Room 13 is a classroom with a difference. FRANCES McLEOD reports on the unique artistic activites at Caol Primary School in Lochaber, where the pupils are firmly in charge.

The SCOTTISH GUITAR QUARTET embark on a Highland Tour with their new Framework guitars and new music for their Roland VG-88 synthesiser.

JOHN BURNS dispenses some sage advice on handling the fear factor inherent in the business of stand up comedy, and reflects on what it all means

ANDY ROSS, the co-organiser of the inaugural Vocal Music Festival on Unst and Yell, reports on the events of the weekend.

ROBERT MAIN-ELLEN and his partner, Ann, run Medicine Music, the principal promotion agency for roots music and Americana in the Highlands & Islands. Rob describes their commitment to both music and the community to Kenny Mathieson

Shetland artist ROXANE PERMAR describes the process of creating The Encyclopedia of Knitted Stories in St Petersburg, and a new website telling the stories in digital form.

Gaelic writer TORCUIL MacRATH is the subject of a profile by Peter Urpeth this month. This essay on the American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau first appeared in the Gaelic literary journel Gairm, and is reprinted with the author’s permission.

ANDREA MUIR reports on a significant step forward for her husband, Dingwall-based guitarist GRAHAM MUIR, and looks ahead to next month’s Ullapool Guitar Festival

Venue profile: Universal Hall, Findhorn

TORCUIL MacRATH of Grimshader celebrates his 80th birthday this year. He remains one of Gaeldom’s most original poets and scholars yet his work is little known outside of Lewis and among the readership of the now silent Gaelic literary journal, Gairm. PETER URPETH met the Bard in his Grimshader home on the Isle of Lewis.