunday 5th July to pick up your copy, meet David, and get your book signed and personalised.
Ticket plus book £20
July 7
Jeremy Atherton Lin for Deep House: the Gayest Love Story Ever Told
7pm, Topping & Company, 2 Blenheim Place, Edinburgh EH7 5JH
It’s 1996, and Jeremy, a young American, has met the British boy of his dreams - just as, amid a media frenzy, US Congress prepares the Defense of Marriage Act, denying same-sex couples rights including immigration. The pair snatch time in forests and deserts, London fashion shows, and East Village hotel rooms; eventually, finding no other way to stay together, they shack up illicitly among unlikely allies in San Francisco.
What emerges is an unexpected romantic comedy haunted by centuries of gay ghosts. Deep House moves through the couple’s various domiciles while unlocking doors to a lineage of outsiders who came before them: hapless criminals, sexpot bartenders, friars, pirates, government workers who subvert the system and activists who go all the way to the Supreme Court to fight for their freedoms.
Combining cultural history with radically intimate memoir, Deep House is at once a romp through the queer archives and the innermost tale of two boyfriends who made a home in the shadows of a turbulent civil rights battle.
Ticket plus book £12.99
July 8
Florenzer: celebrating Phil Melanson’s queer Renaissance novel
7pm, Lighthouse Bookshop, 43-45 West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9DB
Set in Renaissance-era Florence, this ravishing debut reimagines the intersecting lives of three ambitious young men―a banker, a priest, and a gay painter named Leonardo.
Leonardo da Vinci, twelve years old and a bastard, leaves the Tuscan countryside to join his father in Florence with dreams of becoming a painter. Francesco Salviati, also a bastard and scorned for his too-dark skin, dedicates himself to the Catholic Church with grand hopes of salvation. Towering above them both is Lorenzo de’ Medici, barely a man, yet soon to be the patriarch of the world’s wealthiest and most influential bank. Each is, in his own way, a son of Florence. Each will, when their paths cross, shed blood on Florence’s streets.
Brash and breathtaking, this lush historical drama explores the dangerous pursuit of artistic and political achievement―especially at a time when “florenzers,” or gay men such as Leonardo, were often persecuted.
Tickets £4
July 8 - new listing
Celebrate Sinners Anonymous with Somme Sketcher!
7pm, Christchurch Morningside, 6a Morningside Road, EH10 4DD
Join Book Lovers Bookshop for an in-person event with Dark Mafia Romance author Somme Sketcher to celebrate her series Sinners Anonymous!
She’s seeking redemption. He’s determined to ruin her.
My name is Rory Carter, and I do bad things. I might smile like an angel, but underneath, my soul is far from clean. Not even my weekly calls to the Sinners Anonymous hotline can change that.
Marrying the seventy-year-old head of the Cosa Nostra to save my father was the closest I’ve come to doing good. And I was surviving - one lie, one smile, one silk dress at a time - until his nephew showed up uninvited. Angelo “Vicious” Visconti.
A beautiful monster with a sharper tongue than conscience. They say he went straight years ago, but I don’t believe it. Because Angelo is danger wrapped in desire - and when he looks at me, I can’t tell if he wants to ruin me or save me.
Tickets £6/Ticket plus book £10.99/Ticket plus 4-book bundle £43.96
July 8
Sally Hayden for This Is Also A Love Story
7pm, The Royal Scots Club, 29-31 Abercromby Pl, Edinburgh EH3 6QE
Orwell Prize-winning author of My Fourth Time, We Drowned, Sally Hayden comes to the bookshop for her latest piece of reportage. With This Is Also A Love Story, Sally gives a powerful account of human resilience, capturing our capacity for love and connection against all odds.
We live in an era defined by crisis - whether it be war and displacement, or climate collapse and rapidly widening inequality. Acclaimed international correspondent Sally Hayden has spent her career covering some of the darkest moments of our time, and yet even in the face of unimaginable adversity, she’s witnessed the love and care of everyday people.
In This is Also a Love Story, Hayden introduces us to a couple separated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a mother in northeast Nigeria who risks everything to save her daughter from forced marriage to Boko Haram militants. We meet a group of Syrian women searching tirelessly for their missing spouses and children, while launching a call for justice, and learn about letters from the bereaved to the dead, still being written over a decade after the tsunami that devastated Japan.
In stories that crisscross the globe, from Uganda to Lebanon, Rwanda to Iraq, Hayden asks us: what if news was recounted through the prism of the actions people take for those they love? Would it become harder to dehumanise those who seem different to us? This is Also a Love Story dares us to recognise how connection, self-sacrifice and love can be found in even the most difficult of times, and - as a result - to question what might be needed to create a better world.
Tickets £8/Ticket plus book £20
July 9
7pm, Lighthouse Bookshop Garden, off West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9DB
Guava is officially one year old this month!
Come celebrate our birthday and the launch of our third issue, with readings from Philippa Ramsden, Nazaret Ranea, Megan Booth and more! It will be one of the fruitiest parties of the summer, so you don’t want to miss it.
