Inverness Book Festival

15 Jul 2004 in Festival, Highland, Writing

A Bestseller in the Making

Festival Director JASON ROSE lays out his plans for the inaugural Inverness Book Festival in October.

It’s a conspiracy! Many of the best stories are, of course, but this is for real…

Five business rivals bury the hatchet for the sake of culture and the community. Writers from all genres and all parts of the country jump at the chance to be in the same place during the same week. Does something smell a bit fishy? Well, the butler didn’t do it, it was me.

I have been overwhelmed by just how keen everyone is for there to be an Inverness Book Festival, and at times it has felt like everything has just ‘conspired’ to fall into place to make it happen. Last summer I sat on the lawn outside Eden Court Theatre with Colin Marr, the theatre’s director, tossing the idea of a book festival in the air. A year on and it’s about to take the city by storm. Over four days in October more than two dozen authors will descend on the Highland Capital to create that magic atmosphere that exists when readers get to meet writers.

Like a character in a Poirot novel who admits to jealousy when he is snared for some evil-doing, I must confess that the Inverness Book Festival is happening partly because I’m envious of the fun they have every year in Edinburgh. Inverness has changed a lot since I came here twelve years ago. It’s a confident city with a Premier League football team and all the facilities you’d expect, but with the added bonus of the fantastic Highland environment and quality of life.

“From the extraordinary fiction of Michel Faber to the giggle-some children’s books of Mairi Hedderwick, round every corner in the Highlands there’s someone crafting away at something creative, and we should celebrate that”

By having a book festival we can attract big names to our area to send a clear message that we’re not the ‘basket case’ that many outsiders perhaps still regard the Highlands as. ‘Basket case’ was coined by Jim Hunter, the outgoing HIE chairman, and just one of the brilliant authors the North should be proud of. I sometimes think that there’s something in the water when I think of all the great writers on our doorstep. None gets the recognition he or she deserves. From the extraordinary fiction of Michel Faber to the giggle-some children’s books of Mairi Hedderwick, round every corner in the Highlands there’s someone crafting away at something creative, and we should celebrate that.

So, who’s all taking part in the festival? Be patient. The brochure will be available from the end of August at all good bookshops. Namely: Waterstone’s, Borders, Charles Leakey, WH Smith and Ottaker’s. Eden Court is braced for a stampede on tickets. In the meantime I can tell you about a few of the events and I can promise something for everyone. It’s a bit of a cliché but I’m standing by it.

We open on the Thursday afternoon with an appetising talk by Lady Claire Macdonald of Kinloch Lodge on Skye, whose cookery books make the most of the great food and drink we have here in the Highlands. The opening night event will feature a reviewer’s dream of three world-class authors: Jackie Kay, Toby Litt and Ali Smith. Ali is originally from Inverness and has been a great source of support and information for me. I know she’s dead chuffed about her home city finally getting a literary celebration. Jackie is one of Scotland’s finest poets and short-story writers and Toby Litt’s writing is a sharp as tacks. As far as I can figure he has no connection to Inverness but his appearance proves that Inverness can give other literary locations a run for their money.

“The festival won’t just be for bookworms. I hope that it’s an event that everyone can enjoy”

The big names continue on the Friday night with Iain Banks and Christopher Brookmyre, followed by Doug Scott, the legendary mountaineer. Saturday will feature loads of stuff for younger readers, including Inverness’s very own John Ward revealing part two of his thrilling trilogy for teenagers. Sunday is a real treat with three Highland authors revealing how they got published: Anne Macleod, Jim Miller and Erica Munro. To close the festival, someone who’s been everywhere and done everthing, pretty much: Winnie Ewing, the only person to have been an MP, an MEP and an MSP.

The festival won’t just be for bookworms. I hope that it’s an event that everyone can enjoy, even if they don’t consider themselves ‘bookish’. Books are all around us. You only have to look at recent blockbuster movies to realise that mainstream culture wouldn’t be what it is without writers. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Cold Mountain, I’m Not Scared, Around the World in 80 Days, and so on – all had their origins between hard covers.

Personally, I’m looking forward to the film of the book of the radio play of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Sadly, we’ll never see Douglas Adams at the Inverness Book Festival but maybe, just maybe, by putting readers together with writers to talk about food, poetry, crime, science fiction, the environment, politics, love and death we can find the answer to life, the universe and everything.

The Inverness Book Festival runs from Thursday 7 to Sunday 10 October. For more information contact Eden Court Theatre on 01463 234234.