Andrew Greig, Nicola Morgan, Lesley Glaister and Lin Anderson will be hot-footing it from the Edinburgh Book Festival to join other authors in the brand new Community Hall in Boat of Garten on 1 September 2007 for Boat’s first ever Book Day. The programme includes author talks, discussions, workshops, storytelling for the younger ones and a café.

Andrew Greig, poet and novelist based in Orkney, will discuss ‘Preferred Lies; A Journey to the Heart of Scottish Golf’, with Robert Davidson. This widely acclaimed book describes Andrew’s recovery from a near-death experience which he achieved through golf and its connections to the land. Robert Davidson is the Managing Director of Sandstone Press and co-author with Remzije Sherifi of ‘Shadow Behind the Sun’ – an account of life in Kosovo under the Milosevic regime which is taking the Scottish book world by storm and he will be signing copies of this throughout the day.

Nicola Morgan, Chair of the Society of Authors in Scotland and speaker at many book festivals throughout Britain, is taking part in three sessions on the day and says, ‘This is an impressive programme with a brilliant line up of authors and events. Boat of Garten has done an amazing job!’

Winner of Somerset Maugham and Betty Trask Awards, Lesley Glaister will be talking about her latest book, ‘Nina Todd Has Gone’. Lesley teaches Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University, but spends as much time as she can in Orkney.

Lin Anderson is the creator of Rhona MacLeod the forensic scientist, and an award winning screen writer. Lin has strong roots in Carrbridge and she and her books are well known locally. She will talk about Rhona MacLeod and will also run a screen writing workshop.

Boat of Garten author and mountaineer, Bob Barton, will be chairing a discussion with Nicola Morgan and Andrew Greig on ‘Running Wild – Young People and Risk’.

Three of the authors write for young adults and have all won literary awards – Nicola Morgan, Catherine MacPhail and Keith Gray – and are running sessions especially for young people, their parents, teachers and any one else who works with or is interested in the development of young people. Thanks to sponsorship and funding, these authors’ sessions are free to secondary school age youngsters and Anna Barton, Book Day organiser, says ‘We are hoping that a number of young people will come along – they’ll find these authors great fun.’

All the sessions will be entertaining, as well as interesting and informative, so even if you’re not a keen reader, you’ll enjoy hearing the authors talk about their work and chatting to them after their sessions.

Local children’s’ book illustrator, Katie Pamment, will describe how she sets about her work and takes us on a journey from the first sketches to the finished illustrations.

Waterstone’s Book Shops is one of the sponsors and will be running a book stall in the Hall all day – you don’t have to buy a ticket to come and browse!

The first session starts at 10 am and the café and Waterstone’s book shop will be open all day from 9.30 am to 5.30 pm – these are open to anyone who’d just like to pop in.

Anna Barton continues, ‘This is a brand new type of event for Badenoch and Strathspey and if it is supported by the local communities we will endeavour to make it an annual event. We have been encouraged by the enthusiasm of the authors and their publishers, who have all sponsored the event in some way, and by the support of Cairngorms National Park Authority who have awarded the event a Community Investment Programme Grant.’

Tickets are £4 per session or a bargain £12 for five sessions – they can be bought at Boat of Garten Post Office or ring the ticket hotline 01479 831325. Programmes can be picked up in libraries, book shops, tourist information centres and seen at www.boatofgarten.com/bookday