A new literature quarter is planned for the Royal Mile to provide a year-round hub promoting the Scottish capital's designation as Unesco City of Literature.

The news was announced by the Edinburgh Unesco City of Literature Trust at an event to celebrate 10 years of the designation.

Edinburgh was the world's first city to take the title which helps promote literature and provides a link to other cities around the world who followed.

The area around the Netherbow, where Scotland's earliest books were published in the early 16th century, is already home to publishers Canongate, the Scottish Story­telling Centre, the Scottish Book Trust and the Saltire Society.

Ali Bowden, director of the Edinburgh Unesco City of ­Literature Trust, said: "There is a lot of ambition for the area and all the partners involved see the potential in it. It's about getting money behind it now.

Edinburgh Lord Provost Donald Wilson said that a range of other events were planned to mark a decade of the designation.

He said: 'A City of Literature is a living breathing thing and there is so much going on, some big things like literary benches in the Lawnmarket and the floral clock being planted to mark 10 years as City of Literature, some small like the Free to Fly paper sculpture, gifted to the Edinburgh Unesco City of Literature Trust by the mystery paper sculptor, going on display soon in the City Chambers."