The alert arrived at 10:30am: ‘I searched for your name in the 2025 Edinburgh Book Festival. In vain!’
This was followed by an unsmiling emoji and was posted to me on X (formerly Twitter) by a long-time supporter of my writing.
I’ve been dreading last week’s Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) programme announcement for some time. A couple of months ago, realising that the programming deadline had likely passed, I made a joke on X about missing being invited to festivals as I used to love the free tote bags that authors receive on arrival.
I almost deleted the joke, thinking it may sound a bit churlish, but people immediately expressed outrage that I hadn’t yet been booked for a single Scottish book festival, of which there are several.
Edinburgh hosts the biggest one.
