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Monday 29 September
6.30pm
The Inverness Book Festival Pub Quiz
Join us in the Press and Journal Newsroom Bar for the quiz where all the questions are based on books. Prizes include a stack of bestsellers from Waterstones and a golden ticket allowing free access to all festival events, plus some mystery spot prizes! Visiting authors have been invited to take part. Is anyone tough enough to take on last year’s winning teams, Calum & Margaret and the Booksellers?
Once more the quiz has been written by crack question setter John Feetenby of Inverness.
To quote Bertrand Russell: “There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.”
Quizmaster: Nicola McAlley, STV journalist
Newsroom Bar, Eden Court
Price: £2 entry per person - teams of 2, 3 or 4 people
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Monday 29 September
8.00pm
Tom Morton Malt & Barley Revue
Enjoy an evening of whisky-tasting, music and video with the acclaimed journalist and broadcaster Tom Morton.
Tom’s Spirit of Adventure remains one of the world’s best selling whisky books, detailing his hilarious motorbike tour of Scotland’s distilleries in the early 1990s. His love and knowledge of our national drink is combined in this event with his superb singer-songwriter talents.
Take a trip with Tom into the heartlands of whisky and hear about some ill-advised adventures with the demon drink … while you drink it.
OneTouch Theatre
Price: £7.00 Reduced rate: £5.00
(this includes 3 free drams!
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Tuesday 30 September
12.30pm
Nicola Upson An Expert in Murder
An Inverness enigma is at the heart of Nicola Upson’s writing. Her debut novel, An Expert in Murder, has as its central character Josephine Tey, a crime writer and playwright of the 1930s whose real name was Elizabeth Mackintosh and who came from Inverness. Mackintosh also wrote under the name Gordon Daviot. Nicola’s story is set, like many of Tey’s, in London‘s theatre land in the 30s. The historical detail is fascinating - during her research Nicola uncovered plenty of intrigue about Mackintosh/Tey/Daviot. Nicola’s plot twists keep the reader‘s mind sharp. Fans of classics like Agatha Christie should definitely come along, while anyone curious about Elizabeth Mackintosh is in for a treat.
Chair: Ray Atkinson, Moray Firth Radio presenter
La Scala Cinema
Price £5.00 Reduced rate £4.00
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Tuesday 30 September
6.30pm
Jon McGregor
This is a rare opportunity to hear from a writer whose work is original, heart-stopping and profound. Jon enjoyed massive success with his 2002 novel If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things. He was the youngest ever contender for the Booker Prize, and the only first novelist on the shortlist. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things… is set on an ordinary street and tells of a tragedy from the perspectives of different people living there. The Sunday Times described it as 'triumphant’, saying it celebrated 'the miraculousness of the everyday.' It went on to win the Betty Trask Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Jon’s second novel So Many Ways To Begin features a museum
curator who discovers he has been living a lie. Again, John’s examination of everyday life and how we relate to those close to us is described with mesmerising beauty and great poignancy.
Chair: Jason Rose, Inverness Book Festival Director
OneTouch Theatre
Price £7.00 Reduced rate £5.00
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Tuesday 30 September
8.00pm
James Kelman
A watershed moment - James Kelman’s debut in Inverness. How will the city react?
His controversial writing style has divided readers, reviewers and even Booker Prize judges - you either love it or hate it - but his new work seems to have won a fresh audience with its account of growing up in Glasgow after the Second World War.
Keiron Smith, Boy doesn’t have a traditional plot but is instead a snapshot in time seen through a 12-year-old’s eyes. There’s the ‘Glesga’ dialect his other work such as the Booker-winning How Late it Was, How Late is famous for. Coming-of-age novels often suffer from grown-up perspectives but Kelman has managed to get inside the head of a kid and stay there, so we get an unfiltered account of the trials of growing up in Scotland: bullying, sectarianism and working class versus middle class.
Chair: Bryan Beattie, journalist and writer for stage, screen and radio for over twenty years
OneTouch Theatre
Price: £7.00 Reduced rate £5.00
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Wednesday 01 October
12.30pm
Alastair Scott 30 Years of Travelling
There are few places on the planet where Skye-based writer Alastair Scott hasn’t been.
At this event he’ll present photographs and tell stories detailing three decades of globetrotting. He has hitchhiked round the world in a kilt, cycled behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War and driven a dogsled across Alaska.
