Book Festival - Part 8

Saturday afternoon saw us going to an event hosted by local author Paul Johnston. His guests were Italian crime writer Giancarlo de Cataldo and Spanish colleague Domingo Villar. A worthy enough event I suppose, but we didn't buy any of their books.

Sunday morning meant that it was time for Alistair Moffat on Hadrian's Wall and (taking a risk in Edinburgh!) Marc Morris on the Hammer of the Scots. Morris survived, but again we didn't buy the book. Mrs F&W already had the Hadrian tome.

After the Tuesday Club Garden Party (guest speaker Sandy Stoddart, sculptor of the new Adam Smith statue), it was back to Charlotte Square for a talk on Scottish independence. This event was chaired by Joyce McMillan of the Scotsman who always makes me think that she is our own homegrown version of Polly Toynbee. The speakers were Paul Scott and Harry Reid, authors of The Independence Book and Murray Pittock who along with Reid expressed interest in the blogging world when we spoke after the session. I bought both books.

My final event on Monday morning was Dr Terrence Kealey, Vice Chancellor of the UK's only independent university. He gave a fascinating talk on Sex, Science and Profit: How People Evolved to Make Money. After two weeks of the Book Festival I was too far-gone to remember what my cutting edge comment was when the time came for questions. So I went to the pub.