The event is chaired by renowned literary critic Stuart Kelly who’s acts as a perfect foil to Will Self’s sardonic wit. The two make informal chat by way of introduction, in which Self voices some well timed, dead-pan lines parodying book events themselves, immediately winning over the entire audience before reading quite a long extract from his new Booker Prize nominated novel, Umbrella. The writing itself is unsurprisingly intense and exquisite in equal doses and rapturous applause sounds through the tent when he finishes.

Bee keeping and foraging was on the menu for today's Drawing on Our Resources talk at the sunny Edinburgh International Book Festival. Kindred spirits Steve Benbow and Alys Fowler were cleverly merged together to tell us about their ventures – Alys as an urban forager, Steve as a city dwelling bee-keeper – where foraging wild plants and bees go hand in hand.

Danny Wallace, notorious for his playful autobiographic non-fiction, computer game reviews and Guardian column, is at the Book Festival this year promoting his first fictional novel – Charlotte Street. He proclaims himself that his writing is “just like a conversation in a pub” and it is, with friendly anecdotes and ridiculous situations that leave tears in the corners of your eyes, but unfortunately his actual conversational stylings during this interview don’t reflect his writing.

Alexander McCall Smith, one of the world’s most popular writers and beloved Edinburgh writer of the endearing 44 Scotland Street series introduces his latest children’s book, Precious and the Mystery of Meerkat Hill. He briefly introduces his young audience to the heroine, Precious Ramotswe, the young detective, before opening up some entertaining discussion on the origin and characteristics of meerkats. I certainly learnt a lot about the creature. It is neither a cat nor a mere and  should you meet one they will immediately climb onto your head as they instinctively move to the highest point of their surroundings on the look out for predators!  

Becoming infamous for his remarks on corporal punishment following last year's August riots, MP for Tottenham David Lammy's summarised his views on the unrest in his new book Out of the Ashes: Britain after the Riots. His lecture yesterday at the Edinburgh International Book Festival explains all the key factors which Lammy attributes to the cause of the riots. Now call me a plebeian, but having just stepped off an exhausting ten hour coach ride from London, I was a little worried that I'd not quite be able to concentrate on the heavy-sounding speech. Fortunately however, Lammy turned out to be a compelling and exciting public speaker.

Former comedian, sex therapist and wife of Billy-Pamela Stephenson-Connelly certainly isn’t letting the grass grow under her dancing feet.

“I happen to be a person who loves good sex,” says Pamela Stephenson-Connolly, the saucy 61-year-old whose shimmering sex appeal on BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing made her the star of the show. Never have sequins looked so seductive, a rumba so risqué, or a pasa doble so passionate. Indeed, never has dance so lived up to its reputation as the vertical expression of horizontal desire.

Which is hardly surprising, given that the glamorous blonde, who has been married to exuberant Glaswegian comedian and award-winning actor Billy Connolly for 22 years and with whom she has three grown-up daughters, is something of a sex goddess.

Book yourself a seat to see some of today’s most exciting authors talking about their work. Mark Fisher browses the bestsellers.

TARIQ ALI
25 August, 4.30pm
A chance for the forthright author to reflect on 20 years of work as he comes to the end of his Islam Quintet with the publication of Night of the Golden Butterfly.

MARTIN BELL
18 August, 6.30pm
The ex-BBC man reinvented himself as the voice of honesty in politics, putting him in prime position to reflect on the expenses scandal.

With her teenage years “full of angst” and two children for inspiration, it’s no wonder Cathy Cassidy’s books strike such a chord with her readers.

When Cathy Cassidy completed her first novel, she didn’t have an agent. Picking one at random “because of her funny name” – Darley Anderson – she sent off her book. Then came two surprises: “‘She’ was actually a very well spoken English gentleman,” she says. The other surprise was Anderson admitting he had never dealt with a children’s author before. “He only confessed when he’d sold it,” she laughs, “and said he hadn’t wanted to miss out on the next big thing.”

Telling the story of Marilyn Monroe’s dog in his own words was an interesting challenge for acclaimed author Andrew O’Hagan.

Whenever Andrew O’Hagan is quoted as saying that there weren’t any books in his childhood home, his father is quick to correct him. “He says it’s not true – we had the phonebook,” says the Glasgow-born novelist who grew up in Ayrshire. There was another book too: a biography of Marilyn Monroe.

