Edinburgh’s

Festivals

Countdown to World’s LargestFestival P3-4Exclusive Interviews with Gill Arbuthnott &Douglas Lindsay P5-8Also included: Edinburgh’s International Film festival, ArtsFestival and Military Tattoo P9

APRIL 2014Free Magazine

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Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival

is the biggest arts festival in

the world.

Thousands of performers

from all over the world take to

a multitude of stages to

perform in a wide range of

shows across the city.

Edinburgh comes alive with a

spectacle of performances

bringing different cultures

together in this three week

extravaganza.

Emma Glacken, Media

Manager for The Fringe

Festival, says visitors

attending this year’s festival

can expect a very exciting

and diverse program. The

fe stival is exceedingly popular

amongst locals and tourists

and Emma explains why:

“The Edinburgh Fringe

Festival is the biggest arts

festival in the world and

caters for every taste. It

includes theatre, comedy,

dance, physical theatre,

cabaret, children's shows,

musicals, operas, music,

spoken word, exhibitions and

events so there really is

something for everybody!

“The festival has an open

access policy, which means

that it isn’t programmed or

curated. The Fringe Society

does not produce any shows

or invite people to come along

and perform nor do we pay

fees for anyone to perform.

Absolutely any act can

perform at the Fringe as long

as they can find a venue to

host them. So that means

people can expect a very

exciting and diverse

programme.” Emma Adds.

Last year, the Fringe hosted

over 2,800 shows and an

estimated 1.9 million tickets

were sold for events across

the festival’s 273 venues

dotted around the capital. The

sheer scale of the festival

takes a copious amount of

time and organisation as

Emma explains. “Planning the

Fringe is a constantly ongoing

process. Even though the

festival is only on for three

weeks in August, the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Society works throughout the

year preparing for the event.

Fringe Spectacular

“Fringe brings £150

million of

investment into the

city every year”

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“Preparations include organis-

ing worldwide events to inform

potential participants about the

festival, the registration of all

participants, meeting with and

assisting venues who are

hosting shows during the

Fringe, organising the on sale

of tickets and the launch of the

programme,”

With this amount of

preparation, a festival of this

scale and size comes at a very

hefty price. Without divulging

too much information, Emma

can’t reveal the exact cost of

festival, partly due to the open

access nature of the event it’s

very hard to tell, but does

clarify that the Fringe brings

£150 million of investment into

the city every year.

Summer of 2014 will see

Scotland play host to the

Commonwealth Games, which

will be held in venues all

across Glasgow. Emma

explains what the impact of the

Commonwealth Games will

have on this year’s festival:

“Scotland has a very colourful

cultural calendar planned for

2014 including Homecoming,

Bannockburn 700 year an-

niversary, Commonwealth

Games, Forth Bridges Festival,

Ryder Cup and MTV Europe

Music Awards.”

She adds: “It’s difficult to say

whether we think any of these

events will have an impact on

the Edinburgh Festival Fringe,

which has been a recurring

event in the capital every

August since 1947. What we

hope is that audiences from

Scotland and around the world

continue to support the Fringe

and all other cultural events

taking place in Scotland in

2014.”

Registration is still open for

performers to enter this year’s

festival. The exact programme

and line up will not be

announced until mid-June. In

2013, over 24,000 performers

from 41 countries came to the

festival so; organisers are

hoping this year will be bigger

and better.

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Award winning children’s

writer Gill Arbuthnott is thrilled

to be making an appearance at

this year’s International Book

Festival in Edinburgh.

The festival, which is sched-

uled to begin on August 9 for

three weeks, will be held in

Charlotte Square Gardens

(west end of George Street),

where visitors can interact with

their favorite author, take part

in a writing workshop or de-

bate, or simply park them-

selves on the grass with a

book and soak up the atmos-

phere.

Mum-of-two Gill was born and

raised in Edinburgh where she

attended James Gillespies’

school before going to St

Andrew’s University where she

studied Zoology. She then

moved to Southampton and

completed two years of

medical research. When she

arrived back in Edinburgh, she

took up a biology teaching post

and has settled there ever

since. Now married with two

children, a cat and the occa-

sional use of a snake, Gill

teaches part-time and writes

whenever she gets the chance,

which she admits isn’t nearly

often enough.

