Final Edinburgh Book Festival 2023 recordings watched

Got through my final two Edinburgh Book Festival 2023 recordings, nicely ahead of the 3AM on 30th September deadline to view them online!

Here are the latest two talks I watched:

• Kübra Gümüşy, R F Kuang & Irene Vallejo: A Short History of Language - a fascinating panel discussing language, translation, culture, colonialism and power
• David Greig & Alan Warner: Scottish Legends Retold - two authors of recent novellas set in Scotland in the 9th and 18th centuries, with an insightful discussion about the writing process, historical research, dealing with imposter syndrome and aiming for historical fidelity

I was especially wowed by the latter panel, which had a great discussion between the two authors and chair Sally Magnusson. And I very much want to read their two books, reimagining the stories of the theft of St Columba's bones and Bonnie Prince Charlie's flight across the Highlands and Islands.

Digital tickets are still available for a huge number of 2023 Edinburgh Book Festival events, but you have to watch the recordings by 3AM on this coming Saturday, so time is tight!

Twitter/X to Bluesky

Fellow migrants to Bluesky from Twitter/X who still have accounts there may want to check out the Sky Follower Bridge add on for Firefox or Chrome. This lets you find more people you follow on the Bird site who are on Bluesky. Slow to use - especially with 2000 following accounts to cross check for me! - but it works. It's found many familiar folks I was missing on Bluesky, raising the number of accounts I'm now following from about 200 to 469. Many of whom are now following me back too (familiar names). Bluesky is still a restricted closed network, but I will be sharing invite codes when I get them. P.S. After using this plugin it's best to change your Bluesky password, for security/safety reasons. But Sky Follower Bridge is an incredibly handy tool.

On this day in 1660

From Samuel Pepys on this day in 1660: “And afterwards did send for a Cupp of Tee (a China drink of which I never had drunk before)”

RIP David McCallum

How very sad. RIP David McCallum. A magnificent Scottish actor. I particularly enjoyed watching him in Sapphire & Steel, but was always delighted to see him pop up in things. Always a strong performer. For example he was an assured Eugene Wrayburn in the 1958 BBC version of Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend.