2 | To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival

OPENING HOURSMon-Sat: 9-5

Sun: 10-4T: 01343 562634Elgin Library, Cooper Park,

Elgin IV30 1HS

Light SnacksAward Winning Cakes

Home Made SoupsGluten Free Options

SandwichesOutside Catering

OPEN EVERY DAY AT ELGIN LIBRARY

CAFÉ

We sell

Arran Dairy

Ice Cream

A6 Advert.indd 1 25/06/2015 12:17:17

2 | To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival | 3

Once again the Spirit of Moray Book Festival offers the perfect blend of new and established Scottish authors and illustrators during a packed 5 day programme of events for children, schools and adults.

In 2015 we boasted ‘our best programme yet’ but we believe we’ve surpassed last year’s line-up. This year we offer an excellent blend of authors who will encourage debate, discussion and humour as well as inspire new writing.

Mystery fiction has become the most popular genre borrowed from Moray Libraries with Stuart MacBride topping the list of most borrowed titles for 2015-16. We’re delighted that Stuart will perform during our Saturday evening programme.

Val McDermid will be ‘Killing People for Fun and Profit’ on Friday evening. This is Val’s debut at the Spirit of Moray Book Festival and we anticipate a packed house, so book your tickets early!

We’ve introduced two events for young people outwith the schools’ programme and are delighted to welcome John Fardell and Pamela Butchart. Pamela has just been named overall winner of the Children’s Book Award 2016 and her book My Head Teacher Is a Vampire Rat won the Books for Younger Readers category. These are excellent not to be missed opportunities for our younger readers.

Back by popular demand is the Saturday morning Bookbug Picnic to encourage whole families to join in stories, songs and rhymes. 2016 is the Year of the Dad and we expect dads to participate in the fun. Don’t let us down!

Cobbs Café will again extend their opening hours to provide refreshments for those who wish to relax prior to, and between, sessions.

Booking Office opens 15th August.To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at – www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival

BOOK FESTIVAL

4 | To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival

Tuesday 13th September

6.30pm OfficialFestivalLaunch

7pm James Robertson Adults Love,WhiskyandaTalkingToad

CastletoCathedraltoCashmereWritingCompetitionAnnouncement

Wednesday 14th September

4pm PamelaButchart Age8+ BluePeterBookAward-winningauthor

6.30pm Mairi Hedderwick Adults Running Away from Katie Morag

8pm DonaldSMurray Adults Herring Tales

Thursday 15th September

6.30pm Alan Bissett Adults GreatestTheatricalHits

8pm ChrisBrookmyre Adults BlackWidow

Friday 16th September

4pm HamishMacDonald,ScotsScriever Adults Jessie Kesson: a celebration

6.30pm ValMcDermid Adults KillingPeopleforFunandProfit

8pm DavidTorrance Adults StandingupforScotland:acenturyofScottishNationalism

Saturday 17th September

11am BookbugPicnic Families

2pm JohnFardell Age5–12 Award-winningauthorandillustrator

6.30pm AndyWightman Adults Land,Democracy&Economy

8pm StuartMacBride Adults Wordmonger

Public Events Programme at a Glance

4 | To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival | 5

Tuesday13thSeptemberat6.30pm

Official Festival Launch by Hugh AndrewHughAndrew, managing director and owner of Birlinn Ltd, was educated at Glasgow Academy and then Magdalen College Oxford where he took a BA in History. On leaving university he worked for a year for the National Trust for Scotland and then worked for some four years with James Thin Ltd and then Hatchards Booksellers. Birlinn has provided support to the Spirit of Moray Book Festival since 2009.

Tuesday13thSeptemberat7pm

James Robertson Love, Whisky and a Talking Toad £5James Robertson’s new novel, To Be Continued, tells the story of Douglas Elder who, confronted with a midlife crisis, sets off on a complicated journey from Edinburgh to the West Highlands. His encounters with an opinionated toad and various other characters - all with their own problems, secrets and fantasy lives - build into a comic adventure full of surprises.

The story of Elgin’s past 1,000 years is now being developed into an exciting visitor experience through the CastletoCathedraltoCashmere heritage initiative due to be completed by the winter of 2016.A key part of this initiative is to present and promote Elgin as a compelling experience through a collection of short stories.Writers were invited to submit a previously unpublished short story of no more than 3,000 words set in Elgin and the surrounding area during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.Jim Royan will announce the winners.

6 | To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival

Wednesday14thSeptemberat4pm

Pamela Butchart Vampire Rats, Baby Aliens, Spies £3Blue Peter Book Award-winning author PamelaButchart will share the brilliantly bonkers world of her books: school, friends, vampire headteachers, baby aliens and school dinner-loving spies all feature. You will laugh, you may faint and you’ll never EVER look at shepherd’s pie the same way again.