To the young, hungry-eyed O’Hagan, she was “a modern myth, a fairy story,  a woman from a poor background who was magically transformed. She was a manifestation of post-war optimism, and I was completely beguiled by her.” It’s fitting, then, that his latest novel is entitled The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of his friend, Marilyn Monroe.

She began her career as a trapeze artist, then became a Hollywood star. So what prompted Emily Woof to turn her hand to writing?

Emily Woof has crammed a lot into her life so far. As a stage actor she has written and performed her own material; as a movie star she appeared opposite Rufus Sewell in The Woodlanders, and jostled with male strippers – including Robert Carlyle – in The Full Monty. As a professional trapeze artist, she trained for eight hours a day, building up her strength on a diet of sheep’s livers. Yet she admits that writing her debut novel, The Whole Wide Beauty, was the scariest proposition yet. “When you’re on stage,” she says, “there’s an illusion of being slightly in control. You can hide behind characters and feel that you’re somehow steering the thing. Writing fiction is far more open, especially as most of the characters were slightly different versions of me.”

Presenter and novelist Baron Melvyn Bragg has always been at the forefront of the arts scene in Britain, and is passionate about making the arts accessible to everyone.

Life for Melvyn Bragg has always been a juggling act. Best known as the driving force behind the flagship arts series, The South Bank Show, the prolific broadcaster, writer and former Controller of Arts at ITV has 21 novels and 13 works of non-fiction to his name. Diversity is his trademark: during The South Bank Show’s 33-year history, we were as likely to be treated to an insight into Dolly Parton or Billy Connelly as more highbrow subjects such as Francis Bacon or the Royal Shakespeare Company. “That’s exactly what I set out to do when I was given my own arts programme back in ‘77,” he says. “I wanted to bring popular art into the same tent as established art. It wasn’t going to be the odd tokenist gesture. Everything from pop music to grand opera to theatre and TV would all be given serious attention.”

RBS Main Theatre
31 August, 11.30

It’s lucky for Antonia Fraser that narrative histories became fashionable. Obviously she has reaped great success from its return a la mode, but also because one gets the impression Lady Fraser simply could not constrain herself to simply tell us the facts and trends.

RBS Main Theatre
27 August, 15.00

It was apparent from the outset that the audience demographic was on the silver-haired side but this did not, tellingly, detract from an interesting and stimulating session.

RBS Main Theatre
30 August, 21.00

Don’t be fooled by Margaret Atwood’s appearance. A head of tight, powder-grey curls, hands and feet demurely crossed, she looks sweet, though she avoids fragility, and looks as though she would offer you tea and talk sewing patterns and grandchildren.

RBS Main Theatre
30 August 20.00

Normally on entering an event such as this you are reminded, or rather told, to turn all mobile devises off. It would be in Douglas Coupland’s allotted hour that roughly 600 people were asked to swap numbers with someone nearby and ring each other to create a Cell Phone Sonata!

RBS Main Theatre
26 August, 20.00

‘Pandaemonium’ is right! Within the first few pages of his new book, Christopher Brookmyre presents us with a bus-load of teenagers bent on farting, singing rude songs, sexual innuendo, wrestling over a guitar... and as if that weren’t enough, someone manages to set the bus (not to mention one of the teenagers) on fire, causing the coach driver to crash and kill a deer...

ScottishPower Studio Theatre
23 August, 19.00

Sharon Olds is a funny mixture. Stepping tentatively onto the stage in her black two-piece, an incongruous sparkly lock in her flowing grey hair, she looks benign and witchy.

RBS Main Theatre
24 August, 20.00

Vince Cable has had a multicoloured career. Deputy leader of the Lib Dems, he’s previously been a diplomat, civil servant, high-flying economist, and even acting party leader in the pre-Clegg days. Oh, and, so chairman Brian Taylor delightedly informed a packed RBS marquee, he’s also an ace ballroom dancer.

Scottish Power Studio Theatre
20th August, 12.00

Discussing his new book Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History David Aaronovitch was captivating from beginning to end. It perhaps should have come as no surprise that the audience was full of vehement conspiracy theorists wanting to get their oar in, and David did very well to hold his ground.

Scottish Power Studio Theatre
22 August, 15.30

Sedaris is so unexpected. Dressed in khaki trousers (not corduroy or denim) and a smart shirt, Sedaris, a man short in stature, appears to be normal, or rather, boring.  Not at all the type of gentleman that would, moments later, smilingly divulge the horrors of defecated American dressing rooms, or light-heatedly tell a story about the highly-homosexual purchase of a four pound box of condoms and strawberries from Costco.