Who are guava?
guava was born in response to a publishing landscape that was not as diverse as it marketed itself to be. The goal is to accurately reflect today’s creative landscape. We aim to highlight and prioritize diverse and up-and-coming creatives.
This magazine has an artist first approach - there is feedback offered for every submission, free submissions, and payment for contributors. Community is at the heart of what we do, which is why each issue is available to read for free on the website.
If you’re disabled, queer, BIPOC, or anyone who feels like they haven’t had a chance to have their voice heard, then guava is the place for you. We can’t wait to meet you.
Tickets £4
July 9
Celebrate Rites of the Starling with Devney Perry!
7pm, Christ Church Morningside, 6a Morningside Road, EH10 4DD
Join us for an in-person event with Devney Perry to celebrate her Shield of Sparrows series and the release of Rites of the Starling!
The gods sent monsters to the five kingdoms to remind mortals they must kneel. I’ve spent my life kneeling—to their will and to my father's.
As a princess, my only duty is to wear the crown and obey the king. I was never meant to rule. Never meant to fight.
And I was never supposed to be the daughter who sealed an ancient treaty with her own blood. But that changed the fateful day I stepped into my father’s throne room. The day a legendary monster hunter sailed to our shores.
The day a prince ruined my life. Now I’m crossing treacherous lands beside a warrior who despises me as much as I despise him—bound to a future I didn’t choose and a husband I barely know. Everyone wants me to be something I’m not—a queen, a spy, a sacrifice.
But what if I refused the role chosen for me? What if I made my own rules? What if there’s power in being underestimated?And what if—for the first time—I reached for it?
Tickets £6/Ticket plus book bundle £44
July 9
An Evening with Mark Edwards & William McIntyre
7pm, Waterstones West End, Princes Street
Join bestselling crime novelists Mark Edwards and William McIntyre, as they chat to Ed James about their fresh, gripping, Scottish-set thrillers, One of the Family and Relatively Guilty.
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £13 or £20
July 9
7pm, The Edinburgh Bookshop, EH10 4DF
Come and celebrate the launch of Tana Collins’ gripping new crime thriller, Point Blank - the first in a new series exploring justice, lies and the cost of asking too many questions. Tana will be in conversation with fellow author Olga Wojtas.
In a Scottish village where the past stays buried, one detective refuses to look away…
When a devoted family man is found dead on his doorstep in a historic fishing village on Scotland’s east coast, the community is left reeling. With DI Carruthers out of action, DS Andrea Fletcher is thrust into the lead for the first time — and this case is anything but straightforward.
There are no witnesses, no clear motive or clues, and nothing to explain how a killer just disappeared into the darkness.
As Fletcher begins to investigate, she uncovers whispers of an older crime with ties to the same house. But the case was closed years ago and the man convicted for it is still behind bars. Officially, the past is settled. Unofficially, it doesn’t sit right and as Fletcher pushes deeper, the more resistance she meets — not just from suspects, but from within her own ranks.
With the pressure mounting, personal wounds resurfacing and a killer who always seems one step ahead, Fletcher is forced down multiple paths. But can she uncover what really happened before another victim is murdered?
Because it’s clear that someone will do anything to make sure the truth stays buried.
Tickets free/Ticket plus book £10.99
July 9
Edward Shawcross for The People’s Emperor
7pm, Topping & Company, 2 Blenheim Place, Edinburgh EH7 5JH
Edward Shawcross is the author of The Last Emperor of Mexico. After graduating from the University of Oxford, he lived and worked in France, then South Korea and finally Colombia before returning to London where he completed a PhD at UCL.
Born into imperial splendour, Louis-Napoleon - the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte - grew up far from power after the defeat at Waterloo. In exile, he repeatedly plotted, unsuccessfully, to restore his uncle’s empire. Few took him seriously. But what followed is one of the most astonishing, impossible stories in history. Aged 40, Louis-Napoleon would be elected president of France. Three years later, he seized power to become emperor.
Napoleon III’s story is one of self-belief, political skill and radical innovation - the first person to master mass democratic politics and populism. Yet, despite being one of the most important trailblazers of the nineteenth century, he is largely misunderstood today, if not totally forgotten. His strange rise and catastrophic fall is a story of both tragedy and farce, set during some of France’s most tumultuous decades.
Tickets £10/Ticket plus book £25
July 9
Alice Oseman - Public Signing for Heartstopper Volume 6
4pm, The Portobello Bookshop, 46 Portobello High Street, Edinburgh EH15 1DA
The Portobello Bookshop is so excited to announce that Alice Oseman will be visiting us for a public signing on Thursday 9th July. Meet Alice, the creator of the #1 bestselling Heartstopper series, and celebrate the release of Heartstopper Volume 6, the final chapter in the heartstopping series that changed us forever.
Created by the acclaimed author-illustrator Alice Oseman, the Heartstopper series is a global phenomenon. The graphic novels have sold over 10 million copies worldwide, achieving instant #1 spots on both The Sunday Times and the New York Times bestseller lists. It is now an Emmy award-winning, BAFTA-nominated live-action Netflix adaptation starring Kit Connor and Joe Locke, written and executive produced by Alice Oseman.
