Let's get this party started...

Mallaig is getting ready to welcome book lovers to A Write Highland Hoolie, with the return of the much loved book festival.

 

The festival kicks off on Friday November 11 with poet, playwright and novelist Jackie Kay in a Creative Celebration with musicians Ross Ainslie and Tim Eday. The evening promises to be a brilliant blend of poetry, music and chat between three of Scotland's outstanding creative talents.

 

On Saturday Emma Gray discusses her two novels, one of which, Be Guid to yer Mammy, is Scots Book of the Year 2022, while crime writer Lin Anderson will be discussing her latest novel, stand-alone thriller The Party House. Continuing with the crime theme, husband and wife team Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman will chat about the latest book in their Ambrose Parry series - A Corruption of Blood.

 

The world’s wildest and most innovative vet Romain Pizzi will be sharing what it is like to be carrying out operations on patients that could wake up and eat him at any moment. And the Hoolie's very own Polly Pullar will be discussing her memoir The Horizontal Oak. This often-humorous memoir is a treasure of insight, empathy and vulnerability, punctuated with glorious people, animals and places that will stay with you for a long time.

 

Graeme Hawley will return with The Joy of Shapes, where he considers fresh ways to perceive the National Library of Scotland’s 30 million things. And this being Scotland's Year of Stories, the wonderful Tearlach MacFarlane will again delight the nocturnal amongst us to his supreme recitation of the story of the S.S. Politician. To ensure no one misses this brilliant monologue, he will perform on stage for us all.

 

Saturday will be rounded off with music in the bar with Glenfinnan's Ingrid Henderson and Iain MacFarlane.

 

On Sunday the morning events kick off with John Goodlad and his book The Salt Roads - How fish made a culture, an extraordinary story of Shetland's most enduring export.

 

There will then be a minute's silence, piping and brief words before Hanna Jackson takes to the stage for Call Me Red, a remarkable tale of how the BBC Countryfile presenter broke the stereotypes of her ‘townie’ upbringing, followed her heart and became a successful and admired hill shepherdess.

 

In the afternoon The Deirdre Roberts Poetry Prize Giving will take place with poems and stories with Hugh McMillan, and the festival will be rounded off with a grande finale tea party, and a children's creative writing and art competition, plus prize giving, with Alan Windram and One Button Benny.

 

For more information and to buy tickets for events, visit www.a-write-highland-hoolie.com