Wednesday14thSeptemberat6.30pm

Mairi Hedderwick Running Away from Katie Morag FREEMairi Hedderwick is primarily known for creating children’s books, especially the Katie Morag series, but she also writes and illustrates travel books for adults. Mairi will be talking about these beautifully illustrated volumes which include An Eye on the Hebrides, Highland Journey, Sea Change and Shetland.This event is sponsored by Elgin Writers. Elgin Writers is a well-established club for aspiring authors and writers. They meet every fortnight in Elgin Library from March until June and again from September to December. For further information visit their website: http://www.elgin-writers.moonfruit.com/

Wednesday14thSeptemberat8pm

Donald S Murray Herring Tales £5At one time the coastline of Europe – from Iceland to Norway, the Netherlands to the Baltic Sea - was dominated by the herring industry. This was particularly true of the northern edges of Scotland, where in ports as far apart as Wick and Stornoway, Lerwick and Eyemouth, the herring was king. DonaldSMurray’s new book Herring Tales tells of that time and how the fish was marked and celebrated throughout Europe – in a continent’s art and music, wit and humour, faith and politics, transforming the lives of the ordinary men and, especially, women who came into contact with the trade.

6 | To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival | 7

Thursday15thSeptemberat6.30pm

Alan Bissett Greatest Theatrical Hits £5AlanBissett, novelist, playwright and performer, transforms from the seductive murderess, the Black Widow in The Red Hourglass to the foul-mouthed chain-smoking Moira from The Moira Monologues to a range of Scottish fairytale creatures from The Pure, the Dead and the Brilliant for this whirlwind, hilarious selection from his Collected Plays 2009-2014.

Thursday15thSeptemberat8pm

Chris Brookmyre Black Widow £5Twists abound in the brilliant new psychological thriller from master author ChrisBrookmyre, starring his legendary character Jack Parlabane, and perfect for readers of The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl.Chris Brookmyre was a journalist before becoming a full-time novelist with the publication of his award-winning debut Quite Ugly One Morning, which established him as one of Britain’s leading crime novelists. His Jack Parlabane novels have sold more than one million copies in the UK alone.

Friday16thSeptemberat4pm

Hamish MacDonald, Scots Scriever Jessie Kesson: a celebration of her lifeand work FREEHamishMacDonaldwrites in English and in Scots, is published in poetry and fiction and has written several plays, two of which he adapted as a radio series for the BBC. He is a contributor to Scots language imprint Itchy Coo Publishing’s popular anarchic children’s poetry books, King o’ the Midden and Blethertoun Braes. Hamish was appointed Scots Scriever by the National Library of Scotland in 2015.Hamish will be in conversation with Alistair Campbell who is preparing an exhibition on Jessie Kesson for Castle to Cathedral to Cashmere. This event is sponsored by the NationalLibraryofScotland

8|Tobookring01343562623orordereTicketsonlineatwww.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival

Friday16thSeptemberat6.30pm

Val McDermid Killing People for Fun and Profit £5ValMcDermid will talk about writing crime fiction and will specifically highlight her latest Tony Hill and Carol Jordan thriller, Splinter the Silence. Val is one of the biggest names in crime writing. Her novels have been translated into 30 different languages and over 10 million copies have been sold worldwide.

Friday16thSeptemberat8pm

David Torrance Standing up for Scotland: A Century of Scottish Nationalism £5DavidTorrance was born and brought up in Edinburgh and educated at Leith Academy, the University of Aberdeen and Cardiff University’s School of Journalism. He began his journalistic career on the Edinburgh Evening News before moving into television as a presenter, producer and reporter for Scottish and Grampian Television (later STV), working on current affairs shows including The Week In Politics, North Tonight and Politics Now. After a couple of years working for an MP at the House of Commons and dabbling in PR, he established himself as a freelance writer, journalist and broadcaster, appearing regularly on the BBC, STV and Sky as a pundit and he has been a weekly columnist for The Herald newspaper since late 2013. David has also written or edited more than a dozen books on Scottish politics and history.

Saturday17thSeptemberat11am

Bookbug Picnic FREEJoin Bookbug for fun-filled songs and stories. Bring along a soft-toy friend.

8|Tobookring01343562623orordereTicketsonlineatwww.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival | 9

Saturday17thSeptemberat2pm

John Fardell Children’s Author/Illustrator £3In this fun, interactive event, award-winning author-illustratorJohnFardell will be showing us his picture books and adventure novels, and the scribbly imaginative processes that go into their creation. He’ll be giving us loads of tips and inspiration, and answering any questions, and there’ll be plenty of opportunity to join in and draw our own characters, inventions and stories. This event is suitable for children aged 5-12 years

Saturday17thSeptemberat6.30pm

Andy Wightman Land, Democracy & Economy £5AndyWightman will be discussing the role of land in the economy and will outline the significant work that remains to democratise the governance of land in Scotland. In his new role as an MSP, Andy will consider the future of land reform over the next five years and how urban, rural and marine Scotland can be owned and used in the public interest and for the common good.

