MARK MORPURGO looks forward to a big Homecoming celebration in Argyll & Bute

BRID McKIBBEN is the new director of the Inverness Book Festival, and reflects on her plans for her first festival since taking over from Jason Rose.

GEORGINA COBURN speaks to Highland Print Studio Director Alison McMenemy and Studio Manager John McNaught about their much-anticipated return to their newly refurbished premises in Bank Street

I BEGIN this month with an apology. In September, Northings ran a review of a reading of George Gunn’s play Fields of Barley in Thurso. I received an e-mail from John Cairns, writing on behalf of both Grey Coast Theatre and Caithness Arts, strongly objecting to what he saw as “an attack on the use of Caithness dialect”.

JOHN BURNS is sworn to secrecy, but reckons comedian Dave Gorman is a bit special anyway.

MARTHA LABARE enjoys a disparate evening of performance that made significant connections.

MORAG MACINNES finds quiet at the core of the work of Thomas and Laurie Clark.

MORAG MACINNES investigates Roger Ackling’s recent work on Orkney.

GILES SUTHERLAND looks back on a stimulating Conference overshadowed by the death of a co-founder of North Lands Creative Glass.

Orkney has always been a place I hold dear and when we were planning a Makers’ Day that would bring together craftspeople from different areas of the Highlands and Islands I could think of nowhere better to hold it.