Edinburgh International Book Festival 2005
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This year's Edinburgh International Book Festival, which ran from 13-29 August, has been another resounding success, with over 220,000 visitors, including almost 30,000 on the opening weekend alone. |
The Edinburgh International Book Festival is now a key event in the August Festival season. It began in 1983 and was biennial at first but became an annual celebration in 1997. Held in the beautiful surroundings of Charlotte Square Gardens, the Book Festival attracts thousands of visitors of all ages, and programmes over 650 events. With many top name authors, discussions and debates, an exciting children's programme, events for teenagers, two well-stocked bookshops and several cafes, there is something for everyone. Each year, the festival is open all day and late into the evening throughout the fortnight and entry to the gardens is free.
| The 2005 Book Festival launched a major international theme about the future of nations. What are nations for and how do they behave in the 21st century? |
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Beginning in Edinburgh, this vital series of events will extend across three countries, Scotland, Norway and Sweden, and three festivals, Edinburgh, Stavanger and Gothenburg - in a unique Northern European collaboration, a pioneering Book Festival first. Running throughout the programme were Nations Unlimited event, many with star names and leading thinkers.
Other fantastic themes for 2005 included:
- Focus on Russia - a magnificent line-up of Russian writers, as well as leading authors from former Soviet Union countries. From crime to campaigning politics, dissident journalists and the dynamic new generation, many aspects of that great and changing nation were examined.
- Focus on Canada - Canadian writing goes from strength to strength and the Book Festival featured no fewer than 16 outstanding authors of fiction and non-fiction from that northern land.
- East and West - continuing the vitally important examination of the attitudes of the West towards the countries of the East, and vice versa, with special emphasis on Islam.
- International Fiction - from Australia to Scandinavia, taking in countries as diverse as Poland, France, Latvia and Italy along the way, discover authors never normally brought to these shores. This year, a special focus on Spain.
- Countries - this year, Book Festival authors came from 30 different countries including USA, Canada, South Africa, Nigeria, China, India, Sudan, Pakistan, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Spain, Italy, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Poland, Palestine, Israel, Iraq and Ireland.
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Over 500 authors appeared at this year's Festival, including Margaret Atwood, Dario Fo, Salman Rushdie, Andre Brink, John Irving, Sebastian Faulks, John Berger, Zadie Smith, Jung Chang, Richard Dawkins, Carlos Fuentes, Lisa St Aubin de Teran, Edmund White, John Snow, Ian Rankin, Neil Kinnock, Andrew Marr, Clare Short, Iain Banks, Tony Benn and many more. |
This 17 day programme featured over 100 children's authors, illustrators and storytellers in almost 300 events. The focus at the heart of the children's programme was on participation, imagination and creation, and there was something for everyone, from babies to teenagers. There was an activity corner in the Lloyds TSB Children's Bookshop with free hands-on activities for children aged up to eleven, and free daily storytelling in the Imagination Lab. For teenagers, there was a series of three stunning line-ups of award-winning authors at the cutting edge of writing for teens.
| Authors appearing in the children's programme included Jacqueline Wilson, Charlie Higson, Karen McCombie, Anthony Horowitz, Debi Gliori, Anne Fine, Michael Morpurgo and many more. More children than ever before met some of today's greatest authors, from household names to rising talent. |
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The six day schools programme was packed with the best in children's writing for primary and secondary pupils, as well as the Schools Gala Day when the entire Book Festival was dedicated entirely to primary school pupils.
For more information visit the Edinburgh International Book Festival website. |