Edinburgh International Book Festival Blog: Opening Day 2010

This morning there was a less-than-bloody pitched battle between Richard Holloway, Richard Harries and author of the His Dark Material trilogy, Philip Pullman. The discussion focused on the legacy of Jesus and the role of faith in modern life in reaction to Pullman’s latest offering The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ. This was not taking place anywhere near a pulpit, but was in fact the 11.30am event in the Main Theatre at this years’ Edinburgh International Book Festival. The gates had been opened at 10am to let the assembled queues flood in for a controversial discussion of The Slap, the Man Booker nominated book by Christos Tsiolkas.

The gardens were bright with Scottish sunshine (which today looked a lot like normal sunshine) and the cheery faces of regulars as well as new-comers padded happily around the shrubberies that fill this garden every year for the festival. It’s been a building site for the past few weeks, but don’t be deceived that Charlotte Square is only the home of the Edinburgh International Book Festival for four weeks of the year. For the other forty eight the festival offices that surround the garden are working around the clock to piece together the clockwork marvel that takes place in the heart of Georgian Edinburgh every year. Some nine or ten venues shoot up across the garden and house a variety of events for all ages with tens of thousands of people attending over the two weeks and three weekends that it covers.

Don’t be deceived though, despite the numbers this is usually an ideal place to get shelter from the proverbial storm that is the Edinburgh Fringe. This is no ordinary year for the Book Festival though. With new Director Nick Barley in place, the programme that has been produced over the year is showing signs of change:

* A new Unbound event is taking place in the Speigeltent every evening showcasing debate and performance from all across the literary spectrum. This new late-night event line-up demonstrates the appeal of the festival as a champion of the local and international writer alike. The Edinburgh institution that is the Forest Café’s The Golden Hour is coming on the 25th of August along with a variety of other one-off live events to be staged in the tent. Barley seems keen to emphasise the appeal of creating live-changing experiences for visitors to the book festival. He informs us, with trademark enthusiam, that:

“The live event, the one-to-one, it's like a gold standard of something we know we can value, hearing it from the author directly."

* The Reader’s First Book Award is another innovation that sees every one of the forty-something debut novels at the festival voted for by the public. There is a gathering of guest selectors (such as Don Paterson and Scotland on Sunday’s Stuart Kelly) tasked with picking their favourite authors for this year’s festival. These events will involve discussions between selector and selected and promise to create exciting debate.

* It is not all change though. The usual line-up of cafes, book shops and events for children, means that the Book Festival is shaping up to be yet another exciting spectacle. Alistair Darling, Andrew Rawnsley and Edinburgh Makar Ron Butlin are but a few of the better-known names who will be in attendance. This year also sees Alan Moore the eccentric behind Watchmen pick up the comic book mantle and poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, Candia McWilliam and regular Ian Rankin will be among many others taking to the many stages.

Whether it is a well-known name or an unknown gem the Book Festival never fails to get my brain buzzing with debate and discussion. I will be reporting regularly from the field, or you can follow my Twitter updates here.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival runs from 14th to 30th August in Charlotte Square Gardens.