Alfie Boe Susan Calman Ben Macintyre Neil Oliver Kirsty Wark - Including
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Including Alfie Boe Susan Calman Ben Macintyre Neil Oliver Kirsty Wark
Who’s Who
Director: Caroline Knox
Operations: Daphne Parlour
Marketing & PR: Margot Wilson and Fiona Duff
Volunteers: Ghislaine Kennerley
Children’s: Vivian French MBE, Dr Karen Alexander
Schools Day: Sheila McIlwraith
Dumfries House: Louis MacCallum
Contents Huge thanks to the many friends who volunteer
their time to make the Festival possible. Also
WHO’S WHO 2 thanks to the Dumfries House Education team,
WELCOME 3 Dumfries House staff and the Army Cadet Force
for their invaluable help.
Welcome A new partnership
FESTIVAL AT A GLANCE 4/5
THE BOSWELL QUILL 5 Trustees: James Knox (Chairman), Margaret Over the centuries, ideas have flowed between Over recent years, the Pisa Book Festival
Boswell Eliott, Peter Kennerley, Caroline Knox, Scotland and the rest of the world and in this our has developed a mutually enriching cultural
FRIDAY’S CURTAIN UP! 6 9th year, not only am I delighted to announce an exchange with Scotland and Scottish writers,
Gillian Watson, Dr William Zachs
SATURDAY’S PROGRAMME 8 -19 exciting new partnership between the Pisa Book and the idea was mooted of a more permanent
The Boswell Book Festival is an event inaugurated and staged Festival and ourselves, bringing with it a rich partnership with a book festival in Scotland.
SUNDAY’S PROGRAMME 20 - 32 by The Boswell Trust, a charity registered in Scotland number exchange of writers, but also from across the
CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL 34 - 37 SC041655 and a company limited by guarantee registered in Caroline Knox was kind enough to accept our
Atlantic I warmly welcome speakers Eric Motley,
Scotland SC380815 invitation to visit us in Pisa last November, and
LOTS TO DO 38 Gordon Turnbull and Joanna Streetly.
Registered office: Auchendrane, By Ayr, KA7 4TW. The Trust after a fruitful discussion, we agreed the book
CRUCIAL DRINKS 39 is established for the advancement of heritage, literary arts This programme, with its eclectic mix of subjects, festivals we manage could cooperate to the
and education, specifically the restoration of James Boswell’s inspired by our unique theme of biography benefit of both parties.
BECOME A FESTIVAL FRIEND 39 Mausoleum in Auchinleck Churchyard and the creation of a and memoir, will allow any visitor to travel in
SCHOOLS’ DAY 40 visitor attraction in the adjoining Boswell Aisle. The Boswell I was delighted at the idea that the already
their imagination from the worlds of Beijing to
Trust has done its best to ensure the accuracy of all statements existing friendship established between
BOOKING INFORMATION 44 mentioned in this programme. Any errors are inadvertent. Washington, from Strictly Come Dancing to The
Scotland and the Pisa Book Festival would be
Importance of Being Earnest and from Mary
transformed into a lasting partnership with the
Queen of Scots to Napoleon. And even if you left
renowned Boswell Book Festival.
childhood behind long ago, there is nothing more
Sponsors Media Sponsor magical than the sight of the readers of the future Notwithstanding certain differences of
enraptured by the very best children’s writers and approach and outlook, or perhaps as a
illustrators at work today. consequence of them, I am hopeful that this
partnership will contribute to a deeper, mutual
None of this would of course be possible
understanding of each other’s culture, and thus
without our wonderful sponsors, both credited
to the enrichment of life in Europe.
and anonymous – most especially Creative
Media Partners Scotland, The Prince’s Foundation, Dumfries
House, East Ayrshire Council, Baillie Gifford – all
Lucia Della Porta
Director, Pisa Book Festival
of whom I thank unreservedly. It is inspiring
how many people give their time to ensure the
smooth running of the Festival so a very special
thank you to our volunteers who, from the
programme launch onwards, will be spreading
the word throughout their communities.
The very best reward we can all have is your
presence over the weekend.
We are deeply grateful to those who support the Festival anonymously.
Caroline Knox
Festival Director
Printed by Kestrel Press Ltd. 01294 222 222 / Design: Johnston Montgomery 01450 374 152
Cover page illustration: Anders Frang
2 BOSWELL BOOK FESTIVAL 2019 . DUMFRIES HOUSE . AYRSHIRE WWW.BOSWELLBOOKFESTIVAL.CO.UK 3
Festival at a Glance The Boswell Quill
Friday 10 May
Main 2019 Programme Date of unveiling will be
OPENING EVENING
. Kirsty Wark 18:00 announced on the Boswell
All tickets £9/£7c except where indicated.
. Alfie Boe 19:30 Book Festival website
Events are one hour long.
. Seating is unreserved. boswellbookfestival.co.uk
. All tickets purchased by telephone will Saturday 11 May The Boswell Trust is delighted to announce
be sent 14 days before the event if postal the imminent arrival of the Boswell Quill,
David McClay 10:30
option has been selected when purchasing. Lt Col Charles Cameron commissioned to celebrate the literary
and Tim Bouverie 12:00 Engineering Centre brilliance of James Boswell and his legacy.
Kate Williams 12:00 Cast in bronze, this unique representation
Henry Bell and Kenny MacAskill 12:00 Dumfries House Estate
of an 18th-century feather quill is destined
Sue Black 13:30 to become a great landmark, renowned
Tickets Dacia Maraini 13:30 Saturday 11 May throughout Ayrshire and beyond.
Jonathan Fenby 14:00
PHONE: Box Office: 0333 0035 077 Clare Hunter Workshop 15.00 Nick Sharratt 10:00 Meanwhile, work has commenced in the
OnlinE: boswellbookfestival.co.uk Matthew Sturgis 15:15 Kjartan Poskitt 10:00 historic Auchinleck graveyard, with its rich
Margaret Skea & Pat Young 15:15 Catriona Phillips (45 mins, £1) 10:00
in PErsOn: Waterstones, Ayr Ben Macintyre 15:30 Christopher Lloyd 11:30
array of handsome tombstones, which
Allan Little 16:45 Vivian French 11:30
is about to be transformed into a place
Tickets will also be available from the Festival Box
office at Reception during the weekend. Pre-book Clare Hunter 16:45 John Dougherty 13:30 of contemplation and enjoyment by new
to guarantee your place! Christopher Brookmyre Jill Calder 13:30 landscaping with seats, sweeps of seasonal
and Mark Billingham 17:00 Kjartan Poskitt 15:00 bulbs and an avenue of yew trees.
Inspired by Orkney 18:15 Vivian French and Nick Sharratt 15:00
Federico Varese 18:15 Catriona Phillips (45 mins, £1) 15:00 Also under preparation are the James
Boswell Graveyard Trails which will
Venues Adam Zamoyski
Dear Lupin
18:30
20:00 apply the latest digital technology to the
MAIN FESTIVAL Sunday 12 May exploration of the graveyard, providing
Our main festival events over the weekend Sunday 12 May Nick Sharratt 10:00 a biographical trail that allows visitors to
will take place in 4 venues: Jill Calder 10:00 identify the headstones of the notable
Vivian French Workshop 10:15
. Pavilion Catriona Phillips (45 mins, £1) 10:00 people of Auchinleck through history as
Allan Little, Jonathan Fenby
. Baillie Gifford Marquee Joanna Streetly 11:30 well as their own ancestors. Users will
and Adam Zamoyski 10:30
. Tapestry Room Kjartan Poskitt 11:30 be able to upload their own images and
Richard Emerson and Sara Lockwood 10:30
. Rothesay Room Vivian French 13:30 descriptions.
