Books
Ignite Fellowship to fire-up writing careers
A new fellowship programme is being launched to offer tailored, practical and financial support to help writers find time and space to fire up their careers. Scottish Book Trust, the national charity transforming lives through reading and writing, has today launched the Ignite Fellowship, recognising the achievements of professional writers. The Ignite Fellowship has been…
Read MoreBook festival hears that death should be celebrated
Scots should be celebrating death and those who give their bodies to medical science, according to a leading crime writer. Professor Dame Sue Black was speaking this weekend at a packed event at the Wigtown Book Festival the forensic anthropologist discussed a range of subjects – from her Scottish upbringing through to the gratitude we…
Read MoreGlasgow is a huge influence on Chris Brookmyre
The Bloody Scotland crime writing festival is taking place in Stirling this weekend. One of the guests this year is the acclaimed Christopher Brookmyre. He tells Scottish Field about his life and influences. As a writer, I’ve always thought Barrhead was a great place to grow up because you got a sense of all of…
Read MoreCrime writers will be murder on the football pitch
Crime writers from all over the country are coming together for the Bloody Scotland festival this weekend – and it will be murder! Bloody Scotland is Scotland’s International Crime Writing Festival, providing a showcase for the best crime writing from Scotland and the world, unique in that it was set up by a group of…
Read MoreNo papering over the cracks at book festival
Interior decoration with wallpaper is nothing new – but to hang it on the outside of a building is definitely unique. Artist Astrid Jaekel has wallpapered the outside of around a dozen shops and other buildings in the centre of Wigtown ahead the town’s 20th annual book festival. Each design tells a story about a…
Read MoreBook review – Hometown Tales: Highlands & Hebrides
From a series pairing new voices and celebrated writers, this book weaves together two tales of the Highlands and the Hebrides in a celebration of regional diversity. Songwriter Colin MacIntyre’s The Boy in the Bubble is a funny memoir about growing up on Mull, while emerging writer Ellen MacAskill’s A9 is a piece of short…
Read MoreBook review – We Fought for Ardnish by Angus MacDonald
The sequel to Ardnish Was Home, this latest work from Angus MacDonald is an intense and bittersweet love story set during the Second World War. Donald Angus is an undercover agent parachuted into the Italian Alps, where he falls for Françoise, a French-Canadian agent. The troubles that face the couple behind enemy lines portray a…
Read MoreBook review – Savage Liberty by Elliot Pattison
The fifth book of the Bone Rattler series follows the adventures of exiled Scotsman Duncan McCallum in colonial America. This is a thrilling mystery novel placing fictional characters against a historical backdrop. In this new part of the saga, Duncan witnesses the explosion of a ship from London in Boston Harbour. Among conspiracies and threats,…
Read MoreBook review – I Am The Walker
Scotland’s open spaces are at the heart of the new novel by J M Robson. The life of the friendless 20-year-old geek Billy Donaldson, tormented by an abusive alcoholic father, a loveless mother and a deep lack of self-confidence, takes an unexpected twist when he decides to set off for the great Scottish outdoors for…
Read MoreThe facts of death come to Wigtown Book Festival
An agnostic bishop, a scientist and a ex-atheist with a fascination for a clerical killer will be exploring the many faces of death at Wigtown Book Festival. Former Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway, forensic anthropologist Professor Dame Sue Black and literary critic Stuart Kelly will discuss various aspects of the one inescapable reality that unites…
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