His latest book, Salt and Emerald, details his solo sailing expedition around Ireland. Come along for a colourful insight into the life of an adventurer.
www.alastair-scott.com
Venue: La Scala Cinema
Price: £5.00 Reduced rate £4.00
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Wednesday 01 October
8.00pm
Richard Moore
In Search of Robert Millar
Richard’s book has been flying off the shelves faster than a freewheel down an alpine pass. This intriguing hunt for one of Scotland’s few sporting superstars is told in a voice that’s genuinely enthusiastic. One minute Millar is the toast of the Tour de France, King of the Mountains; next he’s vanished into thin air. What happened? And where is he now?
Richard Moore is an author, acclaimed journalist and former Commonwealth Games athlete. He will introduce a short documentary film on Millar and
answer questions. In Search Of Robert Millar recently won Best Biography at the British Sports Book Awards.
OneTouch Theatre
Price £7.00 I Reduced rate £5.00
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Thursday 02 October
12.30pm
Michael Norton
365 Ways to Change the World
This lunchtime event is guaranteed to inspire. We’re all under pressure to do our bit for the environment, give to charity and lead more sustainable lives - recycle, buy local, send a goat and so on. But can any of these activities actually change the world for the better? Michael Norton is the man to ask. After years of collecting ideas, developing and researching, he’s produced a book full of practical ways to tackle the world’s problems. Come along to hear about everything from guerrilla gardening to shopping and slavery. Michael, who was awarded an OBE, founded the Directory of Social Change, the UK’s lead agency for voluntary organisations, and CIVA, the Centre for Innovation in Voluntary Action. He set up banks for street kids in South Asia and helped Childline reach youngsters in India. At this event he’ll give a presentation showing how ordinary people have made a big difference and take questions from the audience.
Venue: La Scala Cinema
Price: £5.00 Reduced rate: £4.00
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Thursday 02 October
6.30pm
Alan Bissett & Michael Gardiner
Culture in Fiction
Two cutting edge Scottish authors guaranteed to provide great entertainment and food for thought about culture in Scotland and beyond. Alan Bissett’s best known work is The Incredible Adam Spark, which tells the story of an 18-year old with learning disabilities, who believes he has superpowers.
Alan’s short stories are regularly shortlisted for awards and his highly successful 2001 novel Boyracers was described by the Big Issue as “A caustic look at what has passed for culture in the last decade”.We hope Alan will tell us about his third novel, Death of a Ladies’ Man.
www.alanbissett.com
Michael Gardiner is something of an expert on culture, having written Modern Scottish Culture and From Trocchi to Trainspotting: Scottish Critical Theory Since 1960. He also published an acclaimed account of Aberdeenshire-born merchant Thomas Blake Glover called At the Edge of Empire which showed how he helped develop the Japanese Imperial Navy, Mitsubishi, and relations between Japan and Scotland.
Michael’s fiction is gaining critical attention too. The title work of his Japan-based short story collection Escalator, published in 2006, was
shortlisted for the Scotsman and Orange Short Story Award. He has an eye for the absurd yet believable - one of his stories tells of a student living her life under 24-hour surveillance in order to pay her way through university.
Chair: Paula Kirby
OneTouch Theatre
Price £7.00 Reduced rate £5.00
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Thursday 02 October
8.00pm
Allan Guthrie & Denise Mina
Crime-Fighting Duo!
A thrilling night with two of Scotland’s finest crime writers.
Allan’s latest book, Savage Night, is described by the Dogmatika books review website as “Shallow Grave on steroids and bad acid, and conducted by the devil himself. Guthrie’s writing explodes in virtuoso riffs as crazed and original as the best of Raymond Chandler.”
Allan, originally from Orkney but now living in Edinburgh, shot to fame when his first novel, Two-Way Split, was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger and went on to win Crime Novel Of The Year. His second novel, Kiss Her Goodbye, was
nominated for numerous awards. His third, Hard Man, is the winner of the inaugural Spinetingler award.
www.allanguthrie.co.uk
Denise Mina from Glasgow, a former nurse and law student, has been gathering an army of fans in the last few years with her murderous Paddy Meehan stories, set in the world of journalism in the 1980s and 90s.
Her debut novel, Garnethill, won the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasy Dagger and was the start of a trilogy completed by Exile and Resolution.
Denise is also a talented playwright and comics writer. She wrote Hellblazer, the John Constantine series, for a year, and a one-off graphic novel about spree killing and property prices for DC Comics.
