Over the past 17 days, the Edinburgh International Book Festival has welcomed more than 800 authors from 55 countries taking part in almost 800 events. One was former Home Secretary Alan Johnson, whose latest memoirs Please, Mister Postman, is a sequel to his acclaimed 2013 autobiography, This Boy. All photos by Ivon Bartholomew
Scotland's former First Minister Alex Salmond joined Channel 4’s economics editor Paul Mason in the festival's Changing Britain series of events, to discuss alternative ways of achieving a fairer society in a post-capitalist future.
In Honourable Friends? the UK's first and only Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas, challenges the Westminster establishment, revealing the secret workings of parliamentary life and suggesting ways that we could be governed better.
Star of Calendar Girls and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Celia Imrie was at the book festival to promote her light-hearted first novel, Not Quite Nice, a comedy set on the French Riviera.
Writer and broadcaster Prof Robert Winston was at the book festival again this year, to talk about his latest book for young readers, The Utterly Amazing Human Body.
Former Orange Juice singer/songwriter Edwyn Collins, along with his wife Grace Maxwell, appeared with Ian Rankin, to discuss The Possibilities Are Endless, a book and documentary charting Collins' return to relative good health after two massive strokes in 2005.
In his book My Scotland, Our Britain, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown speaks in support of a strong Scottish Parliament within the UK.
Whose Line Is It Anyway? improvisation star, online podcaster and comedian Greg Proops, was in Edinburgh to promote his ideas in The Smartest Book in the World, a compendium of Proops’ insights on a wide range of subjects, from politics and history to music and film.
In her debut novel, Losing It, well-known comedian Helen Lederer tells the story of Millie, who was once known for TV and radio appearances but is now broke, overweight and with a daughter in Papua New Guinea.
Former US Presidential candidate and one of the most influential civil rights activists of our time, the Reverend Jesse Jackson was in Edinburgh to give a keynote speech about a career spent campaigning for black rights and human understanding.
Comedian, entertainer and novelist Julian Clary attended the book festival with illustrator David Roberts, to talk about their light-hearted new book, The Bolds.
Star of BBC Scotland's Bafta-winning Limmy’s Show, Limmy (aka Brian Limond) is enjoying success with his first book, Daft Wee Stories, an original, unnerving, hilarious collection of stories delivered in his usual inimitable style.
Fans of Glasgow-based thriller writer Louise Welsh came to the festival to hear the author talk about her second instalment in the Plague Times trilogy, Death is a Welcome Guest, which is set in a plague-torn, dystopian London.
Goodness Gracious Me screenwriter and star and author of Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee, Meera Syal, was back to Edinburgh for the first time since 2000 to discuss her new novel. The House of Hidden Mothers moves between East London’s Little India and a village in rural India in a moving story that shows the lengths some women will go to when they want to have a child.
Nicola Sturgeon met one of her favourite Scottish writers, Val McDermid, to discuss the author's new book, Splinter the Silence and Stranded, a collection of short stories that range from passion and revenge in St Petersburg to the sleazy flipside of the international publishing scene.
Richard Coles, formerly of 1980s pop duo The Communards, subsequently resurrected his career as a Church of England minister. In his book, Fathomless Riches, he explains how he reconciled his old life with a more contemplative self.
Stella Rimington, the former head of MI5 is the latest in a long line of secret agents to become fiction writers. In her new novel, Close Call, she once again features her British intelligence agent Liz Carlyle, tracking targets in the international arms trade.
