Esteemed author coming to Blair
John Keay will talk about great adventurer
Author John Keay has been announced as the guest speaker for the latest in the 2017 programme of events for members of the BOOKMARK festival.
Keay has been writing about India, Asia and Scotland for over 40 years and is the author of around 20 books, winning the Royal Society for Asian Affairs’ Sir Percy Sykes Memorial Medal in 2009 for his literary contribution to Asian studies.
And for his visit to Blairgowrie on Saturday, March 18, Argyllbased John will be discussing his latest book, The Tartan Turban: In Search of Alexander Gardner.
Gardner is described by historian Keay as “the most extraordinary of all the 19th century’s great adventurers”.
In what remains of a lost journal, Gardner claims that he was born to a Scottish farmer in Wisconsin in 1785. He travelled to Russia when he was 21 and crossed Central Asia disguised as an Arab.
After a period in Afghanistan, the elusive Gardner emerged as an artillery commander in Lahore, the capital of the Sikh empire, and witnessed its fall before retiring in Kashmir where legend has it he wore a tartan turban and became a tourist attraction in his own right.
Keay was tutored at Oxford by playwright and author Alan Bennet, and his combination of meticulous research, irreverent wit, powerful narrative and lively prose has been complimented by both reviewers and readers and puts him in an ideal position to write a biography of such an enigmatic character as Gardner.
Chair of the BOOKMARK festival, Janey Lambie, is looking forward to the event. She said: “We are keen to encourage more people to become members of the festival and support it and invited John Keay to come to east Perthshire following on from the success of a similar event with Richard Holloway earlier this year.
“All proceeds from events such as this go towards developing the festival’s schools education programme.
“This looks set to be a great afternoon and a very entertaining one indeed.
“Alexander Gardner had a fascinating life and we are very much looking forward to hearing more about his adventures from a writer as well-respected as John.”
The afternoon with John Keay gets under way at 2.30pm.
Tickets for the event are £5, which includes afternoon tea, and available now from the festival’s membership secretary, Rhona MacLean, on 01250 875613 or email rhona. maclean@yahoo.co.uk.
BOOKMARK membership costs £10 and is available online at www.bookmarkblair.com.