Author entertains at online first for event
Pilgrim route inspires subject of talk to BOOKMARK
Around 70 people attended the first online authors event hosted by Blairgowrie’s popular BOOKMARK festival recently.
The free event featured writer Dr Richard Frazer, who was a minister in the east Perthshire area before taking up his current post at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, and who is the founder and chair of the Grassmarket Community Project, which aims to help vulnerable people.
His book, Travels with a Stick, is an absorbing account of his experience of completing the Santiago de Compostela pilgrim route, which concludes in northwest Spain at the final resting place of St James.
Richard has also been influential in opening up pilgrim routes in Scotland, including the 72-mile long Forth to Farne Way which travels from North Berwick to Lindisfarne.
Gail Wylie, chair of the Blairgowrie, Rattray and the Glens book festival, was
delighted with the success of the event.
She said: “This was our first online author event and we were delighted to be able to make this free session available to people.
“Owing to the ongoing restrictions caused by Covid-19, it was obvious that BOOKMARK could not hold any inperson events for the first months of 2021.
“We are planning and hoping for an in-person festival in October this year but that is still many months away and it was becoming increasingly clear that we had to follow other festivals and offer, between the start of the year and October, online events, giving our members the opportunity to reconnect with BOOKMARK, and also hopefully allowing us to find new audiences.”
Gail said that a lot of thought had gone into the planning process for the online event.
She went on: “Steve Johnson from Proactive Communities Blairgowrie and Rattray was a key ingredient in our planning and with his technical support, we had confidence that we could run a successful event.
“The choice of speakers was also important for this first foray into going online.
“They had to be sympathetic to us in case of problems and at the same time attract a sizeable audience.
“And as this was our first online event we decided to make it free to audiences.
“I had no hesitation in asking Richard
Frazer, the charismatic minister of Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh and wellknown in this part of the country too, to talk about his book Travels with a Stick – a gripping account of his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella.
“The chair of the event was chosen with particular care too – Olga Wojtas is a favourite of BOOKMARK and walked the Camino Way herself last year.
“We had almost 70 participants from all over the UK including people from Jersey, Co Down, Inverness, Leicestershire, Aberdeen and Gloucestershire.
“The technical side went very smoothly and I received a lot of very positive feedback which was fantastic.
“Richard and Olga also enjoyed it so much that they are very keen to offer a ‘part two’ and I’m happy to confirm that this will happen – their journey, and ours in online events, will continue.”
For further information and updates on BOOKMARK events, go to the festival’s website www.bookmarkblair.com or search for ‘BOOKMARK Blair’ on social media.