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Dateline: 1st July, 2007
Bennett First to Sell Out at Book Festival In yet another record year for bookings, playwright and novelist Alan Bennett was the first to sell out for his talk at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on Saturday 11th August when bookings opened on 19th June. After his recent stage and screen hit with The History Boys, Bennett will speak about his latest fiction, The Uncommon Reader, in which the Queen discovers literature with some unexpected results. Quickly joining Bennett as the fastest-selling speakers were TV news presenters Jeremy Paxman and Andrew Marr, followed soon after by authors Alexander McCall Smith, Ian Rankin, Clive James and Mark Tully. Playwright Michael Frayn has also sold out for his event. After last year's well-publicised failure of the Festival's web site booking facilities due to the demand for tickets on the first day of sales, this year's sales for the first week are 45% higher than in the same period in 2006. Festival director Catherine Lockerbie said, "It has been an extraordinary week—we have never seen such demand for tickets which, given that each event is unique and one-off, has led to inevitable frustration for some people. We have sold record numbers in these opening days. Given that the programme is diverse and challenging, with many as yet unknown names alongside the familiar ones, that gives me enormous cause for optimism in people’s curiosity and appetite for exploring words and ideas. There are still hundreds of opportunities to discover someone new and extraordinary, and plenty of tickets available across the programme" The Festival runs at Charlotte Square Gardens in Edinburgh from 11th to 27th August.
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