Ticket plus book £14.99
July 10
Typewronger Books Shop Warming Party!
7pm, Typewronger Books, 22 Bruntsfield Place, Edinburgh EH10 4HN
We need to warm the bones of our new home, so drop in for drinks and snacks and a nosey around the new place!
New Shop Same ‘Wronger - speeches, music, booze & cake will deffo feature - rock on down!
Tickets - donation encouraged
July 10
Alasdair Gill - Knives and Spoons
7pm, The Portobello Bookshop, 46 Portobello High Street, Edinburgh EH15 1DA
The Portobello Bookshop is very excited to welcome Alasdair Gill for a discussion of his book Knives and Spoons. Gill is a chef and writer whose career has taken him from the pressure-cooker environment of London’s finest dining establishments to his current work as a private chef. The book delves into the world of intense restaurant life and explores his personal journey including the highs and lows of that lifestyle.
Gill will be in conversation with journalist and restaurant critic Chitra Ramaswamy, it’s sure to be a brilliant evening with lots of fascinating insights!
From working in some of London’s most prestigious restaurants to scrubbing fat from kitchen floors, Alasdair Gill’s life as a chef has been a series of exhilarating highs and harrowing lows. But so too has his private life. Taking readers behind the swinging kitchen doors of London’s dining scene, he shows us the major contradictions in his life, from crossing paths with Anthony Bourdain and preparing dishes for the ultra wealthy to hiding in drug-fuelled kitchen dens and a wake-up call that nearly ended his life.
Knives and Spoons is a raw and honest look at the chaotic and often toxic world of professional kitchens, filled with fierce and unforgiving moments, but also a testament to the power of finding one’s craft and the long road to recovery.
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £20
July 10
Kat Dunn for Rottenheart
7pm, Topping & Company, 2 Blenheim Place, Edinburgh EH7 5JH
We are delighted to be joined by Kat Dunn, author of Hungerstone, to celebrate her latest gothic tale, Rottenheart. Inspired by Hamlet, Rottenheart is a stunning new sapphic gothic horror novel set in the 1890s. It is a story of love and grief, mothers and daughters, death and madness. This is not one to miss for anyone who loves a retelling with the perfect gothic twist.
Odette and Cecilia are young women, living between their grand homes in Hampstead and the imposing, ancient Herne House in Suffolk. Though Odette’s artist mother Lydia keeps a tight grasp on her, she and her beloved Cecilia are mostly left free to roam, to learn and to love. But when Lydia inexplicably sickens and dies, a dark veil falls. As the funeral rites are performed, Odette’s aunt, the cold and implacable Claudine, increasingly takes charge of the household, while her father retreats to his study. Odette, lost in grief, disappears into the shadows. But as Claudine is announced as Odette’s new stepmother, a sinister presence in the house makes itself known. To her horror, Odette realises that despite her death, Lydia never really left. And now she wants revenge . . .
Tickets £8/Ticket plus book £16.99
July 12 - new listing
12pm, Waterstones West End, Princes Street
Come along to meet the much-loved Emmerdale actor and activist, Bradley Riches, as he signs copies of his empowering volume full of advice and wisdom, Autistically Me: How to understand and celebrate our autistic minds.
Are you autistic, or think you might be? Are you ready to not only understand but embrace your unique mind? Discover Bradley Riches’s tips for celebrating neurospicy life!
Bradley spoke few words until age ten, when he found his voice at his theatre school. Fast-forward a decade, and he is not only a recognizable actor, but an inspirational spokesperson for autism advocacy and awareness. Bradley is now on a mission to share his experiences and empower others like him to celebrate their neurodivergence and thrive!
In this book you will discover:
- How to get a diagnosis and why it’s important
- Autism in different genders and common co-existing conditions
- Self-acceptance exercises, such as reframing negative self-talk
- Executive functioning strategies for daily life
- Tips on understanding social cues and creating healthy relationships
- Grounding techniques to manage sensory overload
- Strategies for flourishing in education and at work
- How to build self-advocacy skills and set boundaries
- Tips for dealing with poor mental health
- And how to tap into your creative passions and find your community.
With tips, exercises and everyday strategies, cutting-edge research from charity Autistica and case studies from others neurodivergent voices, this life-changing book will empower you to celebrate your unique mind!
Ticket plus book £14.99
If you have already got a copy of the book and would like to come along to meet Bradley, you are more than welcome to do so, there is no need to book at ticket in this instance.
July 13
Comedian Suzi Ruffell for Am I Having Fun Now?
7pm, Pilrig St. Paul’s / LARCH, Leith Walk, Edinburgh EH6 5AH
Suzi Ruffell, author of Am I Having Fun Now? is an award-winning stand up comedian, writer, radio presenter and podcast host. She appears regularly on TV favourites such as Live at the Apollo, The Jonathan Ross Show and Mock the Week, and sells out headline shows at leading venues around the country. Her video clips - on everything ranging from smear tests to having a geezer dad - have been viewed by tens of millions on TikTok, Youtube and Instagram.
