Gordon Brown and Ian Rankin share a laugh at the festival’s opening event. In a wide- ranging talk,
the relaxed PM spoke about his new book (on Britishness). Below images from the fair.
B
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BOOKDIARY
B
...they found a motionless figure in black and ermine
stretched on the sofa. The beautiful face was untouched.
The candles smoked and the people shifted on their knees - an
absurd happiness bobbed up in him again before anxiety returned.
Also it meant a holiday from all the dogs in the bed, and as Rupert
was far less famous abroad they weren’t constantly beseiged...
Flimsy dresses are strewn over chairs, stockings trail in the
basin, there is a half-eaten apple on the dressing-table...
The bus was unthinkably tall, made of yellow, orange and
pink rice paper, lit from within like a Japanese lantern.
WE ADOPTED THIS HARMLESS BIT OF TRICKERY, AND THE RESULT WAS
THAT, BY THE TIME EVERYTHING ELSE WAS READY, THE TEA WAS WAITING.
2009
www.thebookseller.com The Bookseller | 15 August 2008 11
THE EDINBURGH BOOK FESTIVAL
BOOKDIARY’09
It’s a Mine of Information
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wise•dog
BOOKS
Mystery guest
visits Edinburgh
Tom Tivnan blogs:
The 25th instalment of the Edinburgh
International Book Festival opened with
two sons of the Kingdom of Fife: Ian
Rankin in conversation with a former
director of Mainstream Publishing,
Gordon Brown (see picture, left). Brown
has, of course, gone on to bigger but
not necessarily better things.
The Prime Minister was warmly
received by the audience (he was the surprise mystery
guest) and he said he was happy to be here—and looked it.
He praised EIBF director Catherine Lockerbie’s deft handling
of the festival. He praised book festivals, of which he said
Britain has 250 a year, and name-checked Mainstream head
honchos Bill Campbell and Peter MacKenzie, and later joked
the two had sacked him from Mainstream. If he was sacked
the PM bears no grudges: Brown is now behind a second
book for the Scottish Press (see page 7).
The PM’s generally jolly mood matched that of the
festival, which was busy and buzzy despite the torrential
rain. The EIBF said pre-festival sales were 24% up on last
year and the inclement weather did not seem to keep
punters away. Highlights from this year include appearances
from Sean Connery, Terry Pratchett, Kate Mosse and Scottish
First Minister Alex Salmond; as well as talks from Edinburgh
stalwarts Rankin, Iain Banks, A L Kennedy, Andrew Greig
(see picture, below) and Alexander McCall Smith.
See thebookseller.com/blogs
Literary Information, Dates, Events, Awards
Full of Reading Lists, Themes, Inspiration, Ideas
24 Featured Writers
Well Designed Diary Space
Lots of Room for you to be Creative
Beautiful Original Photographs
A Unique Record of your own Reading Year
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www.wisedogbooks.co.uk
sales@manning-partnership.co.uk
RRP £18.99 ISBN: 978-0-9559360-0-5
Greig
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