Twitter Tweets about Edinburgh Festival as of August 13, 2010 August 13, 2010
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First Hidden Artwork discovered at Dean Gallery
. 2 days next week – going to the edinburgh festival. you?With Bill Paterson, Edinburgh Book Festival August 10, 2008
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David Petherick and Bill Patterson at Edinburgh Book Festival 09-Aug-08
The Edinburgh International Book Festival kicked off yesterday, starting its 25th year. I was delighted to meet up with Bill Paterson, a great actor, and also, of course, an author. As you can see, it was another glorious Scottish summer evening. The rain was not horizontal.
Shall we plug the book with a link here Bill? No, too crass.
Follow the Edinburgh Festival on Twitter August 9, 2008
Posted by David Petherick in : Festivals,General,Tweet Talk , add a commentWe’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.
Edinburgh Book Festival: Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood virtually, really, write longhand… August 16, 2007
Posted by David Petherick in : Book Festival,Books,Events,Reviews,Tweet Talk , add a commentEdinburgh’s fantastic International Book Festival was buzzing last night, as a sell-out audience of 600 witnessed the first ever Canadian-Scottish live translatlantic book signings, when Canadian Author Alice Munro, in the Bayfield Bookshop, Bayfield, Ontario, signed books for audience members in Edinburgh, using author Margaret Atwood’s amazing “Long Pen”.
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… 
