Over the Christmas break we did some planning re events for The Edinburgh Bookshop and since we came back to work last Tuesday we’ve been busily finalising details…

Our next event is actually this Monday evening when Ian Rankin will be joining us for the first in an occasional series called The Books That Made Me.  We’re all familiar with standard author gigs where they chat to the chairperson for a bit, read part of their new book and then take questions from the audience before busily signing and those are great, but for authors who don’t have a hot-off-the-press new book out or who are local and therefore familiar faces at those sort of events we wanted to try something new and Ian kindly agreed to be our guinea pig privileged inaugural guest.  We’ll be talking about the books he loved as a child, what he read growing up in Fife, how studying literature at university widened his reading further and the authors who’ve influenced his own writing.  Obviously we’ll also be talking about his work now that Rebus has been pensioned off and his latest book The Complaints and he’ll be signing after the event. 

Having told you all about that, the event is sold out, especially since I was on BBC Radio Scotland on Monday talking about our upcoming programme but at least you know the format for the future and hopefully for those of you who are now wishing you’d booked tickets, it will encourage you to head over to The Edinburgh Bookshop’s website and join our mailing list so that you’re one of the first to know about events. And if you’re an author reading this who’d like to come and talk to us about their inspirations do drop me an email.

There are some great events for which tickets are still available.  On 4th February Ruth Thomas, author Things to Make and Mend will be joining us to talk about Super Girl, her new collection of short stories.  We all love this book and Ruth is a witty and interesting speaker so it’s well worth coming along – tickets are available from the bookshop but do hurry as it’s being held in the shop itself and so space is limited.  Tickets are £5 with £5 off the cost of the book.

And event for which we have masses of space is the launch of Alexander McCall Smith’s new Lady Detectives book The Double Comfort Safari Club on 3rd March.  This is being held in Christ Church, the beautiful church opposite The Children’s Bookshop and so we have space for hundreds – given the popularity of the books I imagine we’ll fill it too!  Sandy is charming and amusing and his events are always great fun so do come if it’s at all possible.  Again, tickets available from The Edinburgh Bookshop.  Tickets are £5 and this is refundable in the form of a discount if you buy the book.  If you can’t get to the shop you can always call and book over the phone and we’ll post them out to you – 0131 229 9207. 

There a couple of other author events still to be finalised which we’ll be telling you about soon.  And, once we’ve checked out the venue, we have a very special event for Valentine’s Day to tell you about.  You’ll have to wait until next week to hear the details but it you pop along to the Fidra podcasts page and listen to BBC Scotland’s Book Cafe programme would be able to hear me talking to Stuart Kelly of Scotland on Sunday and poet and novelist John Burnside about our plans for the next couple of months and you’ll be forewarned as to what we’re planning…

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