This session once again started with a surprise reading from a debut novelist. This time it was Margot McCuaig, an award winning documentary and script writer who has just published her first novel. She reads a section where the main character of her story is finally setting out to get revenge. She arrives to find the man she wanted to kill lying … [Read more...] about Bloody Scotland: Dear Mean Place – Talking Glasgow
Bloody Scotland: Chris Brookmyre
This event began with a surprise. One of the aims of Bloody Scotland is give a voice to debut authors and one of the ways they do so is to give them a chance to read for two minutes at the beginning of an event. After inviting Chris Brookmyre onto the stage, the chair Gordon Brown (not the one you might be expecting he adds) introduces Phil Miller, … [Read more...] about Bloody Scotland: Chris Brookmyre
Bloody Scotland: Forensics with Val McDermid & Lin Anderson
Val McDermid and Lin Anderson arrived on stage alone, joking that it had been decided that no one could moderate them. They briskly launch into a discussion on the development of forensics. McDermid's first book was published in 1987, just a year after DNA had first been used in solving a case. At the time forensics largely consisted of … [Read more...] about Bloody Scotland: Forensics with Val McDermid & Lin Anderson
Bloody Scotland: Val McDermid & Peter May
Douglas Skelton introduces Val McDermid and Peter May as two of the most popular authors Scotland has produced. When he asks if he’s correct in saying that they’ve written 35 and 23 books respectively, they laugh and say ‘probably’. They’ve both won a variety of awards and May was the first western author to join the Chinese Crime Writers … [Read more...] about Bloody Scotland: Val McDermid & Peter May
Bloody Scotland
The Edinburgh International Book Festival is far from the only book festival in Scotland. There’s several around, including one in Glasgow appropriately titled Aye Write. This weekend is Bloody Scotland, which as the title might suggest celebrates crime fiction. Originally the brainchild of Alex Gray and Lin Anderson it’s now in its fourth year and … [Read more...] about Bloody Scotland
EdBookFest: Caroline Criado-Perez
Rosemary Burnett introduced Caroline Criado-Perez with the thing she is most famous for: the campaign to put a woman on the English £10 note. Her book is titled Do It Like A Woman – And Change the World. Criado-Perez explains that she wanted to challenge the, still prevalent idea, that ‘like a woman’ meant weak, feeble and incompetent. She started … [Read more...] about EdBookFest: Caroline Criado-Perez