Festival lines up big names Wraps come off packed Bookmark programme
Excitement is building ahead of this year’s Bookmark, the Blairgowrie, Rattray and the Glens book festival.
The organisers have revealed the packed programme for the festival, which runs from October 6-8.
For the second year the event is based at Blairgowrie Community Campus and ticket bookings can be made there or at Waterstones in Perth.
On September 9 Alan Rowan will speak about his climbing classic ‘A Mountain Before Breakfast’ but the main bulk of authors will not be about until October.
Among those appearing at Bookmark are news reporter, former MP and Unicef ambassador Martin Bell and Perthshire baking success Flora Sheddon.
For anyone who liked the 2016 McIlvanney Prize winner ‘Black Widow’, in which journalist Jack Parlabane is blackmailed by a devious hacker, Christopher Brookmyre has just got the follow-up out on the shelves.
‘Black Widow’ won the prize for best Scottish crime novel of the year and since Chris published his first novel in 1996 he has penned 18 more, picking up prizes along the way.
He will be appearing on Friday, October 6, at 6pm in Blairgowrie Community Campus to talk about new title ‘Want You Gone’.
Like all the author events, the cost of the encounter with Brookmyre is £7.
Another highlight for detective story addicts will be on Saturday, October 7, when Lin Anderson introduces her latest in the 12-title-and-growing series featuring forensic expert Dr Rhona MacLeod.
‘Follow The Dead - Silence The Living’ is out in August so few will know what is in store when Lin speaks at Blairgowrie Community Campus at 11.30am.
In this book central character MacLeod joins a mountain rescue team on Cairngorm summit after a mysterious plane crash lands on frozen Loch A’an. The enigmatic Norwegian detective Alvis Olsen joins her on the case.
Anderson, who is co-founder of the crime writing festival Bloody Scotland, is excited that her her first feature film script ‘Sometime Did Me Seek’ is soon to be shot in Edinburgh.
Also on October 7, former Edinburgh makar Ron Butlin will give a lunchtime talk (1.30pm) about ‘Billionaires’ Banquet’, which went to print in April.
The date is 1985 and Edinburgh-based Hume sets up a business catering for the rich and their ever-growing appetites. But by the new millennium these appetites have become much more demanding.
The book has been dubbed “powerful, challenging and very funny...an immorality tale for the 21st century”.
2017 is the year that Dunkeld’s Flora Sheedon has blossomed into more than just a TV celebrity.
Having previously appeared on the Bake Off as a finalist, Flora dropped her university degree for a book project and a bakery enterprise.
On October 7 at 3pm she will be at Bookmark to talk about ‘Gatherings,’ her cookbook which emphasises enjoying the process of entertaining.
Flora will discuss her passion for cooking, photography and the journey she is taking.
These are just a few of the authors Bookmark is offering in October.
Others include Rachel Crowther, Martin Bell and Alan Johnson.
The festival dinner is at the Red House Hotel, Coupar Angus, on October 7, with tickets costing £35.
Blairgowrie Players will perform ‘The Arrow’ in Blairgowrie Town Hall the following day from 1.30pm-4pm. Tickets cost £10, with afternoon tea.
The Bookmark festival pass is available for £42 and gains access to all seven author events. Tickets for the Festival Dinner, Blairgowrie Players and fringe events must be purchased separately. See www.Bookmarkblair.com.