The Edinburgh Bookshop

Panel One: A sportscaster speaks to a television camera "You join us just in time for the annual booksellers versus librarians tug of war." Panel Two: We see the participants warming up as he continues... "Two very strong teams this year, they’ve both been in training since February. As always, the real skill in this match is not to start chatting about boo-" Panel Three: "Too late!! A pair of librarians are discussing the new Margaret Atwood! A crowd is forming! The booksellers are joining in! It's all over!!" We see all the participants chatting. Panel Four: The sportscaster finishes up to the camera: "The rope lies untouched! The discussions continue! We have a draw for 325th year in a row! Join us again next year!" End. Bonus alt-text Content: Fun fact! The first tug of war was between the staff of Cranston Library and those of Daniel Midwinter Booksellers www.cranstonlibraryreigate.com/ www.blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscripts/2017/11/10/booksellers/

Now for some sports news...
(this week's cartoon for @theguardian.com books pages)

Bookseller Fiona holding up the picture book Penguin and Pinecone, in the Edinburgh Bookshop

#WhatWereReading : Fiona loved Salina Yoon's Penguin and Pinecone from @kidsbloomsbury.bsky.social .

It's an older book, but just such a warm, charming story of love & friendship we wanted to share it.

#books #livres #ChildrensBooks #LivresJeunesse

McIlvanney and Me: Ian Rankin Remembers the Man Who Created Tartan Noir It was August 1985 and I was a full-time student at the University of Edinburgh. When not studying, I was writing novels. By 1985 I’d written two. One had been rejected but the other had been accep…

William McIlvanney’s pitch-black noirs, featuring DI Laidlaw’s disturbing adventures in the Glasgow underworld, made Scotland into a world capital of #crimefiction

@ianrankin1.bsky.social remembers the man who created Tartan Noir – via @crimereads.bsky.social
💙📚
5/9
crimereads.com/mcilvanney-a...

A parent cuddling a child

A black background with pink text with the following information: Pips! An informal exhibition tour for carers and their babies under one. 01.12.25, 10.30am–12pm. If art is an important part of your life, this is an opportunity to find a little moment to engage with it amongst the chaos of new parenthood. A relaxed , welcoming atmosphere, giving you space to talk and think about art.

Our next Pips! is on Monday morning - are you a new parent trying to find a bit of time to think about art amongst the chaos of parenting? Join us: www.tickettailor.com/events/fruit...

Cover to the hardback edition of A Literary Letter For Every Day of the Year

A pair of pages from A Literary Letter For Every Day of the Year, held open at the entry for today, November 25th

"My dear, it is a magnificent moonlight night, with a wild, great west wind abroad, flapping above one like an immense banner..."

#Edinburgh 's own Robert Louis Stevenson, the Nov 25th entry in Liz Ison's A Literary Letter For Every Day of the Year, pub @batsfordbooks.bsky.social

#books #livres

thanks, June!

Advert for the Craigmillar Literacy Trust Christmas campaign to buy & donate books to children who rarely receive them as gifts

A card explaining how the Christmas book buying donation works

Gift tags affixed to bookshelves in the Edinburgh Bookshop, each one with a suggestion for a book for a child in the Christmas book donation scheme

Gift tags affixed to bookshelves in the Edinburgh Bookshop, each one with a suggestion for a book for a child in the Christmas book donation scheme, closer up image than previous pic

Our #Christmas campaign with Craigmillar Literacy Trust is under way: we have a selection of gift tags with suggestions for books for children who rarely receive them, which you can buy as a donation for the Trust.

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #books #livres

Snow Day 03 Our lovely wee bookshop looking rather gorgeous on the first snowy day of the winter in Edinburgh! Sorry it isn't sharper, it was a very, very quick snap with the phone, in between traffic, as I was h...

Taken this day, 2024 - @edinburghbookshop.bsky.social in the first snow of the winter www.flickr.com/photos/woola...

#Bruntsfield #Edinburgh #Edimbourg #snow #neige #photography #photographie

ah, a place where you can brush up on history 😆

Booksellers Jack and Olivia on ladders in the Edinburgh Bookshop window, trying to untangle strings of fairy lights

More festive decorations going up, although we fear Jack & Olivia are more tangled up than a hyperactive kitten in a knitting shop (we are trained professionals, do not try this at home)

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #Bruntsfield #books #livres

Keep Books with Pictures Alive: Donate Now, organized by Katie Pryde Dear friends: I need your help. I’m proud of everything Books with Pictures… Katie Pryde needs your support for Keep Books with Pictures Alive: Donate Now

Help our FAVORITE comics store keep the wolf from the door!

Books with Pictures is a treasure; let’s show them how much *we* treasure all they offer us!
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

Frances Crawford in Edinburgh Bookshop presenting Stephanie with copy of A Bad Bad Place

@edinburghbookshop.bsky.social Thank you for lovely warm welcome on such a cold day. Hope you enjoy #ABadBadPlace

A quick walk around the new releases table: book browse while getting your daily steps in!

#Bruntsfield #Edinburgh #Edimbourg #books #livres

Author Karen Swan holding an advance copy of her next novel, Three Summers, in the Edinburgh Bookshop

Delightful visit from Karen Swan today, kindly dropping off an advance copy of her next book, Three Summers (coming February 2026).

