And now, a short break from the Edinburgh Fringe to take in something at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. I know, we are intellectual, aren’t we? To be fair I probably wouldn’t have gone to see Terrifying Dystopian Dramas, M. R. Carey and Joe Hill, at the Garden Theatre, Charlotte Square Gardens, were it not for the fact that the aforementioned is my oldest and bestest mate – known as Lord Liverpool to frequent readers of this blog – and we’re spending a few days together up in Edinburgh whilst he and his family are in residence; so we’ll be seeing a number of shows with him and his entourage as the week progresses. This talk takes place at 17:45 on Sunday 20th. Here’s the official blurb: “DC and Marvel writer Mike Carey ditches his first name and uses his initials to indicate he’s back on novel-creating duty. The Boy on the Bridge follows up the monumentally successful The Girl With All the Gifts and sticks to similar post-apocalyptic territory, while Joe Hill continues his hugely popular mystery-thriller ways with The Fireman, which has a globe-threatening virus taking hold of America.”

I’ve read The Boy on the Bridge; it’s an excellent read and I can’t wait to hear what he has to say about it and the kind of questions people will ask. I’m afraid I know nothing about his co-star, Joe Hill, but no doubt by the time the hour is up I will leave a much better informed kinda guy. The talk lasts an hour so check back around 7pm to see how erudite we all are. By then the next preview blog should be available to read too.

Well that was a totally new experience and absolutely fascinating. Both Mike and Joe were on the receiving end of some challenging questions and I think everyone enjoyed the session. It was hosted by Russel D MacLean and he was ace!