Does peaking in high school ruin you for life?
Was Miley Cyrus right, is it all about the climb (when it comes to building a career?)
And what - scientifically - is the best way to mend a broken heart?
Comedian Suzi Ruffell is considering life’s big questions.
In this brutally honest, funny, and often moving memoir, Suzi winningly tells her life story, and asks a host of experts to answer the tricky questions it prompts along the way. Diamond life advice comes from the likes of Elizabeth Day, Dolly Alderton, Charlene Douglas, Laura Bates, Dr Kirren Schnack, and more.
From masking anxiety with musical theatre and struggling to find her groove at school, on stage, and in her love life, to (eventually) coming out, falling in love, and becoming a parent, Suzi lays her life bare with trademark wit, verve and style.
Tickets £10/Ticket plus book £18.99
July 13
Seek the Traitor’s Son by Veronica Roth
7pm, Leith Arches
Argonaut Books is delighted to announce that we will be hosting Veronica Roth for the release of her new dystopian epic Seek The Traitor’s Son. This event will be chaired by Elizabeth May, bestselling author of The Wolf and the Crown of Blood and To Cage A God amongst others.
Elegy Ahn did not ask for destiny to find her.
She is happy with her life as a soldier, defending her small country from the Talusar, a powerful nation who worships a deadly Fever. A fever that blesses half of its victims with mysterious gifts. But then she’s summoned to hear a prophecy–her, and the most ruthless of Talusar generals, Rava Vidar. Brought face to face, they learn that one of them will lead their people to victory over the other...but they don’t know which. And at the centre of both of their fates: a man. A man that, Elegy is told, she will fall in love with.
In just one day, Elegy’s old life–her job, her purpose, and her future–is over. She and Rava are destined to collide, with the fate of their nations hanging in the balance. And when they do, only one will be left standing. Elegy intends to make sure it’s her.
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £22
July 14
Can You Solve the Murder? - a Murder Mystery Evening with Antony Johnston
7pm, Waterstones West End, Princes Street
Join Antony Johnston for a thrilling interactive crime caper as we challenge you to take on the investigation yourself, and identify the murderer. Gather the evidence and examine the clues. Choose who to interview next, and who to accuse as your prime suspect. But remember that every decision you make has consequences – and some of them will prove fatal…
Do you have what it takes? Can YOU solve the murder?
Can You Solve the Murder? - The Forest of Death
In this gripping interactive crime novel, YOU are the detective. At the end of every chapter, YOU decide what to do next…
A village of secrets.
You arrive at the heart of a remote forest to investigate the murder of a young woman, found dead inside an ancient stone circle. She’s a rock singer, who was filming a music video. Now her bandmates are suspects, along with the eccentric locals.
No one is telling the truth.
There’s just one problem: they all have water-tight alibis, and many villagers believe the singer was actually killed by the ‘Stone Warden’ – a figure from local folklore who haunts the forest.
Only YOU can solve the mystery.
Decide who to interview, decode the strange symbols written on the stone circle, and uncover what the villagers are hiding behind closed doors. Will your choices catch the killer – or will they be your downfall?
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £18
July 14
Darwin and the Queer Origins of Life: Ross Books on the history of sex and science
7pm, Lighthouse Bookshop - 43 West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9DB
What did Darwin and Linnaeus really think about sex? It’s time to find out!
In print, their descriptions of animal courtship painted a comfortingly traditional picture: males were belligerent show-offs, females were choosy and skittish, and the two came together in unions curiously akin to human marriage. But in truth, the forefathers of evolutionary science were acutely aware that this was not the whole story. The reality was far more messy and ambiguous.
In this iconoclastic history, Ross Brooks shows how queerness was at the heart of evolutionists’ thinking about the natural world.
From hermaphroditic slugs and sex-changing birds to male pigeon lactation, pregnant male seahorses, and bisexual pigs, Darwin and his fellow naturalists were privately in awe of nature’s sexual diversity. These encounters fundamentally shaped their understanding of plants, animals, and humans, even if they were never fully acknowledged in their published writings.
Join us for a summer evening with Brooks, as he radically exposes us to the hidden queerness of Georgian and Victorian science—and shows how nature has always been more sexually diverse than we’ve been told!
Tickets £4/Ticket plus book £25
July 14
The Magnus Archives’ Jonathan Sims for The Burn Line
7pm, Topping & Company, 2 Blenheim Place, Edinburgh EH7 5JH
There’s something lurking in the stifling darkness and labyrinthine tunnels that run below London... something old, something vicious, and something very, very hungry.
Jonathan Sims is a writer, performer and games designer whose work primarily focuses on the macabre, the grotesque, and the gentle touch of creeping dread. He is the mind and the voice behind acclaimed horror podcast The Magnus Archives, high octane space-cabaret The Mechanisms and some of your favourite nightmares.
