Coming soon: Issue 147

As the Festival hares into town bearing great gifts, whilst also bestowing problems for the locals, those of a Leith frame of mind may wonder whether an arduous safari through the tramworks, with some of us likely to get lost along the way, is worth the bother.

Rest easy.

For Leith has it’s very own slice of the Edinburgh International Festival. The admirable Fergus Linehan, who has long taken an interest in contemporary music and has long shown an affection for Leith Theatre, indeed making it the EIF’s preferred venue for the likes of Anna Calvi, Jarvis Cocker and Michael Rother. Along the way raising the profile for the venue and its ongoing renovations.

The EIF also (improbably) has an “immersive promenade performance exploring themes of crisis and exile” staged in and around the environs of Leith Academy - the culmination of Edinburgh Festival’s 4 year residency at the school - by the multi-award-winning Grid Iron theatre company. Read more in the spanking new Leither Magazine 147.

Where you will also find a history of Leith Hospital written by a Doctor who trained there; our restaurant critic on three eateries in the St James Quarter, Colin Montgomery on ‘the malicious bare-knuckle capitalist motivations of this mendacious cartoon toff’ (guess who),

Sandy Brewer uncovers the many lives of Tom Curr, and Tim Bell tells us about his time as Port Chaplain of Leith.

Welcome aboard.

Billy