Arcadia Scotland

Art and Culture

A Night in the Pub with Ian Rankin

5 November, Traverse Theatre, 7pm

Ian Rankin launches his 20th Rebus novel, Even Dogs In The Wild, and chats about his life and work.

Museum Lates: Victorian Sensation

13 November, National Museum of Scotland, 7pm

The legendary Museum Lates returns with a Victorian theme. Guest-programmed by The List and hosted by Vic Galloway, Museum Lates offers stellar live music from Honeyblood and BDY_PRTS as well as entry to the brilliant exhibition Photography: A Victorian Sensation.

The Humanities in a Post-Human Future: Iain M. Banks's Theory of Mind

24 November, Scottish Parliament, 6pm

We race upon the post-human. And we fear it. Will humanity someday cease to know itself? Professor Caroline McCracken-Flesher (University of Wyoming) discusses how Iain Banks poses and addresses this troubling future. In Banks’s Culture novels, he stands heir to an enlightened Scotland.

Luc Tuymans: Birds of a Feather

Throughout November, Talbot Rice Gallery

Work by Belgian artist who paints pictures from existing photographs and who, as a result, was bizarrely (and successfully) sued for plagiarism.

Music, Comedy and Dance

Scottish Opera: Carmen

3-14 November, Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 7:15pm

Bizet's Carmen has everything you want from an opera: tunes, drama, sex, violence and hordes of sizzling gypsies.

Anna Massie & Mairearad Green

3 November, Leith Folk Club, 7:30pm

Leading young Scots duo with multi-instrumentalist Massie and border pipes from Mairearad Green.

RSNO: Romeo and Juliet

6 November, Usher Hall, 7:30

Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet is famous for its swoony love theme, ironically quoted in TV shows from Columbo to Spongebob, but it's just part of the overall fabric of this romantic masterpiece.

1715-2015: Radical Songs of Scotland

15 November, Scottish Storytelling Center, 7pm

A performance of radical Scottish songs throughout history and the present day.

Lectures, Sports and Local Festivals

Botanic Lights

Through 22 November, Royal Botanic Garden, 5pm

Follow a trail of light through the Botanic Garden and see it illuminated.

Meadowbank Annual Fireworks Display

5 November, Meadowbank Sports Centre, 6pm

Fun for all the family at Edinburgh's only official fireworks display, which kicks off at 7.30pm. This year features a movie twist and visitors are encouraged to dress as their favourite film character.

Edinburgh's Christmas

Beginning 20 November, City Centre

Six weeks of winter wonderland in Edinburgh, with the east side of Princes Street transformed by a fairground, a host of colourful lights and the fabled German Christmas market with dozens of stalls selling traditional trinkets and crafts as well as delicious Teutonic treats (and, of course, glühwein).