Doddie Weir 12:00
Entrance to ALL Main Festival events will be John Dougherty 13:30
Eunice Olumide 12:00
through the Box Office at Reception. Vivian French, John Dougherty The Boswell Trust continues to work to
Gordon Turnbull 12:00
and Catriona Phillips 15:00 raise money for the second phase of the
The venue for each individual talk will Richard Holloway 13:30
be clearly marked on the website on the Joanna Streetly 13:30 campaign which will see the restoration of
FREE INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES
evening of Friday 10 May. Faiza Hayani Bellili and Leila Hedjem 14:00 the architecturally significant Mausoleum,
Dumfries House Education Team
Information Boards will display venues as Bashabi Fraser, Magnus Linklater
Saturday 11 & Sunday 12 May 11:00 - 14:00 where Boswell and his immediate family
you approach Reception. and Alan Taylor 15:15 are interred, and the adjoining 17th-
FREE Drawing Area 10:00 - 16:00
Rosemary Goring 15:15 century Boswell Aisle – the original Kirk
No drinks to be taken into the venues
Susan Calman 15:30
please. – with the aim of creating an exciting new
Georgina Adam and Bendor Grosvenor 16:45 . All tickets £2.50
Kathryn Burnett, Ray Burnett
and events are one hour space for community activities, cultural
CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL long except where indicated.
and Tony Grace 16:45 . No unaccompa
nied children.
events and a celebration of Boswell’s life
Entrance to all Children’s Festival events will . Special price for and work.
Ursula Buchan 17:00 . Under 2s who
postcode KA18 addresses: £2
be through the box office at the Engineering do not need a seat are free.
Tom Devine 18:15 . Ages in listing Substantial funding from Ayrshire LEADER has been
Centre. s are for guidance only.
Eric Motley 18:30 granted for phase one. “The European Agricultural
. Engineering Centre and Bozzy’s Barn
Neil Oliver 20:00 Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural
areas”
4 BOSWELL BOOK FESTIVAL 2019 . DUMFRIES HOUSE . AYRSHIRE WWW.BOSWELLBOOKFESTIVAL.CO.UK 5
Friday 10 May
BOX OFFICE: 0333 0035 077
www.boswellbookfestival.co.uk
Curtain Up
Drinks available from the Festival Café Bar
17:00–19:15
Alfie Boe
Kirsty Wark The People’s Tenor
18:00 / £9, £7c A Life in Song
19:30 / £15
An Ayrshire setting on Loch Doon, a novel which draws
on real historical incident and which has been inspired by Alfie Boe has taken Broadway and the
Wark’s childhood memories and family, particularly her West End by storm, and has won the
father, makes for a powerful and compelling new work, hearts of the nation.
The House by the Loch. As a young boy, Lancashire-born Alfie
Following her best-selling Boe dreamed of a career as a singer.
debut, The Legacy of These dreams only became a reality
Elizabeth Pringle, comes a when he was training as a car mechanic
multi-generational story of in Blackpool and a customer who
long-hidden family secrets overheard him singing told him about a
that refuse to be buried in London audition. Alfie tried out, got the
the past from award-winning part and has never looked back.
broadcaster and Newsnight Lauded by both Baz Luhrmann and
presenter, Kirsty Wark. Cameron Mackintosh as the best
Chaired by former BBC tenor we’ve produced in a generation,
editor Jane Fowler. and having conquered the world’s
most prestigious opera stages, led
the cast of Les Miserables for nearly
a year, and stolen the show at the
Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Concert, he
has undoubtedly succeeded. Always
striving to bring good music to different
audiences he has achieved platinum
album sales in the UK, and four top ten
albums.
Talking about his story Alfie will sing the
songs which have carried him through life.
Image: Heather Yates
6 BOSWELL BOOK FESTIVAL 2019 . DUMFRIES HOUSE . AYRSHIRE WWW.BOSWELLBOOKFESTIVAL.CO.UK 7
Saturday 11 May Henry Bell and
Kenny MacAskill
BOX OFFICE: 0333 0035 077 12:00 / £9, £7c
www.boswellbookfestival.co.uk
As the Great War ended and revolutions
broke out all over Europe, 60,000
demonstrators ready to strike clashed with
John Murray ‘Salon’ police, tanks and soldiers in George Square
in Glasgow on 31 January 1919, the day
With David McClay, Grant McIntyre, Caroline
that would become known as Bloody Friday
and James Knox and Dr William Zachs – Red Clydeside was about to be born and
10:30 / £9, £7c with it the Independent Labour Party.
In homage to the great Scottish Enlightenment publishing Tracing these roots of dissent back to the
house, owned by John Murray I to VII and to celebrate French Revolution, former Scottish Justice
Dear Mr Murray: Letters to a Gentleman Publisher edited Secretary Kenny MacAskill will talk about
by David McClay, we are recreating the ‘Salon’ effect of his book Glasgow 1919 in conversation
their historic drawing rooms at No 50 Albemarle Street in with biographer Henry Bell, whose life of
London with a panel of old Murray hands who will share John Maclean investigates the early hero
their stories of working within the hallowed walls of this of radical Scottish Independence, feared
renowned publishing house. by the government, adored by workers,
celebrated by Lenin and Trotsky.
Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott, Charles Darwin, Jane Austen,
David Livingstone, Herman Melville, Isabella Bird, Patrick Together they will assess the legacy of
Leigh Fermor and John Betjeman are just a handful of the these stirring times.
names the Murrays published. But the correspondence Chaired by BBC Scotland Correspondent
of over 500,000 manuscript letters now in the National Kate Williams James Shaw
Library of Scotland, between publisher and author as well 12:00 / £9, £7c
as publisher and reader, editor, printer and illustrator,
reveal the close and sometimes stormy relationships which Best-selling historian, broadcaster and royal
brought these great names to the reading public. expert, Kate Williams has appeared on shows
from The Great British Bake Off to Newsnight,
Today and Restoration Home. In Rival Queens,
she reveals how cousins Mary and Elizabeth
allied and fought and plotted – but could never
escape their bond . . . a story which inspired the
film Mary Queen of Scots.
Returning to the original letters and archives,
Williams creates an electrifying new perspective
on their story as they struggled with each
other in a male-dominated world, showing the
great sacrifices a woman must make to be a
queen. Rather than being the defeated or tragic
sovereign as Mary is often portrayed, Williams
reveals instead how she attempted to reinvent
queenship and the monarchy – in one of the
hardest fights in royal history.
8 BOSWELL BOOK FESTIVAL 2019 . DUMFRIES HOUSE . AYRSHIRE WWW.BOSWELLBOOKFESTIVAL.CO.UK 9
Image: Urszula Soltys
Sue Black
Image: FabioLovino
13:30 / £9, £7c
Dame Sue Black, a familiar face in the media,
confronts death every day. As a professor of anatomy
and forensic anthropology, she focuses on mortal
remains in her lab, at burial sites, at scenes of
violence, murder and criminal dismemberment,
and when investigating mass fatalities due to war,
accident or natural disaster. In the best-selling All That
Remains, she reveals the many faces of death she has
come to know, using key cases to explore how forensic
science has developed, and examining what her life
and work has taught her. A Pisa Book Festival Event
Part memoir, part science, part meditation on death, Dacia Maraini
her book is compassionate, surprisingly funny, and it 13:30 / £9, £7c
will make you think about death in a new light.
