This year’s fourth annual festival will have something for everybody. It will open with a carnival parade from the High Street to the links with bands and performers and much more excitement besides.

Writers will include Iain Banks, William Dalrymple, Carol Ann Duffy, Liz Lochhead, Alan Spence, A.L. Kennedy, Andrew Greig, Nicola Morgan, Mary Contini, Beverley Naidoo, Remzije Sherifi and storyteller Jess Smith.

There will be performances by international cellist, Raphael Wallfisch – hosted by Clifton House; daily shows at the Newton Conference Centre; traditional Gaelic musicians Margaret Stewart, Christine Primrose, Fiona MacInnes, Griogair McLeod and Iain MacDonald; Town and Country a concert by Coronach and Dance Ecosse; as well as International jazz stars Scott Hamilton, Brian Kellock, Niki King and Marcus Ford and concerts by Mellow Yellow and other local artists.

St Ninians will host an opera night with rising young graduates of RSMAD. You will be able to see The Witch of Auldearn performed in Auldearn, Beauty and the Beast by the Edinburgh Puppet Lab, a version of A Midsummer Nights Dream by Out of the Darkness Theatre in Viewfield Park; Shirleyanne Cumberlege will lecture on the Scottish Colourists and Ursula Buchan will talk about gardening.

There will also be guided tours of the Fishertown and Nairn’s Arts and Craft Architecture, exhibitions of contemporary Highland artists, craft, drama, printing, bookbinding and belly dancing workshops, We hope that everyone will catch the festival habit and join us again and again throughout the week.

Tickets and programmes are now available from the Nairn Bookshop, MacRae’s Travel, Beaver Travel and online at www.thebooth.co.uk.

John Fyfe, Chairman Nairn Book and Arts Festival
Tel: 01667 454800
E-mail: jfyfe35720@aol.com

www.nairnfestival.co.uk
 
Programme info:

Saturday 9th June
The festival gets off to a cracking start with an opening parade of artists, dancers, bands and street performers from the High Street to the Links where there will be performances and displays in and around the historic and newly refurbished  bandstand - a free day out for the whole family.

New Writing in the Highlands and Islands will feature poetry and short story readings by new and established writers based in the Highlands: Cynthia Rogerson, Clio Gray, Mandy Haggith and David Ross. The readings will be followed by a panel discussion, led by Sharon Blackie of Two Ravens Press.

The late John Lawson, local writer and historian, wrote The Witch of Auldearn for the BBC. It is based on contemporary records and tells the story of Isobel Gowdie a self-confessed witch allegedly burned at the stake on Gallows Hill outside Auldearn.  It is performed by an amateur cast just yards from where she was tried and condemned by the kirk session. After this special opening the production will move to the Little Theatre during the week following the festival.

Sunday 10th June
Guided Walks will be led by experts through the Fishertown, the High Street and some of Nairn’s Arts and Crafts Movement houses.

Out of the Darkness Theatre is a professional company that draws on people from a range of backgrounds and abilities. It has devised and produced its own special version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream - one that can speak to all. The work is of a high standard and the heart and soul the company puts into it makes it a truly magical experience. To witness it leaves you with something special and unforgettable.

William Dalrymple, born in Scotland and married to the artist Olivia Fraser who spent her childhood holidays in Nairn, now divides his time between London and Delhi. He wrote the highly acclaimed bestseller In Xanadu when he was just twenty-two and has since followed this with many best sellers. He is justifiably hailed as the best currently writing in the English language and won the prestigious international Duff Cooper prize for his latest book The Last Mughal. He has just given lectures in Harvard and London.

Mellow Yellow are a bright star in the local performing arts scene. Each year they train over fifty local youngsters in theatre arts. Last year they completely bowled over a large audience. This year they return along with  the Eden Court Nairn Outreach group to perform a programme based on the theme: Nairn’s Heritage.

Monday 11th June
Bob Pegg, storyteller, lives in Rossshire and enjoys combining traditional storytelling with his musical talents. He uses music and song as an integral part of his storytelling. His interest is in local folklore as told by travellers around campfires especially 'The Last Wolf' and prehistoric tales.

