Muriel Gray, Alistair Moffat and Melanie Reid are the latest names confirmed for the fourth Cove and Kilcreggan Book Festival.
Part of Book Week Scotland, the event will be held in Cove Burgh Hall on November 26 and 27.
Saturday morning has a dedicated Children’s Book Festival beginning at 10.30 with the legendary Mairi Hedderwick, creator of the Katie Morag series – now a film.
Mairi Hedderwick was born in Gourock and moved to the Isle of Coll at the age of 17.
After Edinburgh College of Art she worked as a teacher before returning to Coll where she lived with her husband and children.
In 2003 she was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Stirling for her outstanding contribution to writing and illustration in Scotland, especially for children.
Mairi also writes and illustrates travel books for adults and illustrates Jane Duncan’s Janet Reachfar children’s books.
In addition she has a range of beautifully illustrated diaries and stationery, featuring her exquisite watercolours of the Hebridean islands.
In contrast, London-based Kim Geyer, an artist and illustrator, became an author only two years ago, and her first series of Monty books quickly became a toddlers’ favourite.
Particularly suitable for pre-school children, it features a little boy, Max, and his pooch Monty and is gloriously drawn by this former textile designer who illustrated other authors’ work for a number of years before branching out on her own account.
A mother of three girls, she has strong local connections and holidays on the Rosneath Peninsula several times a year at her mother and father-in-law’s Kilcreggan home.
The adult book festival begins at 2pm on Saturday afternoon with the woman who was the UK columnist of the year in 2015.
Melanie Reid was asked by actor and comedian Gregor Fisher – best known as Rab C. Nesbitt – to work with him on a memoir.
Gregor had a troubled family background. Before he was four, he was on his third set of foster homes and then came through a number of care homes.
When he became 60, he decided to ask for Melanie’s help in finding out about his real origins.
Melanie, an enthusiastic horsewoman, broke her back in a riding accident five years ago and is now tetraplegic. Despite these physical limitations she and Gregor travelled all over the country to research and write The Boy From Nowhere.
Next up on Saturday at 3.30 is award-winning comic crime writer Christopher Brookmyre, fresh from winning the McIlvanney award for his latest novel Black Widow at Bloody Scotland, the annual literary festival for Scotland’s crime writers.
Chris has a huge following for his work which mixes humour, crime, politics and social comment.
Many of his books contain familiar characters like investigative journalist Jack Parlabane, counter terrorism officer Angelique de Xavia, private investigator Jasmine Sharp and police officer Catherine McLeod.
His first award-winning work, Ugly One Morning, was made into a two-part TV drama, while Bedlam became a video game which he also wrote.
Saturday night brings another special treat: An evening with Liz Lochhead.
The playwright and poet, who was Scotland’s Makar for five years until 2015 and has won the Queen’s gold medal for poetry, is one of the country’s best loved and most respected writers in both English and Scots.
Her theatrical adaptions, from Greek classics like Medea to the comic works of Moliere, have been widely acclaimed, whilst her one of her own original works Mary Queen Of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off has been the subject of several revivals.
Her latest poetry collection, Fugitive Colours, covers the full range of emotions from dealing with loss, to celebrating the landscapes she loves.
Day two of the festival begins with the biography of a much-loved Scottish artist, or, as George Wylie described himself a Scul?tor!
The Gourock man became widely known for a number of public artworks which made telling political points, like the Straw Locomotive suspended over a giant crane illustrating the demise of that industry, whilst The Paper Boat was a similar comment on the shape of shipbuilding.
His dramatic works such as A Day Down A Goldmine were hugely popular.
Now, in Arrivals And Sailings, the journalist and art critic Jan Patience has joined forces with George’s writer daughter Louise Wylie to compile this wonderful tribute subtitled The Making of George Wylie. That’s at 11.30
The afternoon continues with Alistair Moffat, the journalist, broadcaster and historian who has written the wonderfully comprehensive Scotland; A History From Earlier Times.
It’s a book packed full of extraordinary anecdotes from our country’s history, with the broad sweep of events interspersed with potted biographies of people, places, and customs.
Alistair, something of a renaissance man, has had several incarnations including director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, director of programmes at STV, and Rector of St Andrews University, his alma mater.
He was also involved in the original setting up Scotland’s DNA project, which has now extended to the UK, and, alongside Alexander McCall Smith and the artist Andrew Crummy, gave us the unique Great Tapestry of Scotland project.
A proud Borderer, he runs his own annual book festival based in Melrose. Alistair takes the stage at 2pm.
Our finale is that multi faceted talent Muriel Gray – television presenter, TV production executive, horror fiction author, former rector of Edinburgh University and current chair of Glasgow School of Art, of which she is a graduate.
That became a vital role after the devastating fire since when she has won many plaudits for her efforts to attract national and international support for its renovation.
And, of course, she is a famous Munro bagger! Her TV series The Munro Show was accompanied by a witty book The First Fifty: Munro Bagging Without A Beard.
Amongst the fans of her three horror novels is the master of that art, Stephen King, who was sufficiently impressed to supply a quote for one of her covers.
She also wrote a history of Kelvingrove Art Gallery to coincide with its re-opening. Muriel too has solid local connections: her sister-in-law lives at Ardpeaton.
Her event is at 3.30
There will be a café bar open on both days of the festival for morning coffee or a light lunch.
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