mercat grill doggy fun day

Mercat Grill Doggy Fun Day: in aid of the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home. Doggy coffee morning followed by Agility Competition, Beauty Competition and much more. East Coast FM will be broadcasting live. 10.30am (coffee morning), 12.30pm start of main doggy events, Mercat Grill, 10 Whitecraig Road, Musselburgh. To book please call 0800 124 4112.

Northern Streams Festival: a two day festival of music, song and dance from Scandinavia and Scotland. Today: 10.30am-6pm: various workshops (see Northern Streams website here for details). Tonight’s concert: Fiona Driver and Graham Simpson, a popular and exciting fiddle and guitar duo from Orkney with a large repertoire from Orkney, Shetland, Ireland, Scandinavia and further afield, including Fiona’s own award-winning compositions, and Swedish-Norwegian trio Oleman, with Annette Thorheim (accordion), Olof Misgeld (violin/viola) and Ebba Jacobsson (vocals). Oleman play lively music of unforgettable songs from the border between Sweden and Norway. 7.30pm, Grassmarket Centre, 86 Candlemaker Row. Tickets cost £10/£8 and are available via the Northern Streams website here. Please note that tickets cannot be purchased from the venue except during the festival itself. Northern Streams Festival is organised by the Edinburgh and Lothians branch of the Traditional Music and Song Association of Scotland.

TER St GilesLunchtime concert: Jillian Bain Christie (soprano) and Ashley Beauchamp (piano). 12.15pm, St Giles Cathedral, High Street. Free.

Image by Margaret Watkins
Image by Margaret Watkins

Anna Atkins: Cyanotypes and Margaret Watkins: Advertising Photography. A two person exhibition showcasing historically important work by Anna Atkins (1799-1871) and Margaret Watkins (1884-1969), who made pioneering photographic work in the 19th and 20th centuries respectively. Atkins’ name is synonymous with the cyanotype process; her scientific botanical studies, made using the camera-less ‘sun print’ technique, were informed by and contributed to the earliest experiments in photography in Britain. Margaret Watkins had a successful career as a photographer in Boston and New York before circumstances led to her relocation to Glasgow in the early 1920s. Her work became largely forgotten until her death in 1969: Stills will present examples of her advertising images for the first time in Edinburgh. 11am-6pm daily, Stills, 23 Cockburn Street. Ends 12th July 2015.

Christian-AidChristian Aid Sponsored Forth Bridge Cross: the 43rd annual crossing, with people from all over the East of Scotland – an enjoyable day out for people of all ages. Weather permitting, there will be a ceilidh outside the Forth Estuary Transport Offices on the South Queensferry side of the bridge before the walk begins – come early for some dancing! A prize for the best novelty fancy dress. 1pm (reception), 2-5pm (walk). To register and obtain your sponsorship pack with full details of the walk, meeting place, etc, click here. For more information please call Amy Menzies, Events Fundraising Officer, 0141 241 6138 or email amenzies@christian-aid.org.

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Balerno Village Screen: The Boxtrolls (PG). A young orphaned boy raised by underground cave-dwelling trash-collectors tries to save his friends from an evil exterminator – the town’s villain, Archibald Snatcher. 2.30pm, Balerno Village Screen, St Joseph’s Centre , Balerno. Balerno Village Screen is a community cinema run by volunteers. All screenings are free but you are asked to register in advance to give the organisers an idea of numbers. Registration may be made online via eventbrite here, or by obtaining a ticket from the Mill Cafe or Balerno Post Office.

national gallery

National Gallery Highlight Tours: an introduction to and tour of the National Gallery’s permanent collection, focusing on key paintings. 2-2.45pm or 3-3.45pm, Scottish National Gallery, The Mound. Free and unticketed.

summerhall historical fiction festival logoSummerhall Historical Fiction Festival. This three-day festival will explore the richness and variety of the historical novel – why writers love to write it and why readers delight in reading it. Today’s events:

(1) 10.30am: The deadly true story behind one of World War I’s best kept secrets. Andrew Williams discusses the history behind his acclaimed fourth novel The Suicide Club, set in 1917 in Field Marshal Haig’s HQ in France. ‘A master of the intelligent historical spy thriller’ (Alan Massie).

(2) 11.45am: Queering History – a panel discussion. Explore the challenges of writing a past for LGBT people with Ronald Frame, Kaite Welsh and Laura Macdougall.

(3)  3.15pm: Tales of derring-do in Elizabethan England. Comic and novelist Rob Newman discusses his fourth book The Trade Secret; after an oil shortage plunges Isfahan into darkness, renegade English servant Nat and eccentric Parisan poet Darius set out in search of the secret oil well said to lie beneath the Temple of Mithras.

(4) 4.30pm: Waterloo: Fact and Fiction. Iain Gale, well known for his fiction writing on the Napoleonic Wars,  offers an insight into the different challenges of writing about Waterloo as fact and fiction.

(5) 6pm: What next for the Comptroller-General? In the third of his acclaimed espionage thrillers The Spider of Sarajevo, Robert Wilton peers into the shadows to discover the political machinations and dangers lurking there in the final weeks before the outbreak of World War I. Wilton has worked in numerous government departments and been adviser to two Prime Ministers of Kosovo. Session chaired by Andrew Williams.