Saturday17thSeptember

Stuart MacBride Wordmonger £5StuartMacBride is the Sunday Times #1 bestselling author of the Logan McRae and Ash Henderson novels. He’s also published a near-future thriller, a short story collection, a couple of novellas, and a slightly twisted picture book for slightly twisted children.He was crowned World Stovies Champion in 2014 and was given an honorary doctorate by Dundee University in 2015. He tries not to let either of these things go to his head.Stuart lives in the northeast of Scotland with his wife Fiona, cats Grendel and Gherkin, some hens, horses, and a vast number of assorted weeds.

10 | To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival

10 | To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival | 11

12 | To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival

Tuesday 13th September

11.15am JamesRobertson&KateLeiper P5-7

1.30pm JamesRobertson&KateLeiper P5-7

Wednesday 14th September

11.15am LariDon P6/7

1.30pm LariDon P6/7

1.30pm PamelaButchart P4/5

Thursday 15th September

9.30pm EmilyMacKenzie P1-3

9.30am TheresaBreslin&KateLeiper P6/7

11.15am EmilyMacKenzie P1-3

11.15am TheresaBreslin&KateLeiper P6/7

Friday 16th September

9.30am JohnFardell P5-7

9.30am EmilyMacKenzie P1-3

11.15am BarryHutchison P3/4

11.15am EmilyMacKenzie P1-3

1.30pm BarryHutchison P3/4

1.30pm JohnFardell P5-7

Schools Programme at a Glance

12 | To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival | 13

Tuesday13thSeptember

Join author James Robertson and illustrator KateLeiper for an event that re-tells the story of one of the most famous poems in Scottish literature, The Book of the Howlat. Believing himself to be ugly, a young owl asks the peacock to persuade Nature to change him. The peacock summons a council of birds to make a decision. A huge feast takes place, and Nature herself appears and orders all the birds present to give the owl one of their feathers. The howlat’s initial joy turns to unbearable arrogance at his new-found beauty, and drastic action must be taken... The setting for this remarkable tale is the forests at Darnaway Castle on the outskirts of Forres. An event in Scots and English.

Wednesday14thSeptember

Breaking curses, racing kelpies, digging tatties – it’s not an ordinary school holiday... Award-winning author LariDonwill reveal the first book of her new Spellchasers trilogy. The Beginner’s Guide To Curses is a magical adventure set in Speyside – where Lari grew up – and Lari will introduce you to shapeshifters, witches, sphinxes, a mysterious toad and a very odd holiday workshop. She will talk about how her Moray childhood inspires the adventures she writes, and encourage you to imagine exciting stories of your own.

Wednesday14thSeptember

Vampire rats, baby aliens, spies... It ALL goes on at Izzy’s school. Blue Peter Book Award-winning author Pamela Butchart will be your guide on a journey through the whacky world of the playground, the classroom and beyooooooooond! Buckle up – it’s going to be a wild ride.

14 | To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival

Thursday15thSeptember

Award-winning children’s author TheresaBreslin has collected the best-loved tales from all over Scotland in An Illustrated Treasury of Mythical Creatures, the eagerly anticipated companion volume to An Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales. She presents funny, moving and enchanting fairy tales, each story being brought to life with exquisite illustrations by Scottish fine artist Kate Leiper. Join both Theresa and Kate to hear more about the mysterious Selkie, the story of the real Loch Ness Monster, and the tale of the terrifying Island Beast of Moray who could swallow your granny in one gulp!

Thursday15th&Friday16thSeptember

EmilyMacKenzie’s debut picture book, Wanted! Ralfy Rabbit, Book Burglar, was nominated for the CILIP Greenaway Medal 2016, and was shortlisted for IBW Book Award 2015, the Scottish Children’s Book Award and a number of regional awards. Hear all about Emily’s new book Stanley the Amazing Knitting Cat.

Friday16thSeptember

A fun interactive session with author-illustratorJohnFardell, who’ll be showing us his exciting books, and a behind-the-scenes look at his notebooks, rough drafts, artwork, etc. He’ll be giving loads of tips, techniques and inspiration for writing and illustrating answering any questions, and there’ll be plenty of opportunity to join in creating your own stories.

Friday16thSeptember

Step into a hilarious world of monsters, magic and mayhem as award-winning author, BarryHutchison, explores the world of Benjamin Blank. Gasp at the Shark-Headed Bear-Thing, scream at the Swivel-Eyed Ogre-Thing, and quite possibly wet yourself at the Moon-Faced Ghoul-Thing! Then, when you’re cleaned up, help Barry create an all new monster, and learn how you can make your very own Thing-Headed Thing-Things!

14 | To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival To book ring 01343 562623 or order eTickets online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival | 15

BOOK FESTIVAL

nlsFestivalSales:Yeadon’sofElginandBanchory

AlltalkswilltakeplaceinElginLibrary

Tickets for adult sessions are £5 and children’spublicsessionsare£3.

Tobook,visitorringElginlibraryduringlibraryhourson-01343 562623

Order online at www.moray.gov.uk/moraybookfestival

BookingOfficeisopenfromMonday15thAugustBook early to avoid disappointment!

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