The People's CityThe People's City

Edinburgh is steeped in literary history. It is the birthplace of a beloved cast of fictional characters from Sherlock Holmes to Harry Potter. A city whose beauty is matched only by the intrigue of its past, and where Robert Louis Stevenson said, 'there are no stars so lovely as Edinburgh's street-lamps'. And to celebrate the city, its literature, and more importantly, its people, Polygon and the OneCity Trust have brought together writers – established and emerging – to write about the place they call home. Based in well-known areas in Edinburgh, Anne Hamilton, Nadine Aisha Jassat, Alexander McCall Smith, Ian Rankin and Sara Sheridan transport the reader to different decades in the city's recent past. In the Royal Botanic Gardens a family comes together to learn about its unconventional beginnings. In Leith, we learn about a young writers first encounter with the city that she eventually calls home. In Sandy Bell's late love blooms after a first encounter as students in the city. Brothers come together after many years apart and walk the streets and talk of their past; and in Portobello a young couple are finding their way in twentieth century life.