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Byres Road Book Festival  Picture: Byres Road Book Festival
Byres Road Book FestivalByres Road Book Festival

New chapter … Byres Road Book Festival returns

Christopher Brookmyre and Lin Anderson are among the guest authors

Scottish authors Christopher Brookmyre, George Paterson and Lin Anderson are among the line-up for the Byres Road Book Festival (Friday September 23 to Monday September 26).

The literary gathering returns to the West End after a five-year gap, with a bumper offering of events and activities for all ages and tastes.

The festival will include sessions with great Scottish authors talking about their new work, and writers who are starting their career with great promise.

Graeme Macrae Burnet, nominated for the Booker Prize for the second time for Case Studies, will be joining to discuss his developing body of work.

Atmospheric

Lin Anderson will be discussing her most recent novel, The Party House, set in the atmospheric Scottish Highlands, as well as her series featuring Dr Rhona MacLeod.

The literary gathering returns to the West End after a five-year gap
The literary gathering returns to the West End after a five-year gap

Lin said: “I am thrilled for the return of the Byres Road Book Festival and to be appearing there once again.”

Jenny Colgan is a readers’ favourite and her latest novel, An Island Wedding, deftly mixes a rom-com scenario with a deeper consideration of refugees and belonging.

Kerry Hudson was nominated for the Saltire Non-Fiction Book of the Year award for her book Lowborn, which investigates her own past and what it means to be poor in Britain today.

Brookmyre’s new novel, The Cliff House, continues his reputation as a witty, psychologically acute novelist, and Paterson has been nominated for the best debut novel award at Bloody Scotland for The Girl, the Crow, the Writer and the Fighter.

Revealing

There is a strong Gaelic strand to the festival, with sessions for adults and children. Morag Law’s latest novel A’ Fàgail an Eilein (Leaving the Island) is a compelling, coming-of-age novel, set on Skye in the 1960s.

Poet Niall O’Gallagher has been described as ’an exciting, new (this time essentially urban voice)’ and in 2019 was named Bàrd Baile Ghlaschu, the City of Glasgow’s first Gaelic Poet Laureate. Norry Wilson, of Lost Glasgow will bring the past to life with an illustrated talk on Glasgow’s rich history.

On Monday 26 September the focus is on families and young adults. Mandy Sinclair will host a workshop with the focus on illustration, and Alistair Chisholm will be sharing his award winning science-fiction and picture books with young readers.

For young adults Craig Steele will be revealing the secrets of Ultimate Gamer: Career Mode; join Craig for an interactive and entertaining talk about how you can turn your gaming hobby into a job.

Chris Brookmyre will feature his new novel, The Cliff House
Chris Brookmyre will feature his new novel, The Cliff House

Byres Road is blessed with a trio of book-based venues - Hillhead library, Waterstones and the Oxfam Books - that formed a hub of activity during the festival in 2016 and 2017, and will once again host host a variety of curated presentations, conversations and discussions.

But the festival is also casting the net wider with a session for children by Gillbride MacMillan hosted in the book shop at the Gaelic Books Council in Mansfield Street.

Alison Lang of the Gaelic Books Council said: “The Gaelic Books Council is proud to support the Byres Road Book Festival.

I am thrilled for the return of the Byres Road Book Festival and to be appearing there once again.

Lin Anderson

“The West End has for many years been home to Glasgow’s Gaelic community, and it’s fitting that we should celebrate new Gaelic stories and poetry as part of Glasgow’s vibrant literary scene.”

The organisers are the Byres Road & Lanes Business Improvement District, who market local businesses and advocate for better services and improvements.

John Turner, Chairman of Byres Road and the Lanes Business Improvement District, who are co-ordinating the event said: “I am an avid reader, and just finished reading a novel by Scotland’s Queen of Crime, Val McDermid, in which the young murder victim lived on Havelock Street and worked in a hair salon on Byres Road.

Book-based venues Hillhead library, Waterstones and the Oxfam Books will host the events
Book-based venues Hillhead library, Waterstones and the Oxfam Books will host the events

“The case turned on the question of whether she took the Clockwork Orange into town on the night in question, or the No 16 bus.

“So it should come as no surprise to find Byres Road at the heart of all things literary.

“We are very much looking forward to the renewed Book Festival, with its planned range of events and activities for bookworms of all ages.”

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