Cove and Kilcreggan Book Festival

Saturday morning Café Bar opens at 9.30am. The Children’s Book Festival starts at 10.30am with the legendary Mairi Hedderwick, creator of Katie Morag, followed by Kim Geyer, author and illustrator of the Monty series of toddlers’ books.

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 2.00pm 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 3.30pm 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 at 7.30pm 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.

Saturday:
Grand Opening with Mairi Hedderwick , creator of Katie Morag 10.30am
Kim Geyer: books for younger readers 12 noon
Melanie Reid on her biography of Gregor Fisher 2.00pm
Chris Brookmyre master of comic crime 3.30pm
Liz Lochhead, poet, playwright, former Makar 7.30pm