Touts Cash In, On Connery Appearance

The annual Edinburgh International Book Festival enters its twenty-fifth year this August. The appearance at this year's Festival of Scottish icon, Sean Connery, has created quite a stir. Tickets to see the actor who is best remembered for playing James Bond have appeared on the eBay Internet site at more than eleven times their original price of £9. Connery will appear alongside Murray Grigor, the co-author of his eagerly anticipated memoirs, Being a Scot, on the final day of the Festival, 25 August. The Edinburgh International Book Festival will begin on 9 August and end on 25 August.

The Scotsman newspaper reported earlier today, (Wednesday, 25 August) that the Book Festival website received 300,000 hits in the first hour that tickets for this year's Festival were available. Frances Sutton, Festival press manager, told The Scotsman that: "It is a shame that one individual has decided to make a quick profit while so many genuine book festival fans were disappointed."

The annual Book Festival is held in Charlotte Square, an elegant space in the city's New Town, which is not normally open to members of the public. Independent travellers and locals who do not want to look like tourists can discover the New Town's rich heritage with the Old & New Towns, audio downloadable walking tour.

Hear which famous, and much maligned, General was born in Charlotte Square. Discover where Graham Alexander Bell was born and hear what he did besides invent the telephone. To hear an audio sample from the Old & New Towns, Edinburgh downloadable travel guide please click here. Today, the Georgian House, National Trust for Scotland property is a good place to see life above and below stairs in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Edinburgh. For the opening times of the Georgian House and other attraction on the Old & New Towns mp3 guided tour, please take a look at our Where & When pages.

The Georgian House is next door to Bute House (pictured), the official residence of the First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond.

With a Walk Talk Tour, Edinburgh visitor guide you're in charge. No need to feel conspicuous with a guidebook in your hands, or struggle to follow - let alone hear - the man with the umbrella. Each tour can be completed in two hours, but you with either Walk Talk Tour of Edinburgh you're free to take as long or as little to complete your podcast guided tour. So why not do your bit for the environment, burn a calorie or two and see the Scottish capital in your own time with a Walk Talk Tour, Edinburgh travel guide?

Each Edinburgh Walk Talk Tour costs just £5.95. Customers purchasing both tours simultaneously will receive a twenty per cent discount.

Tickets are, at the time of writing, still available for most of the events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival including those featuring Louis de Bernières, Tony Parsons, Iain Banks, Anne Enright and Irvine Welsh.