Gill explains where she gets

inspiration for her stories.

“Ideas can come from

anywhere, at any time – you

have to be on the lookout for

them! I get a lot of inspiration

from legends and folk tales

associated with particular

places,” says Gill.

“My first novel The Chaos

Clock was inspired by The

Millennium Clock in the Royal

Museum of Scotland. I’ve also

had ideas sparked by songs,

overheard conversations,

pictures in papers and

magazines – all sorts of things,

almost anything can trigger

something in your mind.”

Writing for an audience aged

5-15 can be tough and a rather

hard crowd to please as Gill

explains: “You get absolutely

honest feedback, which is

scary, but hugely helpful.

“Generally, children will not lie

to be polite, so I find out very

quickly if parts of a story have

been boring or confusing, for

instance. At the same time,

they are very generous – they

will give almost any scenario in

a book a go if you make it

good enough.

“I love doing school visits and

meeting enthusiastic readers.

They read books really closely,

and display a fantastic memory

for detail, unlike us senile 40

year olds,” adds Gill.

Scotland has a very rich

history of famous and

successful writers. Having

wanted to be a writer since a

very young age, Gill reveals

some of the authors and books

that have been major

influences in her writing:

“Without a doubt, it’s Sunset

Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon

– perhaps not an obvious

answer for a children’s writer! I

remember reading it for the

first time and being dazzled by

the way landscape almost

became a character, and

loving the internal monologues

of the heroine, Chris Guthrie.

“This has certainly been an

influence on how I write. It also

has a bit of a personal link as

Grassic Gibbon lived and died

in the village of Arbuthnott. I

still find the last few pages of

Sunset Song deeply moving.

“Dorothy Dunnet’s Lymond

Chronicles has also been a

huge influence. Apart from

learning a lot about history, I

love her female characters –

strong, clever and much braver

than they think,” adds Gill.

Gill Arbuthnott

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Gill began her career as a

writer by writing books for

adults but as she explains, “I

just amassed a splendid

collection of rejection slips”. In

spite of this, she has now just

published her seventh

successful children’s book,

Beneath, and now reveals her

plans for the future: “World

domination, preferably but,

failing that, writing books that

readers love, whether those

are novels, picture books or

science books.

“I’ve just begun work on a new

novel and, since I’m not much

of a planner, it’s at the exciting

stage where I have to write it to

find out what it’s about!”

Gill admits that she found it

hard to get

started on her

first novel, having

had no previous

experience of

writing, so for

aspiring authors

listen up as she

reveals her wise words of

wisdom. “Firstly, don't keep

talking about it, just get on and

start writing. And don’t say you

haven’t got enough time. If you

really want to write, you’d

make the time,” explains Gill.

“Secondly, read and read and

read. And then read some

more. Think about what makes

you enjoy a particular writer or

book. Thirdly, be patient. You

are unlikely to find success

overnight. Or in a

year. Lastly, be

persistent. Don't be

put off by

rejections, but do

pay attention to

any advice in the

rejection letter if you’re lucky

enough to get a personalized

one! (It may not feel lucky, but

it is...) Keep going. Enjoy your

writing! If you don't, is it likely

anyone else will?”

The programme for the

Edinburgh International Book

Festival will be released June

12 and tickets can be

purchased on and after that

day on the website. Entry to

the Gardens is free and

everyone is welcome.

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Crime writer Douglas Lindsay

will be making his very first

appearance at this year’s

International Book Festival in

August.

The festival, which is held in

Edinburgh’s town centre,

welcomes authors from all over

the world to take part in

various workshops and book

signings.

Douglas, who was born and

bred in Lanarkshire, has been

writing for almost two decades

and is most famous for his

Barney Thomson novels. Now

living in the south of England,

Douglas splits his time be-

tween writing and family life.

