Booked for fame

It appears from your coverage of the Book Festival programme (Scotsman, June 8) that the organisers are keener on celebrities than on literature, in its widest sense, and that they still haven’t shaken off their tedious Brexit and Trump preoccupations.

The Book Festival ought to be less about the transient and more about – to use what some might find a pompous word – the transcendental.

If the programmers want to focus on the issues of the day they should be thinking about AI, which is going to affect all our lives far more than whether or not the UK is a member of the EU.

Above all, however, the festival should be for people who actually like books, even if they haven’t seen their authors on TV or through social media.

ANDREW ANDERSON Granton Road, Edinburgh