A new book festival is taking place in Bridge of Weir and Houston this September, featuring a former Taggart star and the author whose books inspired the BBC series Shetland.
Taking place across Bridge of Weir, Houston and Kilmacolm, the Gryffe Valley Book Festival will include free sessions for kids, workshops for budding young writers, and conversations with well-known actors and authors - with some live music thrown in for good measure.
The festival runs from September 6-12, culminating in a headline event featuring Taggart and River City star Colin McCredie and author Anne Cleeves, whose crime novels have been made into the TV shows Shetland and Vera.
Other highlights include a conversation between STV weatherman Sean Batty and author Andy the Highlander, and a discussion of Scottish witch trials hosted by Witches of Scotland podcaster Zoe Venditozzi.
Up and coming comedian Eleanor Morton - whose show at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe has been to talk of the town - will be chatting with presenter and author Heather Suttie in another session not to be missed.
The festival is the brainchild of Aileen Jeffrey from The Ginger Cat Children’s Bookshop and Suzy Bennion of Tryptych Studios, whose businesses share a unit on Bridge of Weir high street.
Aileen said that having held a number of ‘meet the author’ events at the Ginger Cat Bookshop since opening in Bridge of Weir 18 months ago, she noticed a “huge love of books and writing” in the area, which inspired the idea for the festival.
“People have been so enthusiastic about the author events,” Aileen said, “so we thought it would be nice to do something bigger for the community, something that everybody is able to attend.
“We love the idea of helping our community develop and maintain a lifelong love of reading, and we thought a book festival was the perfect way to do that.”
Aileen said part of the mission was to get people “reading for pleasure,” especially young kids, which is part of the reason that the festival includes free children’s sessions.
“We do a lot of events in local schools,” she said, “bringing authors into schools, and handing out books for World Book Day.
“The reaction from the kids is just lovely - seeing the joy they get from reading, watching them showing their new book to friends. They get so excited when the authors come in.
“And there’s so many benefits to getting kids into reading at that young age - benefits for their spelling, literacy, vocabulary, but also for mental health.”
Aileen and Suzy are hoping that this year’s event will be just the start of a long-lasting annual celebration of the written word.
“The hope is that people will attend this year, really enjoy it, and want to come back next year,” Aileen said. “Hopefully it will grow year on year.
“All festivals have to start somewhere!”
Further information and tickets for all the events can be found at: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/gryffe-valley-book-festival-3510359.
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