An illustrated anthology of contemporary poetry about Edinburgh

Edited by Bashabi Fraser and Elaine Grieg (2000) City of Edinburgh Council

This is an anthology of poetry on Edinburgh by contemporary poets. In her Introduction Bashabi refers to the poems on Edinburgh contained in the anthology as ‘captur[ing] its charm, its beauty, its sadness, its people and the richness of life that it offers.’  The unifying thread is that they justify that Edinburgh was, and remains, an intimate city.’ She argues that what makes a city is not its architecture but the life within the city. The book offers a trip through Edinburgh. There are memories of the Festival and of the city’s bars, of the changeable weather, the flowers and the birds. There are 85 poems and a large number of illustrations.