He lives at home with his wife,

Kathryn and two children, Jes-

sica and Hamish who, accord-

ing to Douglas, see him as

‘some bloke who lives with us

and who shouts if we start

throwing food at the dinner

table’.

Trying not to reveal any

information about his perform-

ance at the book festival,

Douglas explains why he loves

being a writer: “The main thing

for me is I don't have to go to

an office. I enjoy the freedom

to use my imagination, the

freedom to write what I want

and I suppose there's also

freedom of working hours, al-

though at the moment I tend to

work 9 to 5 at home, while the

children are at school.”

Douglas has written and

published over 20 books and

although many are full of

gruesomeness and death,

critics commend his wacky

ideas and ability to have his

audience in stitches of

laughter. “I don't go looking for

ideas them they just come to

me,” explains Douglas.

“I have several notebooks on

the go, and I make random

notes and ideas all the time,

and should I ever be stuck for

something, usually a trawl

through one of them will pro-

vide inspiration. I run a lot,

which is good thinking time.

“I don't usually take plot lines

from things that have hap-

pened in every day life, but I

will use real events and people

in little cameos. Having said

that, my latest crime novel cen-

ters around the merger of sev-

eral Church of Scotland

churches in a small town,

which is what happened

recently in my hometown.

That's unusual though.”

Before writing became a part

of Douglas’ life, he lived in

Belgium, where he met

Kathryn, and then, Senegal,

West Africa. It was in Africa

where he developed the

character of Barney Thomson ,

while sitting in an air-

conditioned apartment drinking

gin and tonic at eight in the

morning.

“ I enjoy the freedom to use my

imagination”

Debut Performance

for Douglas

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He reveals what influenced

him to write: “I'm not a big

reader, and really can't say that

I've been influenced by any

Scottish author. The one I've

read the most is Robert Louis

Stevenson, but that was mostly

before I started writing, and I

can't honestly say it was an in-

spiration. I just enjoyed them.

“The fiction author I've read the

most recently is Haruki Mu-

rakami - obviously not Scottish!

- And his writing is having quite

an influence, although I think

just because I feel I already

tend to write in a similar way

and reading his books has

given me more freedom to

write the things I want. And by

that, I mean weirdness. He

makes it OK to have weird

things happen.” He adds.

This year looks to be busy but

rewarding for the renowned

author, who gives us a little in-

sight into what we can expect.

He reveals: “I've written a se-

ries of seven Barney Thomson

novels: I think I might do one

more of them and I've just fin-

ished the third DS Hutton novel

so I’m planning to do at least

one more.

“I wrote a book entitled WE

ARE THE HANGED MAN,

which is intended as the first of

a trilogy. The next book I'm in-

tending to write will be the sec-

ond in this, WE ARE DEATH.”

He adds.

“My next book to be published

is not a crime novel, like all the

others, entitled BEING FOR

THE BENEFIT OF MR KITE!

There is Definite Murakami in-

fluence in this one, so no

crime, just strange goings-on.”

Programmes for the festival

will be out mid June.

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The Edinburgh Art Festival is the UK’s

largest annual celebration of visual art.

Founded in 2004, the festival exhibits

some of the best contemporary Scottish

artists of the 21st Century and attracts

over 250,000 visitors each year. This

year, the festival will include over 45

exhibitions showcasing some of the best

contemporary art alongside important

artists and works from modern and

historical periods. Full details of the 2014

programme will be announced at the end

of April. For more information visit

www.edinburghartfestival.comThe Royal Edinburgh Military

Tattoo is infamous for its

show stopping spectacular.

Performers from over 46

countries have taken part in

the Tattoo, and around 30 per

cent of the 220,000 audience

each year are from overseas.

Performances will run from

Monday - Friday at 9pm &

Saturday at 7:30pm &

10:30pm. Tickets are on sale

now. For more information

visit www.edintatoo.co.uk

DON’T MISS...

Founded in 1947, the

Edinburgh International

Festival invites the world’s

best artists and companies to

perform in classical music,

theatre, opera and dance. For

more information or to view

the full diary of events visit

www.eif.co.uk/diary

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