Pentlands Book Festival: 6 Nov – 3 Dec 2025

We’re looking back at the engaging events and wonderful audiences over a period of seven weeks.

This year was the tenth year that the Pentlands Book Festival has run. We put on 14 events and over 540 ticket holders came out to support us. The 2024 flyer can be downloaded here if you want a reminder of what went on.

Once again, we worked with our retail partner, Blackwells, to sell books at some of the events. The book this year which sold the most copies at the events was “A Very Simple Mind” by Derek Forbes.

Free bookmarks were given away to those who purchased books. There was also a commemorative stamp available.

We ran PBF2024 over an extended period this year. This was partly due to authors’ availability. It was also partly due to committee members’ availability. Furthermore, it served as an experiment.  We will survey audience members to see if this is a preferred format.

Lin Anderson, Stef Lyons, and Marsali Taylor gave us a heavy dose of crime fiction. Graeme Johncock and Linda Cracknell satisfied our curiosity about exploring our wonderful countryside. We heard from Derek Forbes about his life in Simple Minds. Allan Little shared insights about his career in current affairs. David Greig discussed his first book. He transitions from his role as Artistic Director of the Lyceum to full-time writer. And Alan Bissett brought Moira back for an unforgettable finale to the Moira Monologues trilogy. But all the authors attracted enthusiastic crowds and many of the audiences took away a book or two to indulge in a new favourite author’s writings.

Audience donations were gratefully received at the events and afterwards online. There is a donations link on our website should anyone wish to support us throughout the year.

A gallery of photos from this year’s events has been uploaded to the website. More photos can be seen on our Instagram account.

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone again in 2025. Planning will start in the new year once we have had a well-earned rest.

If you know anyone who is interested in attending or speaking next year, please share this bulletin. Encourage them to sign up to be first to hear our news.