West Port

With all of these looming deadlines and dreaded exams, my flatmates and I decided it was time we took a break from our hard work.

So, taking advantage of our 'clever intellectual student' mode, we caught some of the closing events of West Port Book Festival.

 

First we headed to Edinburgh Books for our first event! 

We admired their healthy, not to mention ageing, stock.
Deliciously embellished spines filled every shelf and we were left feeling slightly nostalgic after discovering their generous selection of Ladybird Books!

 

We settled down amongst an intimate audience to hear extracts from 'The Locked Ward' read by the writer himself - Dennis O'Donnell.

A memoir of his time as a psychiatric orderly, his novel gives insight into the lives of a selection of people suffering from various mental illnesses and re-establishes them as human beings rather than products of their condition.
Following an intense discussion, this book has made its way onto my wish list and promises to be a worth read.

Now we were left to explore this little store some more!

 

Edinburgh Books' answer to a guard dog.
We were told he comes alive at night.
We won't argue...

 

Heading downstairs to the music department.
We got distracted by their antique typewriter and couldn't resist a little play!

 

 

 

For our second, and unfortunately, last event -a very short festival for us- we trekked all the way to Love Crumbs, a lovely cafe just two doors down from venue number one!

After that little burst of exercise we felt we deserved a warm drink (and a sneaky cake or three), to keep cosy as we absorbed the history of the book, given to us Sara Sheridan, an Edinburgh based writer.

 

 

Very refreshing.
Now, back to those deadlines and exams...