2019: Science, the railway, and cultural history enhance our well-established structure.
With the staples of our programme firmly established: viz. talks, modern Scottish authors like Denzil Meyrick and Rosemary Goring, the children’s writing competition, and a session with the Local Authors, we worked hard at developing some other book-related events.
Alison Sheridan from the National Museum amazed us with her Scientific Supper talk on Bronze Age discoveries in our area.
Archie Clark used his contacts to develop a magnificent exhibition and model layout of the late-lamented Balerno Branch line in Colinton and Currie Libraries. The History walk explored part of the route and included visiting the extraordinary Colinton Tunnel project.
We made a second unsuccessful attempt to welcome Jackie Kay but did manage to collaborate very happily with Pentland Art Club to organize a lively session with the children’s book illustrator Kasia Matyjaszek, who had us all drawing mischievous dogs and sly cats for our own delight.
A very popular visit to the School of Scottish Studies showed us both the wealth of their archive and their ongoing work to value and preserve our national culture.
Mike Scott, the energetic link to Colinton audiences, retired after the festival to concentrate on the Tunnel project. Large roadside banners, leafletting the surgery’s flu-jag queue, and taking a half-stall at Balerno Market all helped to widen our audience.
Pentlands Book Festival: 6 Nov - 3 Dec 2025 