It’s the hottest summer on record and London is dying. Prices are high, pay is low, and stressed commuters are packed onto London Underground trains again like the pandemic never happened. To add to the misery, the temperatures underground just keep climbing and climbing, the heat trapped in the clay with nowhere to go.
Then one fateful morning five travellers on an unlucky tube carriage find themselves bound together as witnesses to a single horrific event - an event they can’t quite seem to remember.
They make an unlikely team - a weary tube driver, a disillusioned civil servant, an ambitious city trader, an overwhelmed hotel worker, and an unhoused young man just trying to get by - but now they must come together to confront what they have seen and stop it in its tracks before it kills them all.
Tickets £8/Ticket plus book £22
July 14
Robert Peston for The Kill Switch
7pm, Pilrig St. Paul’s / LARCH, Leith Walk, Edinburgh EH6 5AH
Robert Peston is ITV’s political editor, presenter of the politics show Peston, founder of the education charity, Speakers for Schools, and vice president of Hospice UK. He has written four critically acclaimed non-fiction books, How Do We Fix This Mess?, Who Runs Britain?, Brown’s Britain and his latest, WTF?. His first thriller, The Whistleblower, was ‘brilliant’ according to the Guardian and called ‘a rollicking read’ by the Evening Standard.
Journalist Gil Peck is back; in therapy, married to Jess - now editor of the Financial Chronicle - and still driven by the need to prove a point that he can’t quite identify. Yet all is not well. Jess is fed up with Gil’s obsession with his job, and she’s kicked him out of their home.
But Gil has never let anything get in the way of a scoop. He and Jess have landed the interview of a lifetime with the Prime Minister, Stella Barnsbury, for the podcast they co-host, and Gil has no intention of missing it. During the interview, Barnsbury begins to pale, her coughing intensifying before she finally collapses.
Within 48 hours, the Prime Minister is dead.
Gil is used to landing the biggest stories. But as the last person to see the PM alive, he’s now a main character. And when foul play is confirmed, he’s also a prime suspect…
Tickets £8/Ticket plus book £16.99
July 15
7pm, Rare Birds Books, Raeburn Place, Stockbridge
We’re so excited to welcome legendary author Sarra Manning to store in July to discuss her heartwarming, hot and hilarious new novel, The Love Library. Sarra will be in conversation with Rachel Wood, store owner and author of Annie Knows Everything - romcom lovers this is not one you want to miss!
What if you could date your favourite book boyfriend?
“All loans are at the borrower’s own risk”
After a series of dating disasters, Tess Hardy wonders if she’ll ever find the man of her dreams – or if he only exists on the pages of her favourite novels. So when she’s invited to visit The Love Library, a 200-hundred-year-old institution which promises dates with her favourite romantic heroes in real life, Tess can’t resist!
But handsome head librarian Gabe Sharma seems grumpily determined to keep the library under lock and key. And as soon as Tess steps into the beautiful building crammed full of books, she realises why – it’s not just dust in the air… it’s magic. Here she really can grab drinks with Heathcliff, dine with Rochester and cosy up to her one true literary love, Darcy.
There’s just one problem: Gabe. He’s determined to sabotage all of Tess’s dates! And why is it that she has more fun fighting with Gabe than flirting with any of her book-bound suitors?
Tickets £5
July 15
Jonathan Fennell for Collapse: A Global History of the Second World War 1931-1941
7pm, Topping & Company, 2 Blenheim Place, Edinburgh EH7 5JH
The first volume of a ground-breaking and truly global trilogy on the Second World. War, from an exciting, prize-winning academic.
Through exciting new sources in 14 languages and from over 50 archives across the world, Professor Jonathan Fennell examines the first part of this “long war”, from 1931-1942, and explores what it really meant to live through this violent time. Using an innovative approach which explores the personal alongside the political, the global alongside the local, he shows how a world that many considered civilised collapsed into barbarity.
Tickets £10/Ticket plus book £25
July 15
Q is for Garden: Jenny Chamarette on tending the histories of queer cultivation
7pm, (Garden) Lighthouse Bookshop, 43-45 West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9DB
A bold, tender exploration of how queerness and nature entwine - and what happens when we step beyond the binaries that fence us in.
There is a Q in garden, but you can’t always see it.
When Jenny Chamarette faced a devastating health crisis, they found themselves unmoored from the rules of gender, sexuality and productivity. In a small South London garden, Jenny began to imagine another way of living: porous, unruly, rooted in the lessons of soil and plant life. Gardens, like identities, are usually bounded - but what if those limits can be re-drawn?
Blending memoir and cultural criticism, this book asks whether the categories we inherit - colonial, patriarchal, conventions of sexuality and gender - still serve us, or whether they confine us. From illness and recovery to queer love and ecological wonder, Q is for Garden invites readers to reimagine how we inhabit land, culture and each other.
Tickets £4/Ticket plus book £18.99
July 16 - new listing
Amanda Tuke - Urban Wildlife Walk
4.45pm, Wild Fungarium, 13 Randolph Place, Edinburgh EH3 7TA
Join urban naturalist Amanda Tuke on a guided urban nature walk through the West End of Edinburgh and the streets surrounding Wild Fungarium to explore the wildlife and plants waiting to be discovered there.