Dacia Maraini, Italian novelist,
Lt Colonel Charles Cameron MC Chaired by broadcaster Sheena McDonald playwright, poet and orator, has
and Tim Bouverie campaigned on a vast number of
issues including women’s rights,
12:00 / £9, £7c abuse, emigration, discrimination,
politics, the Holocaust, and anti-
Born in 1920, brought up in Achnacarry Castle, the fascism. Winner of prestigious Italian
ancestral seat of the Camerons of Lochiel, and a page at literature awards, finalist for the Man
the coronation of George V1 in 1937, Charles Cameron Booker and nominee for the 2012
was a witness to the road to World War II and a supporter Nobel Prize in Literature, her books,
of Chamberlain’s ‘peace for our time’. As a member of the such as the best-selling The Silent
local Territorial Regiment of the Queen’s Own Cameron Duchess, have been translated into
Highlanders, he fought at El Alamein, being wounded and 22 languages.
re-joining his regiment in Italy for the liberation of San
Marino where he was awarded an MC. In October 1944, Daughter of a Sicilian Princess, Dacia
he was sent to Greece to help curb the communists and Maraini was born in Tuscany but
as such describes himself as one of the first Cold War moved with her family to Japan in
warriors, going on to volunteer in 1946 and joining a 1938 to escape fascism. They were
civilian / army team to supervise the Greek elections. interned in a Japanese concentration
camp from 1943 to 1946, inspiring the
Tim Bouverie, born in 1987, was a former political documentary I Was Born Travelling
journalist for Channel 4 News. His first book, Appeasing which also revisited the legendary
Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War, has journeys around the world with her
been hailed by Anthony Beevor as ‘an astonishingly partner, the writer Alberto Moravia,
accomplished debut’. Beginning with the rise to power of and her close friends Pier Paolo
Hitler in 1933, he follows the dramatic journey of the early Pasolini and opera singer Maria Callas.
days of the Third Reich through to the beaches of Dunkirk.
Dacia Maraini will be talking about
In a compelling conversation chaired by James Knox, we her life and work with Professor
will hear a veteran’s eye witness account of these dramatic Joseph Farrell, who has written
times and how it appears now to a young historian when widely on Italian culture.
viewed through the lens of time.
Image: Morgan SilkWired
10 BOSWELL BOOK FESTIVAL 2019 . DUMFRIES HOUSE . AYRSHIRE WWW.BOSWELLBOOKFESTIVAL.CO.UK 11
Matthew Sturgis
a unique insight
15:15 / £9, £7c
into the leaders of
If you thought you knew all about
Oscar Wilde, then think again.
china's destiny
Matthew Sturgis – the acclaimed
chronicler of the 1890s – has
uncovered dramatic new material
including the transcript of Wilde’s
trial, described by one critic as
Image: Justine Stoddart
‘gripping as it is grim’. Every aspect
of Wilde’s life is brilliantly told, from
his Dublin upbringing to his triumphs
as wit and dandy, as author of the
Portrait of Dorian Grey and The
Importance of Being Earnest to his
tragic downfall as the lover of Lord
Jonathan Fenby Alfred Douglas.
14:00 / £9, £7c
Sturgis’s compelling new life captures
In 1850, China was considered to like none other the wit, lovability,
be the ‘sick man of Asia’. Now it is dramatic genius, insane self-
set to become the most powerful destructiveness and originality of Wilde.
nation on earth. Jonathan
Chaired by broadcaster Sheena
Fenby, CBE, with over 30 years’
McDonald
experience of covering China
including as editor of The South
China Morning Post, and author Be yourself; everyone
of the unrivalled Penguin History
of Modern China, shows how
else is already taken.
Oscar Wilde
turbulent that journey has been.
For 150 years, China has endured
as victim of oppression, war Margaret Skea and Pat Young
and famine, making its current 15:15 / £9, £7c
position as arguably the most
important global superpower all Two celebrated novelists discuss how Ayrshire influences
the more extraordinary. their writing.
Speaking about the three Margaret Skea’s Turn of the Tide, the opening novel in her
towering Chinese leaders who acclaimed Munro Scottish Saga trilogy, tells the story of
figure in his third edition of the most notorious feud in Ayrshire’s 16th-century history
the Penguin History – Chiang between the Montgomeries and the Cunninghames – James
Kai-shek, Mao Zedong and Deng Boswell’s wife Margaret being a Montgomerie herself.
Xiaoping – Fenby will reveal how Pat Young has used her intimate knowledge of the area,
today’s ‘new emperor’ Xi Jinping (she grew up in Boswell Drive, Auchinleck), in her best-
draws on the country’s past in selling crime novels, setting many of her plots in Ayrshire
seeking to shape its future. locations. The dénouement of I Know Where You Live takes
place behind Auchinleck House and One Perfect Witness is
set on the Carrick Hill.
12 BOSWELL BOOK FESTIVAL 2019 . DUMFRIES HOUSE . AYRSHIRE WWW.BOSWELLBOOKFESTIVAL.CO.UK 13
Clare Hunter
15:00 / Workshop Limited spaces and only
available to those with tickets for her talk below.
16:45 / Talk / £9, £7c
THE 2019
BOSWELL
Before joining textile artist and curator
Clare Hunter’s talk at 16:45 on her
bestselling book Threads of Life, the LECTURE
history of the world seen through the
eye of a needle, why not come to the
workshop bringing a piece of textile
which matters to you and Hunter will
suggest ways to capture the story it
represents through sewing.
From the women who sewed the Bayeux
Tapestry to the prisoners stitching on
Privately sponsored in memory of Sydney Walter, aged
scavenged cloth in Singapore’s Changi 21, and Richard Lumley, aged 20, who were both killed in
jail; from banner-making suffragettes October 1914.
to a Chinese tribe without a written
language but with lingual embroidery Allan Little
– Hunter’s highly original Threads of 16:45 / £9, £7c
Life blends history and memoir, roving
across centuries and continents to In a talk commissioned for the Festival, the award-
reveal how sewing has played a crucial winning BBC Special Correspondent, Allan Little,
part in our lives. An acclaimed BBC Radio draws on the conflicts he has witnessed, including
4 Book of the Week. the first Gulf War, the break-up of Yugoslavia and
The best true spy story
Image: Melanie Lewis Photography the aftermath of the Rwandan Genocide, to talk
about the way in which war has fascinated and
beguiled the young, and young men in particular
I have ever read.
– from Rupert Brooke signing up in 1914 with
his heart full of the nobility of sacrifice and the
redemptive power of mortal risk to those in the
John Le Carre conflicts of today.
Ben Macintyre Event sponsored by HillHouse Quarry Group Why does war exert so
15:30 / £9, £7c
magnetic a pull on the
Thrilling tales of espionage and deception are Ben Macintyre’s stock in trade. young?
