My final trip to Edinburgh this August.
I mistimed my departure, so I arrived in Edinburgh later than intended. Heading directly to the Caley Picture House Wetherspoons from the West End tram stop, I had 40 minutes to order and eat my lunch if I were to reach the Book Festival site in time.
It was close, but I made it, ending up drenched in sweat and having to use my shirt sleeve to wipe away the sheen from my scalp. I must have looked disgusting to the kids waiting with me in the queue for Katherine Rundell.
Impossible Creatures Made Real with Katherine Rundell, 13:30 - 14:30
Event Brochure Entry
Dragons, griffins, sphinxes, centaurs – on a cluster of magical islands called the Archipelago, creatures of myth still live. Katherine Rundell’s multi-award-winning Impossible Creatures series tells the story of how an ordinary boy and a flying girl get swept up in adventures they’ll never forget. Today, Katherine shares the epic third book, The Neverfear – how did she create such a richly imagined world? And what tips does she have for budding young writers with wild imaginations?
Ticket Price: £8
I adore Katherine's fiction. Her middle-grade fantasy fiction is so vivid and imaginative. She was really the driving force to visit the capital again. This would be my first experience seeing her in person.
Upon entry, the front section filled up quickly; lots of kids were desperate to get as close to the front as possible. I chose a seat at the end of the front row of the raked seating away from everyone else, conscious that I was still sweating profusely.
Katherine's event felt like a TED Talk given by the best primary school teacher in the world. Armed with her clicker, she stood on the stage below her giant screen and addressed us with passion and enthusiasm, introducing us to her process. Her worldbuilding often begins with the foods. The rich tastes and smells help immerse the reader in her world. In real life, she likes to research her characters' experiences as much as possible, so she learned to fly a biplane, kayaked up the Amazon, met huskies and even practised walking a tightrope.
One story involved her characters eating a tarantula. She didn't get to taste one on her Amazon trip, so, in her book, she used the description the natives related, that it tasted of fish or prawn. Much later, she happened upon a supplier of ethically sourced tinned tarantula and tried it. Yuck! It tasted horrible, like burnt hair. She didn't amend the description in the book, though, because it was possible that fresh tarantula tasted nicer than the tinned variety.
She often incorporates a young creature into her stories, as they represent life continuing. All her book creatures are based on actual folklore creatures from around the world. When she describes them, she bases the creatures on real-world alternatives, so unicorns are like horses and gaganas are like crows.
She asked the audience lots of questions, and the kids were all keen to answer, raising their arms straight into the air. What was especially amazing was how Katherine could take their What If? ideas and spin them off in five or six directions off the top of her head. Katherine's humour shone throughout the talk, as did her passion for writing. It was inspiring to listen to her.
Afterwards, the kids rushed to the bookshop like a fast-moving river. The oldies, like me, couldn't keep up, walking at a more dignified pace. I ended up about halfway back in the book signing queue. It took forty minutes to reach the front, despite Waterstones' slick operation of writing the name in advance on a Post-It and sticking it like a bookmark onto the signing page. So many of the kids had questions to ask her, and nearly all of them wanted a picture. A lucky few received a card featuring one of the Impossible Creatures. They weren't handed out to adults, though. When it was my turn to get my book signed, I clammed up, content to receive her autograph and a smile.
Writing the Darkness with Patrick Ness, 15:30 - 16:30
Event Brochure Entry
Patrick Ness is a titan of Young Adult literature. Author of modern classic, The Knife of Never Letting Go, he returns to the world of the bestselling Chaos Walking trilogy with Piper at the Gates of Dusk. Blending sci-fi, speculative fiction, and adventure, it’s a story of power, division, and hope. Hear Patrick talk about going back to a world he created nearly 20 years ago and what it takes to write award-winning science fiction.
Ticket Price £15.50
Donations: Support our Schools Programme £2.00
The queue for Patrick Ness was not too long when I joined it at 3.10 pm. The rain was spitting again, so I was glad to be under the cover of the Courtyard tent. Patrick's audience skews older, more YA, but there were as many adults as teens present. As we filtered in, I ended up with a seat in the front-row aisle. At the very end of the row was a man holding a sleeping, four-month-old baby, which turned out to be Patrick's.
Patrick is gay, American and remarkably urbane. He grew up closeted in a small Christian conservative town. His writing helped him form his identity. He believes spite and defiance will take you a long way in the publishing world, and even when people reject you, write anyway.
As he writes both YA and adult fiction, he was asked what the difference was. He said in YA, the protagonists push the boundaries, discovering where they lie, while adult fiction is often more about being trapped within those boundaries.
He's funny but painfully frank in his replies, admitting he's bitter about how the Chaos Walking film was handled and noting that Tom Holland never once mentioned the project's name during the press junket. He had a far better experience working with Spielberg on "A Monster Calls".