The walk will set off from the shop at 5pm and last approximately an hour and a half and will take place before we sit down with Amanda to discuss her wonderful new book Wild Pavements at 7.00pm. Please purchase your tickets for the talk separately HERE.
Please pack a rain coat, suitable walking shoes, and refreshments.
It’s also BYOB (Bring Your Own Binoculars).
Tickets £15
July 16 - new listing
Amanda Tuke Wild Pavements - Author Talk
7pm, Wild Fungarium, 13 Randolph Place, Edinburgh EH3 7TA
We’re delighted to have urban naturalist, Amanda Tuke, here with us for an evening on the 16th of July. Amanda will be joined in the shop by Wild Fungarium’s James as she discusses urban wildlife and her fantastic first book, Wild Pavements : Exploring Britains Cities With an Urban Naturalist.
Amanda will also be hosting an Urban Wildlife Walk at 5pm from the shop. If you are interested in attending the walk we recommend early booking as there are limited spaces. Tickets can be purchased HERE.
Join Amanda as she explores London from the City out to the suburbs and visits Liverpool, Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff, Sheffield, Aberdeen and other cities in the British Isles, exploring the diversity of our urban nature and the surprising places you can find it.
From wild bees living on a canal bank and black redstarts nesting in London’s Oxford Street, to rare plants in pavement cracks and new fish life in trolley-filled urban rivers, her discoveries are there for anyone to enjoy. Noticing the wild world around you may just change the way you think about our cities for good.
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £18.99
July 16
An Evening with Rhiannon Grist
7pm, Waterstones West End, Princes Street
We are thrilled to be welcoming debut author, Rhiannon Grist, along to the shop as we celebrate the publication of her masterful, wild spiral of madness and magic, Home Sick.
After a violent incident at work, Tamsin goes looking for a fresh start in a remote cottage far away from her old life. Here she could make real friends, find a job she loves, become a whole new person, even.
But the solitary cottage is actually a semi-detached, with only a thin wall separating her from a total stranger. Her neighbour is an enigma. Dowdy one moment, vivacious the next, but always wearing an unnerving smile. Tamsin can’t shake the feeling that there’s something wrong with her, especially when she starts experiencing disturbances in her own home.
As the locals share strange stories about her house, and her barely contained paranoia spirals out of control, Tamsin begins to suspect that the past she was so desperate to escape might never let her go.
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £13
July 16
Silvia Moreno-Garcia for The Intrigue
7pm, Pilrig St. Paul’s / LARCH, Leith Walk, Edinburgh EH6 5AH
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of the novels The Seventh Veil of Salome, Silver Nitrate, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Mexican Gothic, Gods of Jade and Shadow, and a bunch of other books. She has also edited several anthologies, including the World Fantasy Award-winning She Walks in Shadows (aka Cthulhu’s Daughters). She has been nominated for the Locus Award for her work as an editor and has won the British Fantasy Award and the Locus Award for her work as a novelist.
Handsome con artist Ulises has long charmed lonely women via letters to steal their money, but money is hard to come by in 1940s Mexico. Ulises knows his looks won’t last forever, and he’s desperate to get his hands on a real fortune.
He thinks he’s found it when he captivates his newest correspondent, Perla, the owner of a small-town boardinghouse in picturesque Veracruz. But when he meets her, he finds something he didn’t expect. The woman has a niece, Ines, who is as observant as she is desperate to escape her aunt’s household.
When Ines discovers Ulises’ true intentions, she wants in on the scheme. They’ll convince her aunt that Ulises is a great catch, Perla will marry him, and her money will vanish. Easy, fast and clean. But Perla is not the desperate, silly spinster Ulises imagines. She harbors secrets. And although Ulises does not believe in true romance, Ines is more alluring than he bargained on. Suddenly, a simple plan may become perilously complicated.
Venture into the streets of a small town where the patina of convention and good manners conceals a cauldron of avarice and lust.
Tickets £10/Ticket plus book £20
July 18
Celebrate The Princess Trap with Talia Hibbert!
7pm, Library Gallery, Summerhall, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL
From bestselling author Talia Hibbert comes a story of wicked royals, fake engagements, and the fed-up office worker trapped in the midst of it all. Cherry Neita is thirty, flirty, and done with men. As far as she can tell, they’re overrated, overpaid, and underperforming—in every area of life.
But a girl has needs, and the smoking-hot stranger she just met at the office seems like the perfect one-night stand…Prince Ruben of Helgmøre is reckless, dominant, and famously filthy. The outcast royal is rebuilding his reputation—all for a good cause—but he can’t resist a pretty face. And bossy whirlwind Cherry’s got the face, the body, and the attitude to make Ruben’s convictions crumble.
Even better, when she propositions him, she has no idea who he really is. But when paparazzi catch the pair, erm, kissing in an alleyway, Ruben’s anonymity disappears faster than Cherry’s knickers. Now the press is in uproar, the palace is outraged, and Ruben’s reputation is back in the gutter.