Bestsellers such as Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat and Rogue Heroes
reveal how undercover ops changed the course of World War II. In the 80th anniversary year of the outbreak of
the World War II and with reference to the rich
In his latest real life thriller, The Spy and the Traitor, Macintyre tells the literature of war, including his acclaimed book The
gripping story of KGB double agent Oleg Gordievsky who supplied a stream of Death of Yugoslavia, Allan Little will examine why
priceless secrets from deep within Soviet intelligence and which culminates in those who have lived through a war often come
his dramatic escape from the Soviet Union – one of the boldest episodes in the to see it, in retrospect, as – in the words of one
history of espionage that changed the course of the Cold War forever. veteran – ‘the one great lyric passage in their lives’?
14 BOSWELL BOOK FESTIVAL 2019 . DUMFRIES HOUSE . AYRSHIRE WWW.BOSWELLBOOKFESTIVAL.CO.UK 15
The Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta | The New York Mafia | The Russian Vory-v-Vakone
Christopher Brookmyre
and Mark Billingham Drop Dead
Double Act
Inspired by Orkney MAFIA LIFE
Hailed by Max as ‘the most positive and benign
influence ever on my own efforts at creation’, George
17:00 / £9, £7c with musical excerpts
Mackay
Love, Brown
Death and was one of Scotland’s
Making Money greatest writers of
at the Heart
18:15 / £9, £7c
who hardly ever left his native Orkney with its elemental
Two of the best crime writers in the Organised Crime
forces of sea and sky and its Norse and Icelandic
business, who are also superb performers, Composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
ancestry. He was an acclaimed poet, accomplished
will lift the lid on the real world of being and writer George Mackay Brown, By Federico
novelist (shortlisted Varese
for the 1994 Booker Prize for Beside
a writer. Talking about their books, the angry letters celebrated by Paul MacAlindin and
the Ocean of Time) and a master of the short story.
from readers, the backstage shenanigans and the Rowena Murray. 5 April 2018 | Paperback & eBook | £8.99
nightmarish personal appearances, and of course, Paul MacAlindin was the former partner of Max, visiting Orkney often
‘Max’, as he was called, was a during festivals and composing stints over a period of nine years. His
We see mafias as vast, powerful organisations, harvesting
the nutters! Expect laughs, expect swearing, expect book Upbeat is his story of establishing and conducting the National
composer of extraordinary range
anecdotes, expect fun. billions of ofdollars
Orchestra Iraq. Nowacross
living inthe globe
Govan, and wrapping
his orchestra, their
The Glasgow
from operas, symphonies and string Barons,around
forms parteverything
of the regeneration
tentacles fromof governance
the area. to finance.
Prior to selling 4.5 million books featuring his country- quartets to music for children and for
his beloved Orkney community. He first But is this the truth? Rowena Murray was a good
music-loving detective Tom Thorne, Mark Billingham friend of George Mackay
worked as an actor and stand-up comic on TV. His latest moved to Orkney in 1970, where he Brown. Hisharvesting
work was the billions
We see mafias as vast, powerful organisations,
Tom Thorne case, The Killing Habit, is being published met Orcadian writer, George Mackay subject of her PhD thesis
of dollars across the globe and wrapping and with her father, she around
its tentacles
in June. With sales of over 2 million copies in the UK Brown, and together they founded the
everything from governance to finance.co-authored
But is Interrogation
this the truth?
of his Jack Parlabane novels, former journalist Chris renowned St Magnus Festival in 1977. of Silence:
Travelling from mafia initiation ceremonies in The writings ofRussian
far-flung
Brookmyre won both the McIlvanney Prize and the Some of his best-known works, such
cities to elite gambling clubs in downtownGeorge
Macau, Mackay Brown. She is
Federico Varese
Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award as Farewell to Stromness and Orkney Professor of Education at UWS.
sets off in search of answers. Using wiretapped conversations, interviews A Pisaand
Book Festivalunpublished
previously Event police
with Black Widow. A standalone novel, Fallen Angel is Wedding with Sunrise are inspired by
his life in Orkney.
Chaired
records, he builds up a picture of the real men and
James Knox
by women
biographer Federico Varese
caught up in mafia life, showing their loves and
published in April 2019. fears, ambitions and disappointments, as well as their crimes. 18:15 / £9, £7c
Special event in collaboration
with the
Mafia Life takes us Cumnock Trystworld of organised crime, where mafia
into the real Image: Murdo G Macleod
Fromhenchmen
Hong Kongworry to Moscow,
about Salford
their bad
managers and have high blood pressure, assassinations are bungled as often as they come to New Jersey, Tokyo to Sicily, Federico
off, and
increasing pressure from law enforcement means that a life of crime isVarese, Professor
no longer lived inofthe
Criminology
lap of luxury.
at Oxford University, reveals the
As our world changes, so must the mafia. Globalisation, migrationessence of Mafia Life
and technology areindisrupting
his intensetheir
traditions and threatening their revenue streams, and the Mafiosi must and compelling
evolve or die. book.
Mafia WeLifesee
is anmafias
intense
and totally compelling look at an organisation and the daily life of itsasmembers, vast, powerful organisations,
as it gets to grips with the
modern world. harvesting billions of dollars across
the globe, wrapping their tentacles
About the Author around everything from governments
to finance. But is this the truth?
Image: Chris Close
Federico Varese is Professor of Criminology at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Mafias on the
Move: How Organized Crime Conquers New Territories. Travelling in search of answers,
Federico Varese in conversation with
Federico Varese is available for interview, events and to write features. SicilianFor
expert,
moreProfessor
informationJoseph
please
contact Drew Jerrison | drew.jerrison@profilebooks.com Farrell,| will
020take
7841us3382
into the real world
of organised crime, where mafia
henchmen worry about their bad
managers, where assassinations are
PROFILE BOOKS LTD
3 H o l f o r d Y a r d , B e v i n W a y , L o n d o n W C 1bungled
X 9HD as often as they come off,
www.profilebooks.com
and where increasing pressure from
Image: Steve Best
law enforcement means that a life of
crime is no longer lived in the lap of
luxury. As our world changes, so must
the mafia.
16 BOSWELL BOOK FESTIVAL 2019 . DUMFRIES HOUSE . AYRSHIRE WWW.BOSWELLBOOKFESTIVAL.CO.UK 17
A performance inspired by the brilliantly
written letters of a world-weary father to his
feckless son inspires pure comedy gold.
Dear Lupin
Starring Jeremy Child and Robert Portal
Jeremy Child is an instantly
recognisable actor who has
appeared in a huge variety
20:00 / £9, £7c of roles on stage including at
The Mermaid, The Globe and
Drawing on the bestselling correspondence between racing National Theatres. His film
work has ranged from A Fish
journalist Roger Mortimer and his only son Charlie, nicknamed Called Wanda to The Iron Lady.
Lupin after Mr Pooter’s useless son in The Diary of a Nobody, His many TV appearances
include Edward and Mrs
the readings from Dear Lupin – winner of the Sunday Times Simpson, Judge John Deed and
Humour Book of the Year – follow the trials and tribulations of Midsomer Murders.
Charlie’s youth and early adulthood.
This period is viewed by his father with humour, understanding
and a touch of resignation, making this the perfect reminder
of a time when letters were common, but always special.
Nostalgic, witty and filled with characters and situations that
people of all ages will recognise.
Adam Zamoyski Robert Portal has appeared
18:30 / £9, £7c in the West End, with the
RSC, the National Theatre and
at the Almeida in London.
