"Roll up! Roll up! Enter the Cirque Du Freak, home of the world’s most remarkable performers. You have your ticket, now take your seat, the show is about to begin… Darren Shan celebrates the 20th anniversary of his worldwide bestselling vampire series by taking you beyond the covers of the first three books. Ask your questions, learn about some scary circus acts and maybe even join in the show."

That's the blurb for my event at the Edinburgh Book Festival this year, which takes place on Thursday 22nd August at 5.30pm. As it says, I'm celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of Cirque Du Freak (OK, I'm a tad early, as that isn't actually until January, but in a world of Des Tiny, what's a few months here or there?), so I'm going to be dusting off some old readings and giving them an air, focusing primarily on my vampire books, especially the early ones. If you never caught me in action back when I was touring with the Saga, then this is your chance to step back in time and party like it's the year 2000 and a young Darren Shan is at large for the first time!

Tickets for my event (along with all the other events at the Book Festival) went on sale today. The first day of sales for the Festival is usually pretty manic, with long waiting times, so if you don't want to hang about in a queue for ages, I'm pretty sure my event won't sell out that quickly, so you should be able to come back over the next few days or weeks and make your purchase then. Although, if you want to be ABSOLUTELY certain of getting tickets, then for peace of mind it might be worth joining the queue and securing them now... Your call!!!

https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/darren-shan-roll-up-roll-up

I'm also doing an event for school students on Thursday, August 22nd, at 11.45am. If you're a Scottish teacher or librarian who would like to bring students to see me give my talk (or any of the other amazing authors who are taking part over the two weeks of the Schools Programme) then click on the following link for more information and details of how you can apply:

https://learning.edbookfest.co.uk/schools/baillie-gifford-schools-programme/