HOW TO GET TICKETS

Tickets for book festival events can be among the most sought after in Edinburgh in August.

Priority booking is offered to friends of the festival later this week, but with this year’s scheme over-subscribed, potential ticket-buyers will have to be patient to try to secure a seat to see their favourite author.

The majority of tickets for each event are held back for public sale and there are three ways to get them when this opens on Tuesday.

Up to 200 diehards are usually waiting at the festival box office when it opens for business at 8.30am, with the keenest book-lovers joining the queue in the early hours. This year the Edinburgh International Conference Centre will be hosting the opening day sales, which will switch to The Hub the following day.

The festival will also be running phone and online sales from 8.30am on Tuesday.

The box office at Charlotte Square Gardens will be up and running on the opening day of the festival and is the place to snap up last minute returns.