Authors’ talks whet the appetite for book festival
Journalist, author and ‘Moonwalker’ mountaineer Alan Rowan delighted his audience at the Straloch Garden Studio earlier this month as part of the BOOKMARK 2017 festival programme.
The author of Moonwalker and A Mountain Before Breakfast, Alan is a self-declared “mountain fanatic”.
He has climbed the Munros three times, as well as the Corbetts and all the 3000-foot peaks in England, Ireland and Wales, many of them during the night before or after his shifts working on newspapers.
He spoke about both books, explaining how his fascination with climbing in the dark began when, wanting to climb mountains but working long shifts in Glasgow and only having one day off which had to be for his wife and young family, he realised that, with sleep being impossible after long evening shifts, he could try just heading up country straight from work, have a snooze in the car for a couple of hours, and start his climb in the wee small hours.
Alan said that his first experience of climbing from 2am was fantastic - the weather and the views, and having it all to himself, commenting that it was “like sleepwalking” - but that his second night climb was not a very good experience - and had it been his first, he might well have abandoned the whole idea.
Chair of BOOKMARK, the Blairgowrie, Rattray and the Glens Book Festival, Janey Lambie, was delighted with the event.
She said: “The stunning scenery of Straloch, plentiful supply of home-baked cakes and scones, and general bonhomie made for a happy continuance of the afternoon’s event.
“Alan’s talk prompted a lively question and answer session from the audience, some who had been mountaineers in younger days, and some who had never attempted a climb at all. But, through Alan’s eyes, all could understand how the incredibly stimulating visual experiences from the summits once experienced, would draw you back compulsively for ever more.”
Alan’s appearance as part of the festival followed hot on the heels of a talk by Jamie Jauncey at the St Catherine’s Centre recently which was well attended by an audience keen to hear more about the flamboyant early 20th century luminary, Robert Bontine-Cunninghame Graham Jauncey’s great-great uncle.
Jauncey told how he had listened with astonishment to his mother’s tales of his relative’s exploits who was apparently liked and admired everywhere he went. Jamie revealed that it was only in recent years that he had allowed himself to delve further into this character who had so dominated his childhood years.
Janey commented: “These events lift the curtain on the 2017 BOOKMARK festival, which we are all very excited about!”
The BOOKMARK Festival takes place on Friday, October 6 and Saturday, October 7, at Blairgowrie Community Campus and features award-winning novelists Christopher Brookmyre and Rachel Crowther, Bloody Scotland festival co-founder Lin Anderson, former MP Alan Johnson, Great British Bake Off contestant Flora Shedden, Martin Bell OBE and former Edinburgh Makar Ron Butlin. Tickets available now from Blairgowrie Library, Waterstones in Perth, Perth Concert Hall or online at www.bookmarkblair.com.
These events lift the curtain on the 2017 festival, which we are very excited about!