16 August - Saturday

Mischief makers and music makers with a dressing up box the size of a small airport hanger – te POOKa can stretch from the sublime to the ridiculous in a matter of seconds. An event for the whole family, the masterful entertainers of te POOKa will delight with dramatised stories gathered from around the globe.

A mini festival dedicated to old hands, young upstarts and modest bookworms. Participants are given a 5-10 minute slot in which to read, declaim, perform and entertain. Expect anything, from flash fiction to Jacobean English. Audiences can come and go as the mood takes them.

David Robertson is a columnist, author and pastor of St. Peter’s Free Church in Dundee. Having read The God Delusion, he found he agreed with some of its content but disagreed with much so he wrote an open letter to Dawkins on his church website. The letter forms the basis of his book The Dawkins Letters - Challenging Atheist Myths.

Ian Rankin will be talking about life after Rebus - including a brand new novel (set in Edinburgh, and featuring cops and robbers!), and also his first comic book. But most of all he’ll probably be telling a few stories and explaining why he finds the city such a rich source of material.

An accomplished short story writer, Ruth Thomas’s debut, Things to Make and Mend, is about lives being formed and friendships forsaken. It is also a book threaded together by its central image of two girls struggling with their patterns so cunningly, this event will begin at the Grassmarket Embroidery Shop (19 The Grassmarket, Tel: 0131 2263335) before moving on to the Owl & Lion gallery, next door.

Finalist in the Richard and Judy / C4 ‘How to Get Published’ Competition, beating 46,000 hopefuls, David Fiddimore has burst onto the literary scene. His first novel, Tuesday’s War, races across the page, covering near-misses and budding love stories. His latest book, The Forgotten War, confirms that David is the master of historical adventure stories that are as fun to read as they are to write (apparently).

Dilys Rose has published numerous collections of poems and short stories and a novel, Pest Maiden. She also enjoys working with visual artists and composers.

Trained in horticulture and agriculture, Gerry Loose’s work focuses on the place of landscape and ecology, which he has woven into his many works of poetry. A great combo of great poetry.

Originally an accountant, Arnold Brown has been described as “comedy’s equivalent of the teasing slow bowler in cricket”. A pioneer of the alternative comedy circuit in the early Eighties, Arnold is at home on radio, stage, TV and silver screen. He will bring his unique brand of deadpan humour to this special Saturday night.