At the Opening Party of the 25th Edinburgh International Book Festival, Literary Agent Jenny Brown, shows off her surprise “Freedom of the Edinburgh International Book Festival” Award to Allan Little of the BBC. The inscription reads: “In Honour of 25 years of Dedication to Mud-Girt Tents and Unstinting Niceness”.

Jenny was the first Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which remains in its amazing home of Charlotte Square Gardens, but has grown considerably in size and stature over the years.

Further details about the Edinburgh International Book Festival here >

Mobile post sent by davidpetherick using Utterz.  Replies. ]]> http://edinburghfestival.org/2008/08/10/with-bill-paterson-edinburgh-book-festival/feed/ http://edinburghfestival.org/2008/08/09/follow-the-edinburgh-festival-on-twitter/ http://edinburghfestival.org/2008/08/09/follow-the-edinburgh-festival-on-twitter/#comments Sat, 09 Aug 2008 13:22:49 +0000 David Petherick http://edinburghfestival.org/?p=14 We’ll be adding feeds from all sorts of news sources tour our Edinburgh Festival Twitter Feed, as well as adding celebrity sightings (Saw Gordon Brown at the Book Festival this morning).

Just follow @edinburghfest on Twitter to keep up to date.

See BBC News Report >

The signings followed a hilarious and witty interview between the two authors, both from Canada, which included live questions from the Edinburgh audience.

Due to obvious time restraints, there were only a limited number of signings available, and high-tech met low-tech as audience members queueing for entry were handed raffle tickets for the chance to have a book signed, and Margaret Atwood, inventor of the Long Pen, and a distinguished novelist herself, drew the numbers from the hat.

Just 30 lucky audience members then were able to have their book placed on the amazing “long pen” device, and see and talk to the author signing their book from Canada - who naturally could see and talk to them - all of which was live, broadcast onto large screens, as part of the evening’s event. These tete-a-tete chats will also be added to the Long Pen web site, so that audience members will have the ability to share their chat with the author with a wider audience.

Roza Nazipova, my wife and business partner, asked a question during the audience questions sessions, which was largely, but charmingly, sidestepped by Alice Munro - as to her favourite Scottish or Russian authors, but she did confess to be working on writing about a Russian historical figure. Roza was lucky enough to have her number chosen for a book signing. In one of those odd coincidences in life, so too was a Canadian girl directly behind Roza in the queue, performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, a lifelong fan of both authors, and who had the sequential ticket above Roza’s winner (103 just for the curious numerologists among you). Naturally, she had booked her ticket online… but due to a glitch somewhere, had initially received the wrong tickets - but still, here she was. Roza had queued for five hours in June to make sure she had tickets for this event. It all seems to have been worth the effort.

Here is the signing taking place, and Roza Nazipova talking to Alice Munro:

Here is the signature (the book’s action begins in Edinburgh):

And here is Margaret Atwood adding her signature and inscription:

And this is the full inscription, which reads:
‘Alice Munro
and Margaret Atwood
did via LongPen on
August 15 2007′

A big thank you to Catherine Lockerbie, Edinburgh Book Festival Director, and all of the technical staff, for a long anticipated event that will be long remembered - not just for its novelty, but also for the wit, charm and humour of these two amazing authors.

And just think of all those air miles saved…

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