International Book Festival

Edinburgh International Book Festival

With a number of longer established and more famous festivals such as the Fringe and the International Festival competing for your attention, it is too easy to overlook the joys of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, held in a series of marquees in the city's Charlotte Square in the second half of August each year.

Inside the Moulin Rouge Outdoor Cafe Event About to Begin The Box Office Bookshop Sofas

The Book Festival started life as a biennial festival in 1983, becoming an annual event in 1997. Now the world's biggest book festival, the Edinburgh International Book Festival sees capacity audiences, not just for world-renowned writers and thinkers, but also for new and international authors little known in the UK.

In 2012 over 800 authors were in attendance at over 700 events, and a record 225,000 people visited Charlotte Square Gardens over the 17 days of the festival, many of them children. Among the highlights were the inaugural events of the 2012-2013 Edinburgh World Writers' Conference. The five day Conference brought together some 50 writers from 25 different countries and involved audiences in impassioned debates on the future of the novel, a national literature, whether literature should be political, style vs content and censorship today. Brand new novels were launched by Ian McEwan, Zadie Smith, Pat Barker, Howard Jacobson, actor John Gordon Sinclair and comedian Russell Kane and the RBS Schools Gala day provided events, activities, workshops and readings from authors including Julia Donaldson, Tom Pow and Theresa Breslin.

The Bookshop in Full Swing

Book Signing by Quintin Jardine

Young Reader in Children's Bookshop

The Book Festival has more than doubled its audience in recent years and is the largest public celebration of books and ideas in the world. Since the success and international prominence of the 2004 Book Festival, there has been rapid progress in developing Edinburgh's status as a major year-round literary centre. This resulted, in October 2004, in UNESCO's declaration of Edinburgh as the world's first ever City of Literature. Work has now begun on establishing an international network of such cities, based on the Edinburgh model.

The core of the festival are the events that bring together authors and their readers. These include a series of book signings throughout the festival, as well as talks, interviews, discussions and more, all held in a series of venues around the square. Refreshments are also on offer at several locations around the festival.

Two bookshops also operate (one for children's books) as part of the festival and a wide range of books are on offer. Coverage is comprehensive, but books from and about Scotland are especially well represented. You can browse to your heart's content. And because both bookshops are owned and operated by the festival, all profits made from the books you buy go straight back into making the festival better, for readers and writers alike.

Or you can simply sit back and relax, taking in the unique atmosphere generated by a gathering of like-minded people interested in understanding more about the world of books. Space is made available just to sit and talk or read, both inside the marquees and outside on the grass where you can also enjoy the wider delights of Charlotte Square and the (hopefully) blue skies of Edinburgh in August.

Charlotte Square During the Book Festival