Discover life story of Scotland's capital city

Alan is speaking at the October meeting of the Melrose Literary Society, on Tuesday, October 22, at 7.30pm, in the Ormiston Institute, Melrose. Admission is £6 and open to everyone.

Alan’s latest book was released at the beginning of October to coincide with Edinburgh’s 900th anniversary celebrations. Alan will tell Edinburgh’s story not just through the things that have defined it, such as the Reformation, Enlightenment, New Town and Festival, but also through the testimony of the people who witnessed it all.

He will also talk personally about his experience of Edinburgh, and of the great and the good, and the not so good, he has encountered along the way.

Edinburgh: The Autobiography is published by Birlinn and is described as an eclectic and colourful celebration of the history of Edinburgh.

As the nation’s capital it has been critical to its progress and a witness to epochal events, such the tumultuous reign of Mary, Queen of Scots, the Reformation, the Forty-Five rebellion, the Disruption of the Church of Scotland and the reconvening of the Scottish Parliament.

There are stories of body snatching and murder, drunkenness and drug-taking, sex and shopping, as well rants against inclement weather and the city council.

Editor and author Alan Taylor Credit: Kirsty Anderson

Alan Taylor has been a journalist for over 30 years. He was deputy editor and managing editor of The Scotsman, and for 15 years was Writer-at-Large for the Sunday Herald.

He has contributed to numerous publications, including The Times Literary Supplement, The New Yorker and The Melbourne Age and was co-founder and editor of The Scottish Review of Books. He was editor of the centenary editions of the collected novels of Muriel Spark and has edited several acclaimed anthologies, including The Assassin’s Cloak (2000).

He also wrote the bestselling Appointment in Arezzo: A Friendship with Muriel Spark (2017). He also edited Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman Diaries (2022).