#books #livres #Edinburgh #Edimbourg

Hardback graphic reportage The Once & Future Riot, showing a menacing group of men walking towards the viewer

Joe Sacco (Palestine), acclaimed pioneer of #comics as reportage, returns, turning his attention to past and future-threatening sectarian strife on the sub-continent, with The Once & Future Riot (pub @jonathancape.bsky.social )

#books #livres #BandeDessinee #GraphicNovels

And we're off, with Helen Graham, V.E.H. Masters & Jayne Castel discussing independent publishing with the
@edinwritersforum.bsky.social
November event.

#books #livres #Bruntsfield #Edinburgh #Edimbourg

A box marked "BRONTE" filled with small packets of biscuits

We're already wondering how long it will take our biscuit-fueled booksellers to munch their way through this box...

It's a good brand name for book folks to snack on, though!

#biscuits

A pile of black hardbacks with reddish gold lettering, in the Edinburgh Bookshop

After Quicksilver comes Brimstone! Signed copies of Callie Hart's new enemies to lovers #romantasy just arrived from @hodderscape.bsky.social

#books #livres #fantasy

Anger as Waterstones snaps up prime site on doorstep of independent bookshop UK's biggest bookselling chain under fire over plans for new store beside Edinburgh tram line.

We need your help.

@waterstones.bsky.social, without any direct communication with us, will be opening their 6th Edinburgh branch less than 100 metres from our front door at the Foot of the Walk in Leith.

Please read on for more information

www.heraldscotland.com/news/2562908...

(1/2)

Less than 1 week to go until our 2025 Writers' Conference! ⏰

Cymera's 2025 Writers' Conference will take place on Saturday, 22nd November both in Edinburgh and online. Grab your ticket: www.cymerafestival.co.uk/2025-confere...

We've seen some terrific spredges+"sprayed edges") before, but just how amazing is this brick motif on Neal Shusterman's Mindworks collection?? Published by @simonandschuster.bsky.social

#books #livres #YABooks

A hardback of Flesh, by David Szalay, in the Edinburgh Bookshop

David Szalay's Booker Prize winning novel, Flesh (pub @jonathancape.bsky.social ), is back in stock

#books #livres

Nerli's 1892 portrait painting of Robert Louis Stevenson, relaxed, in open necked shirt, gazing at the viewer

"There are no stars so lovely as Edinburgh street-lamps..."

Happy birthday to local lad, & one of our favourite storytellers, Robert Louis Stevenson (portrait by Nerli, in the National Galleries of Scotland collection)

#books #livres #RobertLouisStevenson #Edinburgh #Edimbourg

Cuddly plushies of Hugless Douglas and Peter Rabbit sitting on the sofa in the Edinburgh Bookshop, while the Gruffalo lies prone

We fear this morning's Storytime may have been too much for the Gruffalo, as the G-Man is now sparked out in the Children's Room...

#Gruffalo #books #livres #Edinburgh #Edimbourg #Bruntsfield

View from the bookshop doorway on a grey, dull, rainy morning, wet roads, people in raincoats

Looking into the Children's Room during Under Fives Storytime, busy with carers and young children being read stories beneath a string of fairy lights

Outside: grey, murky, wet, windy, dreich.

Inside: making our own morning sunshine with Under Fives Storytime.

The awesome power of #books !!!

.

#livres #Edinburgh #Edimbourg #Bruntsfield #ChildrensBooks #LivresJeunesse

Chef and TV presenter, Rick Stein, with his new Christmas book, in the Edinburgh Bookshop

Chef and TV presenter, Rick Stein, with his new Christmas book, in the Edinburgh Bookshop

To help get you into the mood, as a certain season approaches, we have signed copies of Rick Stein's Christmas, as we had a lovely visit from the man himself this very day!

#Christmas #Noel #books #livres

The temperature may be unseasonably mild, but we're reliably informed that "winter is coming..."

☃️ 🌬️ ❄️ 🥶

#books #livres #winter #hivre

Author Amber Hamilton with her new novel, Seven Deadly Thorns, in the Edinburgh Bookshop

Author Amber Hamilton signing her new novel, Seven Deadly Thorns, in the Edinburgh Bookshop

Author Amber Hamilton signing her new novel, Seven Deadly Thorns, in the Edinburgh Bookshop

Delighted to have a quick visit from Amber Hamilton, kindly signing her fab, new #Romantasy novel, Seven Deadly Thorns (pub @bloomsburylit.bsky.social ).

Grab the signed copies while they last!

#books #livres

#WhatWereReading : Joe was happily lost in Amanda Block's new novel from @hodderbooks.bsky.social , The Haunting of Hero's Bay. Drama, love, regret, shipwrecks, Cornish smugglers & a possible ghost reaching out across the centuries.

#books #livres

Jane Anderson reading from her new novel in the Edinburgh Bookshop

Jane Anderson reading from her new novel in the Edinburgh Bookshop

Author Jane Anderson with her new novel, being photobombed by her friend and fellow Writers Forum organiser, Kristen

Celebrating the launch of @edinwritersforum.bsky.social 's Jane Anderson's new historical, Scottish novel, The Orchid Hunter's Daughter this evening.

#books #livres #Edinburgh #Edimbourg