She also hides a dark secret, a family connection with Inverness.
Chair: John Feetenby
OneTouch Theatre
Price £7.00 Reduced rate £5.00
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Friday 03 October
12.30pm
Anne Donovan
Anne achieved great acclaim a few years back with her first novel, Buddha Da, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, the Whitbread First Book Award and Scottish Book of the Year. It told the story of Jimmy, a Scottish painter and decorator, who develops an interest in Buddhism. Hilarious and touching, it proved a hit among readers and reviewers and is understood to be in development as a film. As the Guardian put it, Anne‘s “characters are likable and convincing, and her light touch allows her to tackle serious matters without getting too heavy”.
Her new novel, Being Emily, is about a girl fascinated by the Bronte family while trying to cope with family turmoil. It again tackles everyday issues without getting heavy, and controversially suggests not all teenagers are neds!
Come along for a lunchtime session with one of Scotland’s brightest talents.
Chair: Paula Kirby
La Scala Cinema
Price: £5.00 Reduced rate: £4.00
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Friday 03 October
5.30pm
Gordon Burn The News as A Novel
Madeleine McCann, Gordon Brown and Prince William’s girlfriend.
What do you think you know about these people? Gordon’s dazzling novel sets out to confound your expectations and leaves you reeling, wondering if
everything you think you know is true. Born Yesterday blurs the line between fact and fiction and is quite unlike anything else on the shelves.
This is a real coup for the Inverness Book Festival. Gordon is very much in demand and is at the forefront of writing that makes you think.
In the past, he’s covered subjects as diverse as George Best, boxing, comedy and the serial killer Fred West. His novel Alma Cogan won the Whitbread First Novel Prize and he has collaborated with the controversial artist Damien Hirst.
Born Yesterday was written to a punishing schedule. Gordon soaked up last summer’s news: floods, foot and mouth, Madeleine McCann, Blair’s handover to Brown and the terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport. The book rattles along at a furious pace, making connections between the people in these events. And to add to the mix, he himself appears in the book, trying to track down Brown at his home in Fife.
By writing something so distinctive and compelling, on the hoof, there’s no doubt Burn is a remarkable force. Let’s find out what makes him tick.
Chair: Nicola McAlley, STV journalist
OneTouch Theatre
Price: £7.00 Reduced rate: £5.00
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Friday 03 October
7.00pm
Lesley Riddoch
The Neil Gunn Trust Lecture
Broadcaster, author and wind energy supporter Lesley Riddoch asks if the legacy of powerful writers like Neil Gunn is being used to open or close debate about the future of development in the Highlands and Islands.
Currently a proposal to site 23 turbines in Dunbeath Strath, Gunn’s birthplace and the venue for his famous novel Highland River, is dividing local opinion. Using insights gained on the Western Isles for the BBC Radio series and book Riddoch on the Outer Hebrides and from childhood summer holidays in her mum’s native Wick, Lesley will try to reconcile strongly held views about the role of wilderness and wind energy in modern Highland lives.
www.lesleyriddoch.com
OneTouch Theatre
Price: £7.00 Reduced rate: £5.00
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Friday 03 October
8.30pm
Joe Boyd Making Music in the 1960s
To round off this year’s festival in swinging style, join Joe Boyd for a journey back in time to the heady days of folk-rock.
Joe was the studio producer behind classic artists like Eric Clapton, Nick Drake, Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny and the Incredible String Band. He‘s also responsible for the sound of REM and 10,000 Maniacs. His memoir, White Bicycles, is a vivid account of the music scene during a time when it fizzed with creativity.
Boston-born, Harvard-educated, Joe travelled with Muddy Waters, Coleman Hawkins and Stan Getz, and supervised Dylan’s electric debut at Newport.
As head of music for Warner Brothers Films, he organized the scoring of Deliverance, A Clockwork Orange and made Jimi Hendrix, a feature-length
documentary. In 1988 he was Executive Producer of the movie Scandal.
Uncut magazine described White Bicycles as “refreshing and cleverly observed.”
‘They say that if you can remember the 60s you weren’t there.’ Well, tonight is a real chance to hear from and speak to a guy who was there and does remember
www.joeboyd.co.uk
Chair: Ray Atkinson, Moray Firth Radio presenter
OneTouch Theatre
Price: £7.00 Reduced rate: £5.00
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