There’s only one way to turn this disaster around—and it involves Cherry, some big fat lies, and a flashy diamond ring. On her left hand. Unfortunately, Cherry isn’t pleased with Ruben’s "fake engagement" scheme…and neither is the king.
Tickets £6/Ticket plus book £13.99
July 22
A Snake Among Swans by Hannah Kaner
7pm, P’s and G’s Church, 10 Broughton St, Edinburgh EH1 3RH
*Pre-Release Exclusive Event - Attendance Free With Book Purchase*
We are incredibly honoured to be hosting an exclusive pre-release evening with Hannah Kaner - bestselling author of the Fallen Gods trilogy - to celebrate the release of her new book A Snake Among Swans and kick off her UK tour. This event be chaired by Samantha Shannon, author of ‘The Priory of the Orange Tree‘ series and ‘Among the Burning Flowers‘.
As this is pre-release event, it will be an opportunity to get your hands on a copy of the book a full week before it’s officially out in the world! Copies of A Snake Among Swans can be pre-ordered with your ticket, and will also be available to buy on the night. The event will be followed by a book signing.
Tilde has always heard the whispers of the kithwood, the voices of her ancestors speaking through the mysterious forest of her homeland.
But now both the kithwood and her kingdom are in danger.
For Tilde is the only surviving heir of a conquered land. To unite the people and finally stop the bloodshed, she marries the aging warlord, King Liran. Her duty is to bind their nations and bear him a son.
But the swan king’s court is dangerous. Tilde is a threat to the claim of Liran’s older sons, who will do whatever it takes to remove her, to the princess Elise who has only ever known loyalty to her family, and to the priests who own them all.
Yet none of them know that Tilde is a snake in their midst, with allies on her side and dark, forbidden power of her own. She wants her kingdom back, and she will sacrifice everything to claim it.
For the queen to rise, the swans must fall.
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £20
July 22
With My Own Hand: Ashley Douglas on Scotland’s sixteenth-century Sappho
7pm, Lighthouse Bookshop Garden, off West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9DB
The youngest of the Maitland siblings, Marie had watched her elder sisters be married off one by one, destined to take up the unavoidable path for women in sixteenth-century Scotland. However, as she neared marrying age, her father, an influential judge, poet and Keeper of the Privy Seal under Mary, Queen of Scots, went blind and suddenly needed someone to act as his scribe and secretary. In taking up this role, Marie indeed avoided the unavoidable, dedicating her life to her father’s work. After his death, she put the finishing touches on the Maitland Quarto, long recognised as significant for its preservation of the poetry of the male great-and-good of sixteenth-century Scotland.
A rare feat for a woman at the time, but Marie’s story doesn’t stop there. For hidden in the pages of the Maitland Quarto, historian and translator Ashley Douglas discovered Marie’s own secret lesbian love poetry. Penning such poetry in the hostile climate of post-Reformation Scotland, with its suffocating tightening of moral control over society, was an incredible act of bravery. Unable to sign it directly, Marie, insistent on her voice and love being known, littered the manuscript with clues to its true penmanship. Clues that, until now, have remained unseen.
Building on her initial discovery of Marie’s poetry, in With My Own Hand Ashley Douglas draws on a vast range of newly unearthed primary historical records to tell the fascinating story of Marie and her manuscript, in full, for the very first time.
Tickets £4/Ticket plus book £22
July 22
Melanie Challenger for Alive: The Hidden Intelligence of the Living World
7pm, Topping & Company, 2 Blenheim Place, Edinburgh EH7 5JH
Melanie Challenger writes, researches and broadcasts on the history of ideas, the history and philosophy of science and the relationship between humans and the living world. She is the author of How to Be Animal: What it Means to Be Human, among other works, and host of the podcast The Psychosphere. She is also an award-winning poet and librettist for opera and oratorios, and a National Geographic Explorer. Melanie is internationally active in bioethics and Vice President of the RSPCA.
What does it mean to be alive? The slow contortion of a plant towards light, the spear-flight of a hawk towards their quarry - these are purposeful actions. But where does that purpose come from, and what does it tell us about who we are?
In Alive, researcher and natural philosopher Melanie Challenger takes us through the latest discoveries in biology and physics to reveal a radical truth: to be alive is first and foremost a way of being a body. From Greenland sharks that can live for half a millennium, to birds that sense the Earth’s magnetic field through their retinas, and even slime moulds that solve mazes, this book tells a new story of intelligence in the living world.
A scientifically grounded challenge to the idea that life is either a machine run by genes or an essence separable from the body, Alive restores agency, purpose and meaning to organisms in an age of artificial intelligence and biodiversity loss. By recognising that our bodies are both how and why we are alive, this book asks what it would mean to live - and to act - with that knowledge.
