Look! Books
To understand the literary history of Edinburgh simply open a book.
The festival
Run on generosity and goodwill, rather than on any kind of feasible budget, the West Port Book Festival has evolved from a brittle idea into a redoubtable reality. Our aim has been to offer free events to a diverse audience who share our passion for books, bookshops and fun. Although fond of the past, we’re also enthusiastic about the future. We organised the world’s first Literary Twestival in 2009 and can often be found building literary apps, twittering, friending people and blogging.
Although we do exist, we don’t have an office so you are best tracking us down online. We’ll do our best to keep our website current and post news on Twitter and Facebook. Or simply email us at: info@westportbookfestival.org. The West Port booksellers are gracious, but not a font of all WPBF knowledge. Please contact us instead!
The bookshops
Nine independent bookshops, one bookbinder; the West Port boasts a concentration of bookshops that is unparalleled in most British cities. Each bookshop has its own atmosphere and ethos, whether rare and respectable or dog-eared and slightly foxed. All are home to the ineffable workings of serendipity.
The area
Home to rum clubs, tea apologists and vintage clothing venders, the West Port is a lively, independent area that has rather more to it than its obvious, um, ‘assets’. The pavements of the West Port have always been imprinted with the memory of conflicting footsteps. Specialist shops sell clothes and painted canvasses; strip joints show unlikely silhouettes in black and pink; secondhand bookshops entice bibliomaniacs.