Mary Contini, a first generation Italian Scot, is a director of the famous delicatessen and wine merchant, Valvona & Crolla. She has written and broadcast extensively. In the follow up to her successful book Dear Francesca Mary Contini writes to her youngest daughter Olivia and reveals the story of her family’s struggle to survive in a foreign country.

Lesley Glaister lives with her husband, Andrew Greig, between Sheffield and Orkney. She teaches Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University. Her first novel, Honour Thy Father won both a Somerset Maugham Award and a Betty Trask Award. Her other novels include Trick or Treat, Limestone and Clay. Her latest novel is Nina Todd Has Gone.

Liz Lochhead is a very well known Scottish poet, playwright and sought-after performer with great popular appeal,. Since publication of her award-winning collection of poems in 1972 she has produced a prolific repertoire of poetry and plays acclaimed for their wit and originality.

Andrew Greig is a fine writer and poet whose work reflects his interest in mountaineering (Summit Fever and Everest - the unclimbed Ridge), golf and philosophy. His popular work Preferred Lies- a journey to the Heart of Scottish golf, has been described by Iain Banks as  ‘Poignant, witty, and funny, as well as exquisitely well written. A book about golf about much more than golf’. He will be the guest of Nairn golf club who are hosting the event.

Mishmash, a group of local enthusiasts, the usual suspects, returns with another programme of poetry, verse and worse as well as occasional song. Don’t take them too seriously.

Tuesday 12th June
Born into a Highland family, Shirleyanne Cumberlege spent many years living and working abroad.  She retired happily back to Ross shire and for twenty years has been encouraging local Highland artists through her well researched illustrated talks. Her subject will be The Scottish Colourists and their influence on certain contemporary Highland painters.

Christopher Campbell-Howes lived variously in Nairnshire and Moray for many years until 1991, when he took early retirement from teaching and bought a house in the south of France where he has made a second career as an author.

Ursula Buchan combined a Cambridge University degree with training at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Wisley and at Kew Gardens.  In addition to contributions to the gardening columns of many magazines and newspapers her writing has won her the award of Inspirational Gardener of the Year.  Her latest book, The English Garden, is now available.

Journalist, television reporter, fruit farmer, but above all book publisher and author, David St John Thomas has had a varied career. But always certain things have remained vital - including a passion for cats. He launches his new For the Love of a Cat: A Publisher's Story which Australian readers have already raved about.

Howlin’ Gaels, the popular a capella group, will entertain diners at the pre-Jazz night supper.

Ramage Jazz presents: Niki King who has been a bright star since, aged just nineteen, she burst onto the Scottish underground retro-funk scene. She performs with Marcus Ford, the gifted rhythm guitarist of The Hot Club who has performed all over Europe with many different ensembles.

Ramage Jazz presents: Scott Hamilton who is the premier 'mainstream' saxophonist of today. He was born at the time when the kind of jazz he loved - the small-group swing of such great stylists as Illinois Jacquet and Eddie Lockjaw Davis - was out of fashion, and largely out of the public ear. Brian Kellock is one of Scotland's world-class performers, who is recognised as a stellar piano talent across the world by musicians such as James Morrison and Michael Moore.

Wednesday 13th June
Alan Spence, author of poetry, novels, short stories and plays, was born in Glasgow whose sights and sounds permeate much of his work, including his first collection of short stories, Its Colours They Are Fine. In dealing with Scottish urban life he brings to bear a compassionate detachment. Whatever their everyday preoccupations his characters experience sudden flashes of wonder at the mystery of existence.

Iain Banks sprang to widespread and controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984. Since then he has gained enormous and popular critical acclaim with further works of fiction and science fiction. In 1993 he was acknowledged as one of the Best of Young British Writers. in 1996 his number one bestseller, The Crow Road, was adapted for television. The Times has acclaimed Iain Banks 'the most imaginative British novelist of his generation'.

Coronach and Danse Ecosse, directed by James Ross, will perform Town and Country, a programme of songs and dances fom Renaissance Scotland and England featuring the street cries of London, Scots medley songs and music from the Melvill Book of Roundels.

Thursday 14th June
Bookbinding Workshop (limited to ten participants.)
Laura West is a classically trained, award-winning bookbinder specialising in traditional and contemporary hand-sewn books.  In her workshop participants will learn the rudiments of binding and will make three books using different techniques progressing to paper folding and use of adhesive.