Early bird tickets £8/Standard tickets £12/Ticket plus book £20
July 29 - new listing
Alycia Pirmohamed - Shorelines: Memory, migration and the selves we become
7pm, The Portobello Bookshop, 46 Portobello High Street, Edinburgh EH15 1DA
We are absolutely delighted to welcome Alycia Pirmohamed back to the bookshop for a celebration of her latest book, Shorelines: Memory, migration and the selves we become. Thrumming with poetic vitality and questions about the legacies of migration, Shorelines is Pirmohamed’s Nan Shepherd Prize-winning non-fiction debut.
As a young Muslim woman Alycia Pirmohamed grew up with her body as racialised and her faith as seemingly dangerous Her affinity to the natural world - the mountains, elk and pines of her childhood - conflicted with feelings that she was unwelcome in these landscapes. By contrast, the stories of her parents’ homeland - the monsoon winds, red clay roads and abundant korosho trees - felt painfully distant.
Across interrelated pieces that move from Midwestern Canada to East Africa, the Pacific Northwest to the British Isles, the award-winning poet traces the legacies of migration and memory on her life, examining the idea of homeland and the mythmaking it demands. She creatively resists the expectations of nature writing and memoir, at times choosing to withhold as much as she reveals.
Shorelines moves from lavender skies to lighthouses, from surefooted ideas to liminal spaces. It asks what it means to carry hidden histories across borders and generations - and how losing family can mean losing the place they are from too. Above all, it explores how place and identity intertwine, and how our choices, our actions and the ways we build community shape us into who we become.
Tickets £5/Ticket plus book £18.99
July 30
Sara Stevenson: Hill and Adamson’s The Fisherwomen and Men of the Firth of Forth
7pm, The Edinburgh Bookshop, 176 Bruntsfield Place, EH10 4DF
We are delighted to welcome Dr Sara Stevenson in conversation with artist and publisher Alexander Hamilton, about her new photography study book Hill and Adamson’s The Fisherwomen and Men of the Firth of Forth.
In the course of three years, working at the very beginning of the art of photography, the Scottish pioneers, David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, working with their assistant, Jessie Mann, produced thousands of images, creating an archive that was both artistically daring and historically invaluable.
Nowhere is this clearer than in their series of pictures of the fishing communities of the Firth of Forth, and especially the village of Newhaven. These photographs, described as the world’s first social documentary images, capture not only the men whose labour took them to sea, but also the women whose strength and resilience sustained the community on shore. The fisherwomen of Newhaven, with their distinctive dress, their heavy creels carried into Edinburgh’s streets, and their vital roles in the economy of the village, lead this story.
Free but ticketed
July 30
An Evening of Poetry with Scottish Carcanet
7pm, Topping & Company, 2 Blenheim Place, Edinburgh EH7 5JH
We are over the moon to be hosting a special collaborative event between three Scottish Carcanet poets: Anthony V. Capildeo, Jay Gao and Colin Bramwell.
They join us to celebrate their latest bodies of work, ranging from a book-length sequence told in the language of trees, to a bold reimagining of Fernando Pessoa’s poetry in Scots, to finally a vibrant selection of essays that explore a life in poetry. It is sure to be an evening of brilliant readings and discussion!
Event vouchers are fully redeemable against copies of Masqueraders: Selected Essays by Anthony V. Capildeo, The Dead One, The Unconscious One, Thundering in Your Ear, Thriving Slumber by Jay Gao, and Fower Pessoas by Colin Bramwell.
Tickets £8/Ticket plus book £12.99
But that’s not all
Coming up fast…
August
Edinburgh International Book Festival, Book Fringe, Anne Pia, Lin Anderson, Luke Healy, Ghillie Basan and Fiona Richmond, Simone Saltani
September
Robert Harris, Yotam Ottolenghi, Emma Warren, Marie Darrieussecq, Paul Johnson, Andrew Pettegree, Robert Barrington, Janice Hallet, Christopher de Hamel, Sharon Blackie, Marina Hyde, Sabrina Ghayour, Sebastian Barry, Ali Stoner, Roshni Gallagher and Clementine Ewokolo Burnley, Claire Thomson, Mathias Enard, LK Steven, Brigid Lowe, James Fox, Marlon James, Daniel Susskind, Ed Conway, Ben Macintyre, Daniel Mason, Cass Barron, Evelyn Hollow, Joe Wicks, Morvern Graham, Alice Strang, Rebecca F Kuang, LK Steven, Louise Kennedy, Caitlin Moran
October
Rachel King, Edinburgh Women’s Fiction Festival, Portobello Book Festival, Sean Hewitt, Terry Deary, Hernan Diaz, Ibtisam Azem, Ian Rankin, Aonghus MacKechnie, Rachel Harrison, Benjamin Moser, Jojo Barr, Sarah Clegg, Nick Hayes, Brigid Lowe & Gilly McArthur, David McCloskey, Dr Jean Menzies, Julia Harding, Susie Dent, Patricia Nilsson, James Ellroy, Oz Clarke, Dorian Ravenscroft
November
Radical Book Fair, Tim Hayward, Coinneach MacLeod, Irvine Welsh, Patrick DeWitt