New home

We were impressed by the new home for The Edinburgh International Book Festival - at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, in a building which used to be the Old Royal Infirmary. A big improvement from last year’s venue, certainly in terms of the main hall used for talks. Whether the outside area will work only time will tell. When we arrived at 9.15 it was empty, but when we left it was teeming with people, including a number of school groups. The poor weather which had been forecast did not arrive - just a few showers, which we managed to avoid.

We both went to listen to Kate Atkinson and she was excellent. It was a packed audience, she obviously has a huge following. I have read most of her novels at one time or another, but strangely none of her Jackson Brodie books, although my daughter, who is a Kate Atkinson fan, has read and loved all five. It is the sixth one that has just been published. I need to start from the beginning of the series I think. Gordon got a Kindle edition of ‘Case Histories’ last night and was soon into it. So the talk was of interest to us both. She talks as she writes with a wry sense of humour - great to listen to.

We also made it to our favourite Edinburgh place of all - Valvona and Crolla, Italian deli. We’ve been going there ever since we first visited Edinburgh, but hadn’t been for a while. We had a wonderful lunch and then bought cheese and bread to take home. We got a bus back to Newhaven and, as the day was by then sunny, we drove home by the scenic route, where the heather was just stunning.