Hailed as an ‘out and out masterpiece’, Adam Zamoyski’s biography, Napoleon, is the first written Films include My Week
in English to rely on original European sources. His unadorned portrait, stripped of historical myth with Marilyn, Six Days, The
and propaganda, reveals Napoleon the man – as a brilliant young artillery officer, as a Corsican Iron Lady and Goodnight
Christopher Robin. Television
patriot (and reader of Boswell), and as a victorious general and burgeoning autocrat. But it also includes Collateral, Death
shows him as a healer of a divided French nation, a modernising statesman, an admirer of the
"I am very fond of you
in Paradise, Henry IX and
arts and sciences, as well as lover and loving husband – and ultimately as the creator of his own Endeavour.
catastrophic downfall.
Zamoyski is an acclaimed historian of European history with a singular command of languages. He but you do drive me
round the bend."
has written a best selling history of Poland, as well as books of military history and biography.
Saturday Night Entertainment
18 BOSWELL BOOK FESTIVAL 2019 . DUMFRIES HOUSE . AYRSHIRE WWW.BOSWELLBOOKFESTIVAL.CO.UK 2Image: Maroussia Vossen
Sunday 12 May Or get your tickets at
Waterstones, High Street, Ayr Richard Emerson
BOX OFFICE: 0333 0035 077 Tickets will also be available from the and Sara Lockwood
Festival Box office at Reception during the 10:30 / £9, £7c
www.boswellbookfestival.co.uk weekend. Pre-book to guarantee your place!
Margaret Morris was one of the most
innovative dancers, choreographers
and teachers of the twentieth
Vivian French century and her dance movement
How to Write for Children workshop continues to this day. Art Historian
Rothesay Room 10:15 - 11:45 / £10, £8c Richard Emerson’s Rhythm and Colour
Limited spaces.
describes her life and Sara Lockwood,
award winning teacher of the Margaret
Love children’s books? Always wanted to write your own, Morris Movement, will bring to life her
but don’t know where to start? Vivian French MBE has pioneering dance.
written 300 books for children of all ages, both fiction and
non-fiction. She has run writing workshops from Orkney At home as much in France as London
to Oklahoma, and many of her former students have gone and Glasgow (where she lived for
on to achieve success. Come and join her for 90 minutes of over 40 years, founding the Scottish
advice, tips and exercises – and there’ll be plenty of time National Ballet), and as the lifelong
for questions! partner and muse of Scottish Colourist,
J D Fergusson, she rejected the rules
of classical ballet in favour of a unity
Jonathan Fenby, Allan Little of costume, colour, art, design and the
and Adam Zamoyski arc of the body – as expressed in the
10:30 / £9, £7c Margaret Morris Movement.
Taught by an original student of
does history repeat itself? Margaret Morris, Sara Lockwood will
When BBC Special Correspondent Allan Little stood in demonstrate the rhythms, ideas and
Wenceslas Square in Prague during the so-called Velvet emotions of Morris, which she says,
Revolution of 1989, he remembers thinking, ‘this is one of ‘incorporate health and well-being,
those moments, one of those pivots on which history turns alongside developing the artistic and
– and I’m here, witnessing it.’ creative dimensions of the individual.’
In a discussion drawing on the past to shine light on
today, China expert Jonathan Fenby will show how the
years 1947–1948 ‘really did change the world,’ seeing the
unrolling of the Cold War, the beginning of the end of the
British Empire, the creation of the state of Israel and more,
all chronicled in his new book Crucible.
Adam Zamoyski takes us back to the 1815 Congress of
Vienna, as depicted in his Rites of Peace, when the victors
over Napoleon carved up Europe, setting the parameters
for the two World Wars in the 20th century – bringing the
narrative back to the finale of the Cold War, as witnessed
by Allan Little in Prague.
20 BOSWELL BOOK FESTIVAL 2019 . DUMFRIES HOUSE . AYRSHIRE WWW.BOSWELLBOOKFESTIVAL.CO.UK 21Gordon
Turnbull
12:00 / £9, £7c
James Boswell’s landmark biography,
The Life of Samuel Johnson, first
appeared in 1791. Like most authors,
Boswell wrote and rewrote, drafted,
cancelled, added, deleted, revised,
corrected, slipped, stumbled,
recovered, polished and refined. But
unlike most authors, Boswell retained
his whole mighty mass of working
papers, and bequeathed them along
with his wonderful journals and other
documents to posterity. Most of these
now form part of the vast Boswell
Collections in Yale University’s Beinecke
Library, and through the decoding
work of the Yale Boswell editors,
what a tale they tell. They reveal
Eunice Olumide Boswell’s compositional progress, from
12:00 / £9, £7c rough-hewn initial drafts through to
burnished completion.
Born in Edinburgh to Nigerian parents, supermodel
Eunice Olumide MBE, signed when just 16, has this is The Life of johnson
graced catwalks all over the world. While taking
modelling assignments she continued to study hard, the director's cut
gaining an MA in Metaphysics. She has appeared in Making his ninth Festival appearance,
both national and international campaigns, fashion Gordon Turnbull, head of the Boswell
weeks and editorials such as ID Magazine, Dazed & editorial project at Yale University,
Confused, Tatler, Newsweek, New York Magazine, will take a fascinating journey through
Vogue, and many more, walking for designers Boswell’s blizzards of additions,
including Mulberry, Alexander McQueen, Christopher deletions, slips and revisions. Many
Kane, and Harris Tweed. mysteries and secrets about Boswell’s
Doddie Weir masterwork will be revealed, and
12:00 / £9, £7c In talking about her life and career Eunice Olumide,
many errors that have stood in all
who is also a talented curator and broadcaster, will
published editions of The Life will at
Doddie Weir OBE is one of rugby’s greatest personalities. A giant of the game in every sense, he won 61 give a rare look at the industry from the inside as
last be corrected.
caps for Scotland and represented the British and Irish Lions on their successful tour to South Africa in described in her book How To Get Into Fashion. She
1997 where he suffered an horrific knee injury, as a result of foul play. Despite this setback, he returned will also talk about her passionate belief in Scotland’s
to international rugby before retiring to become an entertaining face at televised rugby matches. design heritage and that mixing of cultures, Scottish
and Nigerian, that is at the heart of her personality
In June 2017, at the age of 48, he revealed the biggest challenge of his life in the form of motor neurone and drive. Off the catwalk, much of her career
disease. Never one to shy away from a challenge, he has faced up to MND with typical courage, using has been spent fundraising for charities and she is
his boundless energy to raise funds for research and support. Doddie will be talking to former sports currently the Ambassador for Zero Waste Scotland,
reporter and co-author Stewart Weir, about his inspirational memoir, My Name’5 Doddie. Best Beginnings and Breakthrough Breast Cancer TLC..
22 BOSWELL BOOK FESTIVAL 2019 . DUMFRIES HOUSE . AYRSHIRE WWW.BOSWELLBOOKFESTIVAL.CO.UK 23Richard Holloway
13:30 / £9, £7c
With thought-provoking honesty and humour,
the former Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard
Holloway, who has spent a lifetime at the
bedsides of the dying, guiding countless men
and women towards a peaceful end, presents a
positive, meditative and profound exploration of
the important lessons we can learn from death.
