There have been lots of spirited discussions and debate in the first week of the Edinburgh international book festival – independence, the Middle East, the cost of a cup of tea with a sandwich (£5.60) – but listen closely to the chat in the queues and there is a more unifying subject: the weather. There was a wonderfully sunny afternoon in Charlotte Square on Saturday, when the deckchairs were full and every other person had an ice-cream, but otherwise the weather has been dire. It has generally been grey-skied, cold, windy and rainy.
George RR Martin, whose novels have been adapted into Game of Thrones , recalled his trip to the UK in 1991 when he stood on Hadrian's Wall and was inspired. "I remember standing there on a cold October day," he said, adding: "Not quite as cold and grey as this day is in August."
Sessions are being introduced with a reassurance that the tents are well tethered and won't blow away. As novelist Linda Grant was speaking about the importance of fashion to her, a particularly violent gust of wind flapped the marquee alarmingly. Looking up, she joked: "At her death, she was talking about clothes!"
At times the weather has seemed appropriate: the relentless rain that thudded on to the tent as Karl Ove Knausgaard recounted his grim upbringing on a remote Norwegian island by an overly strict, alcoholic father. "I'm not sure that is a good thing, having a happy childhood," he told his damp audience. "It depends what you expect from life. If you expect harmony, balance, happiness then it's good. But if you want something wild or powerful … "
When the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams discussed religion, the main tent shuddered dramatically in the storms as he concluded: "The divine is there, inaccessible, non-negotiable, just like the things that bind us to one another in our community."
The forecast is … more of the same.
