NORTH Ayrshire's hugely popular Tidelines book festival returns tomorrow.
And book lovers are in for some real treats during this year's packed four-day programme of talks and interviews.
The 2024 festival takes place from Thursday, September 26 until Sunday, September 29, with the Harbour Arts Centre in Irvine hosting most of the events.
Audiences will be able to hear authors talking about everything from true crime to Ayrshire memoir, Robert Burns to the miner’s strike, gang violence to mediaeval mystics, Scottish seasonal cooking and Gaelic song to Icelandic idiom.
Authors attending this year include Scottish sports broadcasting royalty in the shape of Dougie Donnelly, introducing his memoir My Life In Sport. He will appear at the Harbour Arts Centre on Thursday evening.
'Tartan noir' legend Lin Anderson will be in conversation with former murder detective David Swindle, who investigated serial killer Peter Tobin.
Award winning novelist Victoria McKenzie will discuss medieval mystics and the genesis of women's writing.
Scots language is front and centre, with an exciting conversation between two of the young rising stars of Scottish literature, Len Pennie and Graeme Armstrong, who have been taking Scots language writing to new heights in their bestselling books Poyums and The Young Team.
Scottish broadcasting veteran and 'Gawston boay' Billy Kay takes over Irvine’s historic Wellwood Burns Centre and Museum for a very special event to promote his recently-released memoir, Born In Kyle.
The Wellwood Museum will also host a very special exhibition from their spectacular collection, featuring letters addressed to Irvine Burns Club from Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle and George Bernard Shaw.
Jim Phillips, professor of economic and social history at the University of Glasgow, will discuss his new book Coalfield Justice: The Miners’ Strike in Scotland, which was written using 30 oral histories from strike veterans and their families.
And the Irvine Lasses Burns Club will lead historic walks along the harbour delving into Irvine’s rich cultural heritage.
The festival’s Friday night will be a rousing celebration of Gaelic poetry and song, with award winning Gaelic poets Niall O’Gallagher and Beth Frieden and music from North Ayrshire’s very own Largs Gaelic Choir.
Elsewhere across the weekend, MasterChef finalist and food writer Sarah Rankin will make mouths water with a live cooking demonstration of recipes from her new book Kith: Scottish Seasonal Cooking For Family and Friends.
Storyteller Graham Johncock journeys around the nation’s myths and legends, from kelpies lurking in lochs to battlefields.
Obsessive list-writer and author of the bestselling The Wheel Is Spinning But The Hamster Is Dead, Adam Sharp, sets out to travel the world with a hilarious look into international idioms.
Budding writers can draw inspiration from the collection at Irvine’s Maritime Museum, which will host writing workshops in poetry and fiction across the weekend.
North Ayrshire’s youngest readers are also catered for with interactive shows around childhood favourites The Very Hungry Caterpillar and We’re Going On A Bear Hunt.
For full details on what's happening and information on how to book tickets for the events on this year's programme, see tidelinesbookfestival.com.
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