In a modern world wary of acknowledging mortality,
this is a stirring plea to give ourselves the chance to
think about not only the meaning of our own life,
but of life itself. Radical, joyful and moving, Waiting
for the Last Bus is an invitation to reconsider life’s
greatest mystery by one of the most important and
beloved religious leaders of our time.
Image: Colin Hattersley-Smith
Chaired by journalist Jackie McGlone
written with integrity,
intelligence and wit
Karen Armstrong
Joanna Streetly
13:30 / £9, £7c Faiza Hayani Bellili & Leila Hedjem
Joanna Streetly arrived on the west coast of
Grenfell Tower and the women of the
Vancouver Island when she was 19, discovering Hubb Community Kitchen
the pleasures and dangers of living in the wild 14:00 / £9, £7c
as she adapted to her role as naturalist guide
and sea kayak instructor. Her vivid collection
'Together' is more than a After the Grenfell Tower disaster, an immediate need for
of stories, Wild Fierce Life, explores her close cookbook. This is a tale survivors was somewhere to cook and eat. The nearby
bond with weather, water, and wildlife; getting of friendship, and a story Al-Manaar Mosque opened its doors and women united
distracted while swimming in bioluminescence in their love of cooking and sharing food came together,
of togetherness. It is a naming themselves the Hubb Community Kitchen – hubb
and becoming briefly lost out at sea; kayaking
through thick fog in the dead of night; outwitting homage to the power of means ‘love’ in Arabic. Initially open two days a week and
bears and wolves; outrunning lightning storms; cooking as a community, short of funding, a surprise visit from HRH The Duchess
plus paddling against the clock after a tsunami of Sussex led to the making of a cookbook Together, the
and the recipes that proceeds from which will allow the kitchen to thrive.
warning.
allow us to connect,
Inaugural poet laureate of Tofino, where Joanna In talking about the impact of the Grenfell Tower tragedy
share and look forward on their family, friends and the community, Faiza and
lives with her partner and daughter just inches HRH The Duchess of Sussex
above the water in a small floating house moored Leila will also tell us about the stories and many cultures
in the harbour, her outstanding nature writing and behind the recipes – from Faiza’s Algerian sweet lamb and
All profits from ‘Together’ will go to the
illustration are inspired daily by the magnificence The Royal Foundation for the benefit of the
caramelised plum upside-down cake to Leila’s shakshouka
of this wild environment on the edge. Hubb Community Kitchen. and Lebanese vegetable lasagne.
24 BOSWELL BOOK FESTIVAL 2019 . DUMFRIES HOUSE . AYRSHIRE WWW.BOSWELLBOOKFESTIVAL.CO.UK 25Susan Calman
15:30 / £9, £7c
Image: Steve Ullathorne
Susan Calman’s enthusiasm at being on Strictly
Come Dancing was an inspiration to all of us.
Cheer Up Love, Susan’s first book, had a clear aim:
to help people understand depression. Sunny Side
Bashabi Fraser, Magnus Linklater Up has a similarly clear path: to persuade people
to be kinder to each other.
and Alan Taylor without Ahmet Altan
15:15 / £9, £7c These are difficult and confusing times – people
are cross and shouty. And people like Susan, who
In February 2018 the renowned Turkish novelist don’t hate other people, are apologising for the
and journalist, Ahmet Altan, aged 68, was arrested way that they think. Instead she believes that all
by his government on trumped up charges and they need to do is spread more joy
sentenced to life imprisonment. Born in Glasgow, Susan Calman escaped
Image: Chris Scott
To mark the publication of Ahmet Altan’s corporate law in 2006 to become a stand-up
remarkable prison memoir I Will Never See the comedian. She’s now a regular on radio
World Again, Bashabi Fraser, writer, professor at and television panel shows like QI,
Napier University, translator, committee member The News Quiz and I’m Sorry I Haven’t
of Scottish Pen and its campaigning arm, Writers A Clue.
at Risk, joins Magnus Linklater, writer, columnist Rosemary Goring Chaired by journalist Jackie McGlone.
for The Times and former editor of The Scotsman, 15:15 / £9, £7c
and Alan Taylor, journalist and biographer of Muriel
Spark, to discuss the fate of writers and journalists Scotland Her Story is an attempt to
in authoritarian states and the great pieces of put women back into the nation’s
literature that imprisonment has inspired. story. To this end, novelist and literary
editor for The Herald, Rosemary
Repressive regimes hope that if they lock up writers
Goring, has had to work like a metal
they are also locking up ideas. This will always fail.
detectorist uncovering the lives of
Ahmet Altan’s example highlights the immutable
women – over 150 contributors –
importance of writers and journalists and
who until very recently took second
how their freedom remains fragile in
place in history, resulting in the loss
this perilous world.
of half of Scotland’s history. Early
‘Read this – it will explain why you ever read exceptions were Mary Queen of Scots
anything, why anyone ever writes’ and Countess Buchan who crowned
A.L.Kennedy Robert the Bruce.
From the 16th century, the material
becomes richer however, taking in
witches, soldiers’ wives, Covenanter
martyrs, domestic goddesses and
"i write these suffragettes to names more familiar
today such as Jean Armour, Jane
words from a Carlyle, Marie Stopes, Elsie Inglis and
prison cell" Susan calman . . .
Lulu, Jackie Kay, Nicola Sturgeon and
b e k in d, b e m or e li k e
Be good,
Leila Aboulela.
Chaired by Birlinn’s Kristian Kerr.
Kirstie Allsopp
26 BOSWELL BOOK FESTIVAL 2019 . DUMFRIES HOUSE . AYRSHIRE 27Kathryn Burnett, Ray Burnett Georgina Adam
and Tony Grace and Bendor Grosvenor
16:45 / £9, £7c 16:45 / £9, £7c
Compton Mackenzie’s passion for islands and of Two fearless and respected experts
Jacobitism resulted in his famous comic novels lift the lid on the machinations of
Monarch of the Glen and Whisky Galore. The great the art world and its personalities.
20th-century poet, Hugh MacDiarmid, lived on Author of the Dark Side of the
Whalsay in Shetland for nine years, inspiring some Boom, Georgina Adam exposes the
of his greatest verse and his exploration of island excesses of the contemporary art
themes in The Islands of Scotland. James Boswell market with its cast of obsessive
is enjoying a renaissance in Corsica where as a collectors, manipulative dealers,
young man he befriended the Corsican freedom ego-driven artists and shady
fighter, General Pascal Paoli, as told in his Account middlemen.
of Corsica (1768) while he is also renowned for his
So what’s new, argues the scholar
Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides. The influence
and art sleuth Bendor Grosvenor,
of islands on these writers, and related ideas of
presenter of BBC4’s Britain’s Lost
independence and nationalism, will be explored by
Masterpieces. How about the
Kathryn Burnett, Ray Burnett and Tony Grace of the
genius collector Charles I, or the
Scottish Centre for Island Studies, UWS.
dealer Joseph Duveen, who stripped
European collections to satisfy the
greed of 1890s American oligarchs.
Expect scandal, glamour and gossip;
anticipate great art in all its glory
(Leonardo da Vinci is bound to make
an appearance); and prepare for
a walk on the dark side of the art Ursula Buchan
Image: Charlie Hopkinson
boom, past and present. 17:00 / £9, £7c
Georgina Adam has reported on the art John Buchan’s name is known
market for over 30 years, principally for across the world for his classic
the Art Newspaper and the Financial thriller The Thirty-Nine Steps. But
Times. as his granddaughter’s ground-
Bendor Grosvenor is an art historian, breaking biography reveals, this son of
writer and former art dealer. He the manse, born in Perth in 1875, was not just a brilliant
appeared as specialist researcher in writer and journalist, but also a diplomat, soldier, director
BBC1’s Fake or Fortune before presenting of wartime propaganda in World War I and MP for the
BBC4’s Britain’s Lost Masterpieces. Scottish Universities.
