Islay Book Festival
Island event is small but perfectly formed
SCIENCE, strong women and storytelling in poetry and song – with a bit of puppetry thrown in – combined to make this year’s Islay Book Festival a weekend not to be missed.
Now in it’s 11th year, the festival was on the move with events being held across the island for the first time, not just in Port Ellen, giving locals and visitors alike a taste of all the island has to offer.
And it did not disappoint.
Thursday kicked off with a day of school events, with authors Barbara Henderson, Argyll-based Alan Windram, poet Ryan Van Winkle and Mull author and musician Colin MacIntyre visiting youngsters on Islay and Jura, entertaining and inspiring youngsters in both the secondary and primary schools. Events for the youngsters included poetry, Gaelic sessions as well as Bookbug for toddlers.
On Friday evening Colin Macintyre talked about how Mull and his music with Mull Historical Society inspired his novel The Letters of Ivor Punch. And making it a family affair, Colin brought his uncle Eric with him, who read two poems by his father – and Colin’s grandfather – Angus Macintyre, a well known Mull bank manager and bard.
Saturday was the busiest day, with various children’s events, guided walks by Islay Voices’ Jenni Minto and Les Wilson, bookbinding and writing workshops, and author events.
Lord George Robertson opened Saturday’s adult events, before author and former research physicist and bio-engineer Helen Sedgewick read from her two novels The Comet Seekers and The Growing Season.
The hour went far too quickly, with Helen expertly weaving her experience as a scientist with fictional characters, resulting not only in two fantastic reads, but plenty of deep discussion points for any book club to get their teeth into.
Space was a recurring theme for children and adults, with youngsters enjoying Alan Windram’s event around his new book about a robot, One Button Benny, and Inveraray author Ken MacTaggart exploring everything space related, from the history of space flight to the future of space tourism.
A book festival on the whisky isle would not have been complete without a whisky-related event, and Jura-based photographer Konrad Borkowski discussed his photographs in his book Whisky Island, announcing the winner of this year’s ‘Spirit of Islay’ photography competition who was Katie Anderson, who took the picture of the Kilnave chapel window..
In the afternoon, author Sara Sheriden spoke about the lack of memorials to great women and why she was inspired to write her latest book, On Starlit Seas, about travel writer Maria Graham, who lived in the 1800s.
In the evening, Bowmore was the venue for a criminally good conversation between Sara Sheridan and fellow historical crime writer ES Thomson, who chatted about their historical crime fiction series and why each had been inspired to create strong female lead characters – Sheridan’s Mirabelle Bevan and ES Thomson’s Jem Flockhart.
On Sunday, Uist-based award-winning poet Pauline Prior-Pitt rounded off the weekend reading from her poems on island life and growing older, including her recently published anthology Be An Angel.
She also revealed her Islay Poetry Challenge poem, where Pauline had to create a poem using words contributed by festival-goers throughout the weekend.
While a stalwart of the literary festival calendar, the IBF team had taken a fresh look at the format and it worked a treat. The event was inspiring, entertaining, informative, and great fun.
So roll the 2018 Islay book festival. I for one can’t wait!