EdinRep-Flit-PC (5 of 10)

  • The Edinburgh International Book Festival starts today
  • Flit at Edinburgh International Festival
  • Moderator to preach at St Mary’s
  • Young Ambassadors off on a sailing trip
  • Last chance to catch one of our Picks of the Fringe! 

All the tents and yurts are up and it is now time for the Book Festival to get going in Charlotte Square.

Running until 29 August you don’t even need a ticket to go along and soak up some of the atmosphere. The garden is open to all and there will be at least one pop-up with tea coffee and a light lunch available.

There are 750 events featuring over 800 writers from 55 countries around the world all taking place here in the next couple of weeks.

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Authors launching brand new books include Philippa Gregory, Jonathan Safran Foer, Ray Mears and Alan Cumming.

Other speakers include the former Prime Minster Gordon Brown, Scotland’s First Minster Nicola Sturgeon in conversation with the Scottish Makar, Jackie Kay; Mervyn King, former Governor of the Bank of England, Erica Jong, Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, Han Kang the winner of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize and seven of the authors long listed for the 2016 Man Booker Prize.

Under the over-arching theme of Imagine Better there are events on migration, well-being, literary legends and music and meaning, and debates on UK Politics, Young Adult Fiction, Scotland Now, Europe and the Transatlantic relationship between the USA and Europe.

Entry to Charlotte Square Gardens is free, and full details of the 2016 Edinburgh International Book Festival programme can be found at www.edbookfest.co.uk

Today’s photo is one of many taken by John Preece at the press call for Flit which was part of the Edinburgh International Festival. The work was inspired by human migration and was given a four star review by The Scotsman. 

Rt Rev Dr Russell Barr will preach at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral on Sunday 14 August, in a service to mark the start of the 2016 Edinburgh Festival. Dr Barr’s sermon will look at the relationship between Art and Faith.

Last Supper

On display during the event, will be ‘Our Last Supper’ a painting by Iain Campbell, the artist in residence at St George’s Tron in Glasgow.

Dr Barr said: “The Last Supper, the meal Jesus shared with his disciples shortly before his arrest, has been an inspiration to many great artists, notably Leonardo da Vinci. When Iain came to paint the scene he could have chosen to paint Jesus in the company of politicians or celebrities.  Instead, his disciples are some of the most vulnerable people of our day, men who attend Glasgow City Mission and who have personal experience of poverty, alcoholism and homelessness.

“The result is dramatic and as you look down the length of the table with the men – the disciples – seated on either side you sense a raw energy in the faces looking back at you. There is nothing soft focus, slushy and sentimental about this depiction of the Lord’s Supper.

Rather in the tired eyes and haggard faces staring back, you sense some brutally painful human stories behind the faces you see.”

 

Tomorrow morning, 32 Edinburgh Young Ambassadors (YAs) from across the city are sailing with the Royal Forth Yacht Club from Granton Harbour to Aberdour in Fife.

A grandparent of one of the Young Ambassadors is a member of the yacht club, and an invite was put out to them all to join in.

This is an excellent opportunity for the YAs across the city to come together, work as part of a team and take part in a fantastic sailing day.  Young Ambassadors is an exciting and energetic programme to help develop young people as leaders in sport.

Each year, two 5th and 6th year pupils from each secondary school in Scotland are chosen as Young Ambassadors to promote sport, and motivate and inspire other young people to get involved in sport in their schools, clubs and local communities.

This is a Sportscotland initiative which is led in Edinburgh by Active Schools and Edinburgh Leisure.

One of our Picks of the Fringe has been selling out during this last week, but its run comes to an end this evening, so hurry to get tickets if you want to see Strangers : A Magic Play at The Space at Jurys.

Read more here.

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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.