All events take place in the Red Lecture Theatre, Summerhall, 1 Summerhall. Tickets for each of today’s events cost £6/£3 (except those for Queering History which cost £7/£3.50) and may be purchased via the festival’s website here or by calling the Summerhall Box Office on 0131 560 1581. The festival concludes on Sunday 26th April.

bookbug rhymetime imageRhymetime: songs and tunes for young children and their parents and carers. 11-11.30am today and every Saturday, Newington Library, Fountainhall Road.

writing the north

Writing the North: an evening celebrating the poetry and music of Orkney and Shetland. This event follows a project of the same name, designed to bring together literary historians, museum professionals, schools and creative writers. 7-9pm, Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High Street. Tickets cost £10/£8 (+ transaction fee) and may be purchased online here or by calling the Centre Box Office on 0131 556 9579: tickets include a copy of the project’s book Archipelagos and a glass of wine after the event. Organised jointly by Scottish Storytelling Centre, Scottish Poetry Library, University of Edinburgh and Royal Society of Edinburgh. 

the lego movieSt Bride’s Family Cinema: see your favourite films for free! Juice and choc ices available during the interval for 50p. Please note that all children under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Today: The Lego Movie (U). 10.30am-12.30pm, St Bride’s Centre, Orwell Terrace, Dalry. All welcome!

out of the blue flea marketOut of the Blue Flea Market: over 45 stalls, selling clothes, jewellery, small furniture, music, books, bric-a-brac and much more. Delicious food and drink available to buy from the Drill Hall Arts Cafe. 10am-3pm, Out of the Blue Drill Hall, 36 Dalmeny Street.

bookbug 3Bookbug: for young children and their parents and carers. 10.30-11am, Oxgangs Library, Oxgangs Road North.

pedal on parliament poster

Pedal on Parliament 2015: a mass bike ride on Holyrood by ‘a grass-roots group of people who want to see Scotland become a place where active travel is safe and enjoyable for everyone, whether they cycle or not’. Starts 12 noon on The Meadows and proceeds to the Scottish Parliament, joined by feeder rides from all across Scotland. For more details of the route and other arrangements, please see the Pedal on Parliament website here.

Tell EnglandThe First World War in Cinema: Tell England (15). A rare screening from a BFI National Archive 35mm print of the 1931 adaptation of Ernest Raymond’s 1922 novel. Edgar Doe and Rupert Ray, boyhood friends, enlist in the British army at the outbreak of war in 1914: both receive commissions and are eventually sent to Gallipoli, where the horrors of war reveal themselves. The film was co-directed by Anthony Asquith, whose father was PM at the time of the Gallipoli landings, and Geoffrey Barkas, who had fought at Suvia Bay in the Gallipoli campaign. 4pm, Filmhouse, Lothian Road. Tickets cost £4 per person may be obtained online here or by calling the Box Office on 0131 228 2688. This screening is part of The First World War in Cinema, a four year series of films programmed in association with the University of Edinburgh; two more films on the Gallipoli Campaign will be shown later this year (Gelibolu on 27th May and Gallipoli on 7th August 2015).

Where Language Endswhere language ends: visual descriptive tour for visitors with sight impairments, led by Juliana Capes. 2pm, Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh, Old College, South Bridge. Free but booking is essential and may be made via eventbrite here.

French family saturdays - on joueFrench Family Saturdays: On Joue. Introduce your children to a popular piece of French culture with these all-in-French family sessions – today’s is all about games. From card games to board games, your children will have the chance to play in French, speak French and listen to French in a relaxed and joyful atmosphere – and as usual, a French gouter will be served. For ages 3-10. 12 noon-2pm, Institut francais d’Ecosse, 13 Randolph Crescent. £5 per child (£3 for members of the Institut). Advance booking is highly recommended: please email accueil@ifecosse.org.uk.

nearly new sale banner polwarthPolwarth Nearly New Sale: all ages of children’s clothes and toys, nursery equipment, maternity wear, high chairs, buggies, pushchairs and garden toys. 11am-1pm (queue usually starts around 10am), Polwarth Parish Church, Polwarth Terrace. No buggies can be taken into the hall, but a free and supervised buggy park is provided. Raising funds for Polwarth Parish Church and The Yard, an Edinburgh charity for disabled children.

torrance galleryThe Torrance Gallery new exhibition: Ken Ferguson. 10.30am-4pm today, then 11am-6pm Monday to Friday, 10.30am-4pm Saturdays, The Torrance Gallery, 36 Dundas Street. Ends 9th May 2015.

Shepherd House Garden Inveresk

Scotland’s Gardens: Shepherd House –  an artist’s garden. The house and its one acre garden form a walled triangle in the middle of the 18th century village of Inveresk. 11am-4pm, Shepherd House, Inveresk, Musselburgh. Entry £4 (children free) of which 40% goes to The Teapot Trust and the net remainder to Scotland’s Gardens beneficiaries. For more information please call 0131 665 2570. Also at same times on Sunday 26th April.

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Balerno Village Screen: Mr Turner (12A). A film exploring the last quarter century of the great if eccentric British painter JMW Turner. (an outstanding Timothy Spall). Before the screening, Frank and Stewart from folk band Holm will perform their ‘atmospheric Americana with a European avant-garde twist’ – you are warmly encouraged to come along early to enjoy the music. 7pm (music), 7.30pm (film), Balerno Village Screen, St Joseph’s Centre, Balerno. Balerno Village Screen is a community cinema run by volunteers. All screenings are free but you are asked to register in advance to give the organisers an idea of numbers. Registration may be made online via eventbrite here, or by obtaining a ticket from the Mill Cafe or Balerno Post Office.

salto - jump

Martin Scorsese Presents Masterpieces of Polish Cinema: a season of films curated by Scorsese, all screened in pristine digital restorations. Today: Jump (Salto) (cert tbc). (In Polish with subtitles). In this rich and subtle dream-play, a man arrives in a small country town and demands sanctuary from an unspecified threat. But who is he, why do people remember him differently, and can he really perform miracles? 6.15pm, Filmhouse, Lothian Road. Tickets may be obtained online here or by calling the Box Office on 0131 228 2688. This film will be shown again on at 8.45pm on Tuesday 12th May 2015.

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