He is a staunch advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. One of the new heroes in his latest work is a trans man. He felt it was important to explore that experience. In answer to one of the interviewer's questions, he refused to use Harry Potter as the example he had used in the past, as he now regards JK as the Evil One, thanks to her using her wealth to push an anti-trans agenda.
During the Q&A, an older woman with a prim-sounding voice began her question: "In Edinburgh, we are a polite people, so I think you should apologise for those comments you made about JK-" That's as far as she got. Patrick snapped, "I'll cut you off right there." His temper boiled, and he explained to her passionately why JK's views are so harmful, especially to his readers. He stopped short of having her removed from the room, but did joke at the end that everyone was welcome to join him at the bookshop to get their books signed, "Except you", pointing to the woman in question. He apologised multiple times for losing his cool, but we understood why.
I didn't have a book to get signed, so afterwards I exited the Book Festival site to look for something for my dinner, buying a meal deal from the nearby Tesco Local.
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| Patrick hates doing book readings |
My next show wasn't for a few hours, so I bought an ice cream (two scoops, one of lemon drizzle and one of passionfruit) and wandered over to the Pleasance to see if there was anything available starting soon that took my fancy. There wasn't. I sat on a wall, ate my wrap, used the on-site toilet facilities, and headed across to Cab Vol 1.
Felicity Ward was chatting with a pal in the booth behind me. I didn't eavesdrop; instead, I read my Kindle and scrolled through social media.
Edinburgh Fringe
18:40 (1hr) Dan Rath: Help Me Please
Cab Vol 1. Ticket Price: £14 (& 1.50 BF) = £15.50
Blurb:
You probably already know me from reading the news. In 2018, I dressed up as a sewing needle and hid inside a strawberry. There should be a French word for the moment you realize a bald dude actually has a ponytail. I'm so used to failure that success represents an existential threat. 'His mind works like no other' ***** (Chortle.co.uk). 'The speed and frequency of his jokes is dizzying… Buckle up' **** (Guardian). 'Book yesterday' **** (Age). New Faces of Comedy, Just For Laughs Montreal, 2025 Winner: Best of the Fest Sydney Comedy Festival.
Dan died on his arse tonight. The room was less than half full. The audience had largely ignored the ushers' attempts to wrangle us to the front, so we were spread out across the space, leaving many empty seats. The crowd on one side of the room laughed loudly and heartily, but it sounded forced. On my side of the room, there was mostly silence with occasional titters, creating an odd imbalance.
This threw Dan, who never managed to make his material flow. Normally, he pauses to ride the laughter, but tonight those silent pauses turned awkward. He worked hard to laugh off the bombs, mentioning how "that one usually gets a laugh". He did have some good lines, but I felt he sometimes rambled on too much after the joke, diminishing its effect, like a gymnast stumbling a couple of steps after landing. Compared to last year's brilliant show, this one felt like it was composed of castoffs that didn't fit.
You know it isn't going well when the comedian pauses to ask an audience member where they heard about the show, and this develops into an audience survey as he randomly picks person after person to tell him, none of it eliciting any laughs.
Ouch!
20:00 (1hr) Li Jin Hao: Falling From a Moon
Pleasance Courtyard Above. Ticket Price: £15 (& £1.50 BF) = £16.50
Blurb:
I'm addicted to time travel. I keep thinking of the past. I want to go back. Not too far though. Not Pangea. Remember Pangea? It was the first Brexit. This was when T-rexes were playing scissors scissors scissors. Before they added rock and paper to the game. That's when the game got heavy. Everything's heavy now. I feel the gravity. Back then things felt lighter, like being on the moon. Let's go there. Meet me on the moon. Edinburgh Comedy Awards Best Newcomer nominee 2024. ***** (Telegraph). ***** (Skinny). **** (Scotsman). **** (Observer).
I nipped out sharply from Cab Vol 1 as I only had twenty minutes before my next show at Pleasance Above. The queue had started but wasn't too long, despite the show being a sellout (and nominated for the Edinburgh Award). I ended up with a seat in the middle of the second row.
I've seen Li a few times now. When he started out, his opening ten-minute set established his USP as a soft-spoken, otherworldly comedian with well-hidden, left-field punchlines. His debut hour expanded on this, but was still a little rough. This show brings everything together beautifully, blending the mystical with the mundane, playful and funny in equal measure. He remains in the moment, responding to the sound and movement of the audience, stepping out of the routine to comment on someone scratching their nose, sometimes copying someone's cough or a stray laugh before returning to the material. That keeps the atmosphere electric.
I liked how he used the large full-moon prop, lit in different ways, subliminally creating the effect of passing time.
A genuinely funny and illuminating show.
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