The annual Bookmark literary festival has earned a reputation that travels far beyond its Perthshire patch.
Started in Blairgowrie in 2012, the event can boast the likes of Louis de Bernières, Richard Holloway, Martin Bell, Janice Galloway and Jenni Fagan among its previous crowd-pleasers.
This year’s extravaganza on October 8 and 9 promises another diverse offering.
Storytelling sessions
Bookmark started firing up again earlier this week when children’s authors David McPhail, Mike Nicholson and Mark Smith hosted a series of storytelling sessions at Coupar Angus Primary.
Such events continue Bookmark’s work over the past four years, aimed at encouraging children to engage with the written word, and also giving them the chance to quiz authors.
For adults, the festival’s opening day proper has a packed line-up of talks that starts with a visit to Blairgowrie Community Campus from Greenock-born crime writer Lin Anderson.
Best known as the creator of a long-running series of tartan noir novels featuring fictional forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod, Ms Anderson will be in discussion with full-time thriller author Hania Allen from 9.30am.
Songwriting workshop
Bookmark’s focus later moves to Blairgowrie Library for a couple of hours, with the Lesley Street venue due to host a songwriting workshop led by acclaimed Northern Irish composer Gareth Williams, starting at 10.30am.
The Edinburgh College of Art-based musician was Scottish Opera’s first composer in residence from 2012 to 2015, with his work also touching on chamber and musical theatre.
Besides his Saturday workshop, he’s also due to round off Bookmark with Songs From The Last Page, a performance involving members of Chamber Music Scotland and designed to celebrate Scottish writers and the world of stories. This is to be staged at the campus at 3pm on October 9.
Scotland on the world stage
The first day’s programme at the main venue also includes a talk from Glasgow-born painter and broadcaster Lachlan Goudie at 11.30am.
He’ll be discussing the global impact of Scotland’s creative masterpieces with international art auctioneer Alice Strang.
Ex-Cairngorms National Park writer-in-residence Merryn Glover will be dropping by at 3pm to chat about her Book of the Year Award-winning mystery Of Stone And Sky with crime exponent Olga Wojtas.
Following this, ethnologist and BBC producer Gary West makes a swift return to Bookmark at 4.30pm.
He led a successful event at last year’s festival and is back with his one-act musical play Jock’s Jocks, based on a collection of testimonies from First World War veterans recorded over 50 years by folk singer Jock Duncan.
The closing event on the Saturday starts at 5pm and features Cairngorms-based wildlife photographer Neil McIntyre, whose poignant books The Red Squirrel: A Future In The Forest and Chasing The Deer have been published in recent years.
Tartan noir talents
A shorter programme of events on Bookmark’s second day starts at 10am with a visit from another of tartan noir’s stellar talents, Christopher Brookmyre, who’ll be joined by Lin Anderson.
Former army officer and international aid worker Simon Conway is centre stage at 11.30am on the Sunday to focus on espionage, political intrigue and his apocalyptic thrillers The Stranger and The Saboteur.
The final talk is at 1.30pm and will see historical novelist Rosemary Goring and banner-maker and cultural biographer Clare Hunter discussing the legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Tickets are at bookmarkblair.com
Conversation