Edinburgh International Book festival: day three bulletin

The rain may have returned to Charlotte Square but the atmosphere at the Edinburgh International Book festival is still sunny after a lively weekend. Yesterday, Alasdair Gray treated festival-goers to a reading of a few short stories. Sometime extremist Maajid Nawaz told a packed crowd that "you can't impose democracy from the barrel of a gun" (listen to him on our day two podcast ) and Tottenham MP David Lammy talked about the state of the UK after last summer's riots . Today's star attraction is Michael Palin – long since sold out, alas – who's making his first Edinburgh book festival appearance for 25 years. Former prime minister Gordon Brown will also speak publicly for the first time on the issue of Scottish independence at the Donald Dewar Lecture at 4.30pm. Frank Close, professor of theoretical physics, will be appearing as well to talk about the Higgs Boson, in a talk chaired by Professor Peter Higgs himself. And Chris Riddell and Neil Gaiman will talk about the 10th anniversary of Gaiman's novel Coraline this evening. Tickets are still available for the following events: 13.30: Michael Sandel 14.00: Andrew Feinstein 15.00: Neill Freudenberger & Krys Lee 15.00: Victorian Edinburgh with Frances Jarvie & Gordon Jarvie 19.00: Christopher Fleet and Magnus Linklater 20.30: Geoff Dyer 20.30: Zoe Strachan & Benjamin Wood And if you're popping into the signing tent, here's today's schedule: The first night of Unbound got off to a fine start yesteryda, despite stiff competition from the Olympics closing ceremony, and tonight's event comes courtesy of acclaimed Glasgow literary night Words Per Minute, with a line-up that includes acclaimed authors Jenni Fagan and Alan Bissett. And don't forget about the Guardian Book Swap : leave your books on the bookshelf in the Guardian Spiegeltent or at our other book swap locations, such as the Spiegeltent on George Street, the Udderbelly in Bristo Square and various phone boxes around the city. Remember to tweet us a photo of you leaving your book for someone else to enjoy!