Based in Scotland, one of his greatest
discoveries has been the lost portrait of Created Lord Tweedsmuir in 1935, he became a deeply
Bonnie Prince Charlie by Allan Ramsay. admired Governor-General of Canada where he was given
a state funeral on his death in 1940, shortly after signing
Chaired by James Knox, Director of
How do islands shape the the Fleming Collection.
Canada’s entry into the Second World War.
minds and beliefs of writers? Author and journalist, Ursual Buchan, has drawn on
recently discovered family documents to create a ground-
breaking portrait of her grandfather.
28 BOSWELL BOOK FESTIVAL 2019 . DUMFRIES HOUSE . AYRSHIRE WWW.BOSWELLBOOKFESTIVAL.CO.UK 29Tom Devine
Did the Dispossessed of the Scottish
a path all his own from
Clearances have a Voice?
18:15 / £9, £7c
racially charged alabama
Based on a vast array of original sources and a lifetime’s
to the oval office
study, The Scottish Clearances by Scotland’s pre-
eminent historian of the Modern Ages, Professor Sir
Tom Devine, charts for the first time in one volume this
tumultuous saga. In his pioneering work, due attention
is given to evictions and loss of land both north and
south of the Highland line. Old myths are exploded,
and familiar assumptions undermined, producing a
balanced, detailed and extremely readable account of
one of the saddest episodes in Scotland’s history.
Chaired by Marianne Taylor, writer for The Herald
Anybody interested in Scottish
history needs to read it
Andrew Marr
Sponsored by the
University of St Andrews
Eric Motley
18:30 / £9, £7c
Eric Motley’s rise from a small town in Alabama founded by freed
slaves after the American Civil War, to the Oval Office where he
became the youngest appointee to serve as Special Assistant
to President George W Bush, is recounted in Madison Park: A
Place of Hope, a moving memoir of how the passion for learning
cultivated at a young age enabled a young man with no worldly
Image: Tony Powell
advantages to realise his potential in the ‘Land of the Free’.
Eric Motley will be in
The son of adoptive grandparents, Motley grew up amid the tensions of racially charged Alabama,
conversation with BBC’s where faith bound the African-American community together. After University at Samford, he was
James Naughtie, whose encouraged by professors to apply to the University of St Andrews for graduate study, where he fell
American expertise in love with Scotland, hiking through the countryside, reciting poetry.
stretches back several Now Eric Motley is executive vice-president of the world-famous think tank, the Aspen Institute,
decades. which provides a non-partisan forum for dealing on a national and international level with the
global issues facing the United States and her partners across the world.
30 WWW.BOSWELLBOOKFESTIVAL.CO.UK 31Image: Bill Osment
And finally, a word about the
man who is the inspiration
behind the Boswell Book
Festival...
James Boswell
1740-1795: Inventor of Modern
Biography
James Boswell sprang from an ancient
Ayrshire family, which had been settled
at Auchinleck since the sixteenth
century. He was born in Edinburgh in
1740 where his father, who became
Lord Auchinleck, was a Judge in the
Supreme Court of Scotland. His mother
was descended from a minor branch of
Scottish royalty.
He was educated at Edinburgh University
followed by Glasgow University, where
an expedition made to the Western Isles with Dr
he attended the lectures of the great
Johnson. At the end of their journey, they stayed
Enlightenment philosopher, Adam Smith.
at Auchinleck where Johnson famously crossed
From the start, Bozzy as he was affectionately
swords with Boswell’s father.
known, was drawn to the pleasure-loving side
of life. His first visit to London at the age of 19 Boswell’s fame redoubled in the twentieth
began a love affair with the city which never century with the discovery and publication of
wavered. His charm, sensitivity and intelligence his diaries, setting him alongside Pepys as one
opened doors to the most brilliant men of the of the greatest diarists in the English language.
day, but the ultimate prize for Boswell was his Boswell ushered in the confessional memoir,
friendship with the towering figure of Dr Samuel which is so popular today. Nothing was omitted -
Neil Oliver Johnson – compiler of the definitive dictionary including his innumerable sexual encounters, his
20:00 / £9, £7c
of the English language and celebrated man of battle with depression, his difficult relationship
letters. Boswell’s friendship led him to become with his father, his frustrated political ambition
The archaeologist, historian and broadcaster is known to his many fans for his regular TV
Johnson’s biographer and the account of his and his life as a lawyer in the Scottish courts.
appearances presenting A History of Scotland, Vikings, Coast and most recently Rise of the
life, published 220 years ago this May, has never
Clans. He was appointed President of the National Trust in Scotland in 2017. Boswell was an Ayrshireman through and
been out of print. His Life of Johnson established
through. He married his cousin, Margaret
Born in Renfrewshire, Neil Oliver grew up in Ayr and Dumfries. From a very young age, him as the inventor of modern biography and
Montgomerie, with whom he had five children
he was interested in searching for the origins of places and people, which has taken him has upheld his reputation as one of the most
and became Laird of Auchinleck on the death of
to the far reaches of the world. In talking about his life, Oliver will give a very personal innovative writers of the Enlightenment.
his father in 1782 and devoted much time and
account of why the British Isles is to him the best place in the world and the reason for
Boswell was also author of a pioneering travel money to the care of the Estate. He died in 1795
choosing the 100 places highlighted in his masterly new book.
book An Account of Corsica and his famous and was interred in the Boswell Mausoleum in
Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, which described Auchinleck churchyard.
32 BOSWELL BOOK FESTIVAL 2019 . DUMFRIES HOUSE . AYRSHIRE WWW.BOSWELLBOOKFESTIVAL.CO.UK 33Kjartan Poskitt: Harry Houdini Vivian French & Nick Sharratt:
10:00 - 11:00 / £2.50 / Age 7+ Look at my Book!
Meet Harry Houdini, the brilliant 15:00 - 16:00 / £2.50 / Age 7+
escape artist who thrilled the world
If there was a Queen and King
with his death-defying stunts and
of storytelling and illustration it would be
awesome showmanship in Harry. Find out
Vivian and Nick. So come with your ideas
how he was inspired by a man with no head,
and have fun making up and illustrating your
why he kept asking to be put in jail (and how
own story with the top experts on hand to
he got out again) and why he dangled upside
inspire you – then why not bring it back the
John Dougherty: Stinkbomb down from a crane 120 feet up in the air. Get
next day to be celebrated at the Festival
to know Harry with Mr Murderous Maths
and Ketchup-Face himself, Kjartan Poskitt.
Finale.
