Edinburgh Book Festival At Home

 For years Edinburgh has been a stopping off point on our holidays in Scotland - sometimes for an odd day, sometimes for longer - but recently we haven't been able to go and I've missed the buzz of street performance, plays staged in bizarre back-rooms of bars, music in the fabulous National Gallery, and most of all the book festival's take-over of Charlotte Square.

Months ago, when the coronavirus lockdown was a new thing, I was shocked to hear Edinburgh had cancelled its summer festivals. At the time August seemed so far away, and we all hoped the virus would be a thing of the distant past by then. Well, here we are in August, and despite the easing of lockdown restrictions things are far from normal, and I just don't want to think about what all those festival visitors would have done to infection rates.
All is not lost though. Like other festivals, Edinburgh International Book Festival has gone online - see here for full details of authors. You can join in online and chat to the authors and fellow audience members, or pick a more convenient time to watch  - that's what I've been doing, preparing dinner, and beans for the freezer during events!
There are quite a few advantages to these online events - they don't sell out, you aren't limited to the days you can spend in Edinburgh, or discover that your favourite author is appearing the day after you leave, and as everything is free (though donations are welcome, and I'll definitely send one) you can go to as many events as you like.  So I've taken this opportunity to catch authors I might otherwise have missed - I've seen Bernardine Evaristo talking about Girl, Woman, Other, and want to catch Alexander McCall Smith and Arundhati Roy (all of which would probably have sold out) and discovered Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, billed as Uganda's First Woman of Fiction (having listened to her reading from her novel, The First Woman, I definitely want to read more). I need to make some effort though as I think events are only on line till Monday 31st.
On the other hands there are definitely things I miss - the buzz of being actually there, the random sighting of a celebrity browsing the bookstore, meeting up with friends as we pass on the way to events, the mad dash across town to see a Fringe show, grabbing pizza from the van on the Royal Mile, and even watching the street entertainers juggling swords and chainsaws while riding a unicycle.
Hopefully next year will be back to normal.