Excitement … I’ve arrived at the Edinburgh Book Festival, the sun is shining (contrary to weather forecasts) and I’ve found the Authors’ Yurt in Charlotte Square Garden’s literary tentworld. I may be only one of this year’s 797 participants, but wearing a blue-ribboned author tag means I can access free cake and/or wifi and do a bit of celebrity spotting before heading off to do a recce of the RBS Story Box, where I’ll be running 2 comics strip workshops tomorrow. Pamela Stephenson-Connolly, looking very glam in high heels and carrying a leopard print handbag, is heading off to her event “Sexual Relationships Laid Bare” at the main theatre. The queue for her talk is the longest I’ve ever seen at a book festival. At the Story Box I check equipment. All the drawing paper has the RBS logo on it – not good. But everything else I asked for is all in place for tomorrow morning’s Blast Off! event, one of two workshops promoting the Big Fat Book of Knowledge, an omnibus edition of three Bloomsbury comic strip books I’ve worked on with Tracey Turner.
My hotel (courtesy of the Festival) is pretty luxe, and the view over the Forth of Firth from my bedroom is stunning, but there’s a slight technical problem. Every time I try to get online in my room, my laptop turns on the TV instead. “Never seen anything like that before” says the hotel’s IT person.