13:30 - 14:30 / £2.50 / Age 5+
Warning: This talk contains nickers . . .but
Nick Sharratt: Animal Pants NOT the frilly kind! Vivian French: We love Animals
10:00 - 11:00 / £2.50 / Age 0+ 11:30 - 12:30 / £2.50 / Age 0+
Meet brother and sister Stinkbomb and
‘Pants for iguanas and ravenous piranhas, Ketchup-Face who live on the Isle of Great Horses are beautiful creatures but they are
groovy pants for gibbons, with pictures of Kerfuffle in The Great Big Story Nickers, their large. Hello Horse gently introduces young Catriona Phillips: Spooky Masks
bananas!’ new adventure from prize-winning creator children to them in a story about Shannon, a 10:00 - 10:45 / £1 / All ages
John Dougherty. Our intrepid heroes meet friendly bay mare. We’re Getting A Cat stars 15:00 - 15:45 / £1 / All ages
Come and join Nick as he introduces his Kevin, a cat from a rescue home, who has to
pirates, zombies and animals in their quest Make and decorate your own spooky
latest picture book. Following on from the help Dad who is frightened of
to find their friend, Ninja Librarian Miss mask with Festival Illustrator in Residence,
hugely successful Pants and More Pants, mice – but first Kevin must learn
Butterworth, trapped in chapter eight. Catriona Phillips, who is an illustrator from
now there’s Animal Pants, a pants-tastic how to use a litter tray and how the Isle of Skye, currently living and working
celebration of animals in their underwear! not to shred the back of Dad’s in Edinburgh. She works mainly in pen and
Kjartan Poskitt: chair! Two tales full of practical watercolour and enjoys drawing strong
Christopher Lloyd: An Epic Voyage Magic with tips, from much-loved
author, Vivian French.
women, silly animals and very tall buildings.
through the History of Britain Murderous Maths Dumfries House Education Team
11:30 - 12:30 / £2.50 / Age 6+ 15:00 - 16:00 / £2.50
Speaking about the amazing new What on Age 7+ Jill Calder: Deep Sea Voyagers Free Interactive Activities
Earth? Wallbook Timeline of British History!, 13:30 - 14:30 / £2.50 / Age 6+ 11:00 - 14:00 / Free
Kjartan Poskitt’s
Christopher Lloyd – using a giant 8-metre Murderous Maths books Join Jill Calder, illustrator of The Sea, for Why not drop in and try fun-filled activities
version of it as a backdrop and wearing an have sold millions in over 30 countries. a deep-sea adventure! Wave cheerio to with the Dumfries House Education team.
all-new technicolour coat of many pockets – Join him to discover games you can’t lose, seagulls nicking your chips and jump in a Offering a unique selection of education and
will take you on an interactive journey from number tricks and magic squares. He’ll be yellow submarine, diving through miles of training programmes, learn how you can
the Giant’s Causeway 60 million years ago showing off his fabulous flexagons, he’ll ocean down into the deepest, darkest sea also take part in their future programmes.
to the present day, stopping off at ten of the make an infinitely big hole in a postcard, and trench. On your journey you’ll meet many
most significant moments that have shaped using a bit of magical maths, he even makes beautiful and strange creatures from the Drawing Station
our island history. a dragon from a cinema ticket! clowns of the air to the ever-hungry gulper
eel, discovering and drawing them all as you
Come and Draw!
10:00 - 16:00 / Free
descend through the depths. This fantastic
All tickets £2.50 and events are one hour long except where indicated. No unaccompanied children. voyage ends with everyone joining together The ideal place for budding artists who like
Special price for postcode KA18 addresses: £2 Under 2s who do not need a seat are free. to create a monster deep sea drawing. to colour, draw, doodle and more.
Ages in listings are for guidance only.
34 BOSWELL BOOK FESTIVAL 2019 . DUMFRIES HOUSE . AYRSHIRE 35Vivian French: Acting up!
13:30 - 14:30 / £2.50 / Age 7+
To avoid financial ruin, the Bottle family’s Jill Calder: My First Picture Book
theatre-troupe, The Steam Whistle Theatre
Company, has left Victorian London behind,
- the making of Robert the Bruce
10:00 - 11:00 / £2.50 / Age 8 to adult
travelling to the north of England. With new
audiences to play to, they hope to make Award-winning illustrator Jill Calder gives a
enough money to pay off their debts. But fascinating and revealing insight into how
will their plans be foiled by the odious Olio a picture book comes to life, from initial
Sleevery and a thieving Baby Magician? Can research to sketchbook work, dud drawings
young actors Rosie and Charlie save the day and final artwork, including some previously
in a nail-biting drama from bestselling writer, unseen illustrations from the book. A must
Vivian French. for book lovers young and old!
Joanna Streetly: Bears, Wolves
Festival Finale
Nick Sharratt: The Cat and the King and Sweetheart the Dog
John Dougherty, Vivian French 11:30 - 12:30 / £2.50 / Age 6+ Catriona Phillips: Spooky Masks
10:00 - 11:00 / £2.50 / Age 3+ 10:00 - 10:45 / £1 / All ages
and Catriona Phillips: Stories, A sea kayak guide who lives on a floating
The hilarious heroes of Nick Sharratt’s Make and decorate your own spooky mask
The Cat and the King return for more songs and all-round fun house in the Canadian wilderness, a perfect
with Festival Illustrator in Residence, Catriona
place from which to observe nature and
spectacularly silly adventures in Nice Work 15:00 - 16:00 / £2.50 / All Ages Phillips. Catriona is an illustrator from the
where Joanna Streetly helped raise a baby
for the Cat and the King. The Royal Money Join the entertaining and inspiring Isle of Skye, currently living and working
seal. But nature can be life-threatening and
Box is almost empty and the King needs to performance-based Finale, with songs from in Edinburgh. She works mainly in pen and
unpredictable. With her dog
get a job, fast. But what kind of work would guitar-strumming author and songmaster watercolour and enjoys drawing strong
Sweetheart, she has spent
be fit for a King? Nick will be telling all, and John Dougherty, words from the writer with women, silly animals and very tall buildings.
time escaping wolves, cougars,
drawing lots of funny pictures too, at this the magic pen Vivian French, and spooky storms and big seas. And
right royal event. pictures from illustrator Catriona Phillips. when her daughter was born,
Loads of laughs guaranteed for all the family. the adventures into the wild Dumfries House Education Team
continued, as she will recount Free Interactive Activities
Kjartan Poskitt: Murderous Maths: in enthralling stories from her book Wild 11:00 - 14:00 / Free
Fierce Life.
Mind-Numbing Numbers Why not drop in and try fun-filled activities
11:30 - 12:30 / £2.50 / Age 7+ with the Dumfries House Education team.
Kjartan Poskitt introduces numbers that do John Dougherty: There’s a Pig Offering a unique selection of education and
training programmes, learn how you can also
strange things, including tricky numbers, up my Nose! take part in their future programmes.
sneaky numbers, and even numbers that can 13:30 - 14:30 / £2.50 / Age 0+
tell your fortune. Along the way you’ll see a
When Natalie has to go to school with a
pile of pennies that goes past the sun and an
pig stuck up her nose, her whole class gets DRAWING STATION
infinite selection of ice-creams!
together to find a way to get the pig out.
But how will they do it? Winner of the
Come and Draw!
10:00 - 16:00 / Free
Oscar’s Book Prize 2018, John Dougherty’s
zany humour will have children giggling and The ideal place for budding artists who like
oinking out loud to try to work out how to get to colour, draw, doodle and more.
a farmyard animal out of someone’s nose.
36 BOSWELL BOOK FESTIVAL 2019 . DUMFRIES HOUSE . AYRSHIRE WWW.BOSWELLBOOKFESTIVAL.CO.UK 37You can also read
