Undiscovered Scotland

 

With a number of longer established and larger festivals such as the Fringe and the International Festival competing for your attention, it is too easy to overlook the joys of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, held in the University of Edinburgh’s Futures Institute and in venues close by, in August each year.

The Book Festival started life as a biennial festival in 1983, becoming an annual event in 1997. Now the world's biggest book festival, the Edinburgh International Book Festival sees capacity audiences, not just for world-renowned writers and thinkers, but also for new and international authors little known in the UK.

In 2024 the core of the Book Festival moved to its new home, the Edinburgh Futures Institute at Lauriston Place, and it returned there in 2025. The 2025 programme included nearly 700 events with over 650 authors in attendance. Authors and illustrators joined the festival from across the globe to share their stories, ideas and perspectives and there were in-person events for adults, children and teens, plus live streamed events on the Book Festival website. Over 161,000 visits were made to Futures Institute over the 16 days of the festival, with thousands of curious passers-by exploring and enjoying the site. Ticket sales increased by 11% and the Festival's global reach expanded, with nearly 19,000 viewers from 63 countries tuning in to streamed events. (Continues below images...)

 

Audiences enjoyed sessions with authors from every genre, welcomed exclusive previews of upcoming new books, as well as enjoying first sightings of new writing. The 2025 programme included literary titans like Ian McEwan, Maggie O'Farrell and RF Kuang, political figures like Yulia Navalnaya and Nicola Sturgeon, plus Ruth Jones, the celebrity co-creator of beloved sitcom 'Gavin and Stacey'. The Front List strand grew from 11 to 15 events, drawing 12,000 attendees to McEwan Hall to hear from these and other popular writers.

The Festival was themed 'Repair', sparking global conversations on literature, politics, and technology. There were a number of new format events, including the Paper Trails initiative which streamed events into 40+ libraries across 12 local authority areas, hosting 90+ watch parties. 'The People Speak', hosted by Anthony Arnove, featured stars like Viggo Mortensen and Stephen Rea, celebrating voices of dissent and protest. Theatre-infused events like Val McDermid's 'And Midnight Never Come' and 'Frankenstein Cabaret: It’s Alive!' added dramatic flair.

The brand new, dedicated Kids' Zone was full of families relaxing, catching up, and having fun for free, with huge queues to meet the Gruffalo, Pikachu and Supertato. Some of the sold-out events in the Children and Families programme included Julia Donaldson, with her world premiere of Paper Chase, Cressida Cowell, who also hosted a record-breaking back-to-back signing, and the iconic Michael Rosen.

The Book Festival's retail partner, Waterstones, saw sales of 35,000 books, with the bestseller list topped by standout titles from Scottish women including Mairi Kidd's 'The Specimens', and event led titles including 'Katabasis' by R F Kuang and Nicola Sturgeon's 'Frankly'.

The Book Festival is the largest public celebration of books and ideas in the world. Since the success and international prominence of the 2004 Book Festival, there has been rapid progress in developing Edinburgh's status as a major year-round literary centre. This resulted, in October 2004, in UNESCO's declaration of Edinburgh as the world's first ever City of Literature. Work is underway to create an international network of such cities, based on the Edinburgh model.

The core of the festival are the events that bring together authors and their readers. These include a series of book signings throughout the festival, as well as talks, interviews, discussions and more, all held inside the Futures Institute itself, in outdoor spaces hosting children's events, in the Spiegeltent and at other venues close by.

There is plenty of space to just sit back and relax, taking in the unique atmosphere generated by a gathering of like-minded people interested in understanding more about the world of books. Refreshments are available on site, with a choice of food vendors and a bar and, with any luck, visitors can also enjoy blue skies in Edinburgh in August.