A festival celebrating rare and collectable books and book history
Featuring the Edinburgh Book Fair in a stunning new venue for 2025
Edinburgh Book Fair
28th and 29th March 2025
Intercontinental The George Hotel, George Street
Entry is free, but but register here for news and reminders!
Book Fair
Scotland’s largest and most prestigious rare book fair, featuring dozens of specialist booksellers from around the country
Edinburgh Book Fair 2025
Friday 28th and Saturday 29th March 2025
Intercontinental The George Hotel, George Street
Talks
Edinburgh Bibliographical Society
20th March, 5:45pm, Edinburgh University Library Centre for Research Collections
Thomas Rhys Clarke: Collecting the Left Book Club
EDITION Spring Lecture
21st March, 4:00pm-5:30pm, Project Room (1.06), 50 George Square
Katherine Halsey (Professor of English Studies, University of Stirling) and Matthew Sangster (Professor of Romantic Studies, Fantasy and Cultural History, University of Glasgow): Towards a True History of Reading Lives: Borrowing in Scotland, 1747-1837
Chair: Professor Penny Fielding
Edinburgh City Libraries
24th March, 6:00pm, McDonald Road Library
S. G. MacLean, author of The Bookseller of Inverness, gives a Live Literature talk
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
26th March, 11am and 12pm, RCSEd Library and Archive
Treasures of the Library, a ticketed opportunity to view some of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh’s rare collections not on public display
National Library of Scotland
28th March, 6pm, National Library of Scotland
Curtain Raiser: Launch of the National Library’s Centenary Celebrations
National Librarian Amina will sit down with special guests Damian Barr and Val McDermid to discuss their love of libraries and why they are proud champions of the National Library of Scotland
Edinburgh Book Fair Opening
28th March, Intercontinental The George Hotel
Famed Edinburgh crime writer Ian Rankin will open the Edinburgh Book Fair, Scotland’s premier event for rare and collectable books.
Exhibitions
National Library of Scotland
Treasures Gallery
From March 2025 to March 2026 a new Treasures exhibit will tell the story of how the National Library of Scotland was established, featuring the 1925 Act of Parliament and the first reader’s ticket
National Library of Scotland
Renaissance: Scotland and Europe 1480 to 1630
Open until 21 April 2025
Learn about Renaissance-era Scotland, from astronomy to 16th-century music and colourful calligraphy.
National Galleries of Scotland
Ian Hamilton Finlay
The centenary of celebrated Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925–2006) is marked by this free display of his work at Modern Two. Sculptor, poet, printmaker, gardener and provocateur, he achieved international renown from the 1970s.