Free events at Edinburgh International Book Festival

There's always lots going on at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, but it can be very expensive. Tickets for most events are £10 and then if you do the expected thing and buy the speakers' books, an event can easily lead to you spending another £30 on top of your ticket price.

I'm delighted this year to have a press pass and so I've been able to get free tickets for several events (and you can read my reviews for these events over on Crafty Green Poet). However, some events are free for everyone! These include:

Story Shop - an up-and-coming Edinburgh writer reads a short story at 4pm every day in the Spiegeltent. You can see the list of readers here. (You may notice that I will be reading a story on Tuesday 23 August).

Unbound - two hours of entertainment for free from 9pm every evening in the Spiegeltent. Last night Kristin Hersh sang and read from her memoirs, it was a brilliant evening! Tonight the Golden Hour, Edinburgh's regular monthly cabaret of music, stories, poetry and cartoons comes to Unbound. You can see the whole Unbound programme here. You may need to turn up early to guarantee a seat!

Amnesty International Imprisoned Writers Series showcases the works of writers imprisoned for their words at 5.30pm every day.

There are also free taster events at 10am every morning. Ten minute readings from a randomly selected author from that day's programme.

As ever, coloured text contains hyperlinks which take you to other webpages where you can find out more.