Beyond the Fringe: catch up with the Edinburgh Literature Festival

Few places are reeling from the fallout of the pandemic like Edinburgh. The loss of this years  Edinburgh Fringe has blasted a big coronavirus  shaped hole in the city’s cultural calendar and sent shockwaves through the world of comedy.
For all the moans about its exclusivity, its tendency to favour the monied ranks of the white middle class, for both audiences and performers, the Fringe is both highly influential and a big money-spinner. It’s important and it opens doors. It is also part of the right of passage for some exciting new names.
Despite the famous and very accurate assertion that “Edinburgh is a city, not a festival”, for some it remains pretty well defined by the theatrical shenanigans that take place throughout August.
It is good therefore to see some cultural eyes are still focusing on the Scottish capital as the Edinburgh International Book Festival gets underway, although not entirely in traditional format. This year the literary fest is being live-streamed from  a couple of studios in the city centre and then recorded to YouTube. In other words you can watch events live or save it up and view at your leisure.
This weekend saw a programme that included big names like Hilary Mantel and Maggie O’Farrell while our good friend and sometime Clive Conway Production’s speaker Joan Bakewell was in conversation with Val McDermid. Click this link to check it out. https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/watch-again