Poet, playwright and freelance writer Carol Ann Duffy was born in Glasgow. Her poetry collections include: Standing Female Nude, winner of a Scottish Arts Council Award; Selling Manhattan, which won a Somerset Maugham Award; The Other Country, Mean Time which won the Whitbread Poetry Award and the Forward Poetry Prize.

Nairn Performing Arts Guild presents: Raphael Wallfisch, who is a major cellist. At the age of twenty-four he won the Gaspar Cassadó International Cello Competition. He enjoys a world-wide reputation and career playing with such orchestras as the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, Hallé, City of Birmingham Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Berlin Symphony, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and many others. He is regularly invited to play at major festivals such as the BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Aldeburgh and Spoleto.

Traditional Gaelic music featuring some of Scotland’s finest singers and musicians: Margaret Stewart, Christine Primrose, Kathleen MacInnes, Griogair, Lawrie Iain MacDonald

Showtime: a musical entertainment featuring local artists: Lee Cruikshank, Jenni Herbert, Kayleigh MacRae, Roy McQueen and Julia Westbrook.

Friday 15th June
Jess Smith is a highly entertaining traditional storyteller. She has written on her life travelling the country in an old bus with her parents and seven sisters. Two of her books, Jessie’s Journey and Tales from the Tent were in Scotland’s best-selling list. Book three, Tears for a Tinker was published in April 2005. ‘It takes you into an unfamiliar world ... remarkable.’ - Caledonia.

Angus Dunn, author of Writing in the Sand, is a prize winning Highland writer. His work has been published in many anthologies and has been broadcast by the BBC.

Piccolo Press is one of the few remaining specialist printers still using the time honoured traditional skills of engraving, die stamping, letterpress, thermography and other modern printing processes. Their high-quality work is in worldwide demand. Owner and founder, Tim Honnor, will give a talk on the history of printing, a tour of the press.

Ian Blake, a previous winner of the Neil Gunn and Petra Kenney International Memorial poetry prizes, lives and writes overlooking the Outer Isles at Aultgrishan - the title of his 1999 collection. Last year his readings moved the audience so deeply that we have invited him back.

A.L. Kennedy is author of a number of award winning short stories and novels. She also writes for several daily newspapers and appears on radio, TV and stage. Her wit and self-deprecating style so endeared her to last year’s festival audience that we invited her back.

James Ross, the accomplished writer, actor,artist, conductor, musician and musicologist unveils yet another talent and will be performing a wide range of his poetry from funny to serious and back to funny again. From Roadkill to LA Valley Girls’ Rap. There is guaranteed to be something for everybody.

Saturday 16th June
A day of tribal belly dancing workshops, performances and drumming by from the UK and Southern Ireland experts.

We shall be screening four Charlie Chaplin short films accompanied by a live pianist just as it was in the old days! Bring along the kids.

Workshops on Set your own type.

Remzije Sherifi worked as a radio journalist in Kosova. She lost her job, and almost her life, as the Milosevic regime steadily tightened its grip on the Albanian people there. In Shadow Behind the Sun she recounts her family’s history to shine a new light on the terrible events of the 1990s. Now a British citizen she has made her commitment to asylum seekers and other refugees, working with the Maryhill Integration Network in Glasgow.

Dan Rhodes is the author of Anthropology, Timoleon Vieta Come Home, Don't Tell Me the Truth About Love and Gold.  In 2003 he was named as one of the twenty Best of Young British Novelists.  ‘Dan Rhodes is a true original with a fresh, funny, quirky style that seems to owe nothing to other writers, and everything to his own powers of invention.’ Hilary Mantel.

Vocal Fusion is a quartet of  opera graduates from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama . They will sing excerpts from the operatic repertoire. Since their formation in 2003 the quartet has gained an impressive reputation as well as performing solo roles in several prominent opera houses.

Nairn Book and Arts Festival in Schools.
We have worked with Nairnshire teachers to bring writers, storytellers and puppeteers into the schools These include Beverly Naidoo, Iain Banks, Nicola Morgan, Bob Pegg, Simon Puttock and Jess Smith. The Edinburgh Puppet Lab will perform their new work Beauty and the Beast in all four primaries. There will also be an showcase of children’s art from the Children’s Art Club as well as all the schools.