Festival spreads its wings across the city

Published On Tue 21 Oct 2014 by Grant Hill

This week’s Dundee Literary Festival is set to burst out of its home in Bonar Hall and land in libraries, pubs, and other venues across the city.

BBC Scotland Political Editor Brian Taylor, himself a proud Dundonian, will be discussing his favourite books and writers at Coldside Library, Strathmartine Road at 11am on Saturday. Another of the city’s historic reading rooms, Blackness Library, will play host to Hannah Englekamp and her ‘Seaside Donkey’ at the same time the day before.

Saturday will also see a Comics Lab hosted by Dundee Contemporary Arts ahead of the annual Comics Day. That morning will see Dundee’s first makar W.N. Herbert lead a tour of ‘Whaleback City’ that celebrates Dundee’s finest wordsmiths, while members of the public are invited to meet Dundee’s heroes and villains from the past during an almost entirely fictitious walking tour the following day.

The aptly named George Orwell public house in Perth Road will celebrate the city’s connection to Mary Shelley by hosting a special book club discussion on ‘Frankenstein’ at 4.30pm on Friday. The same venue plays host to the creative forces behind Dundee’s cult Teckle Books publishing house at 6.30pm on Sunday when football, music, and the world in general will be put to rights.

Literary Festival programme manager Peggy Hughes said, “We are delighted to be see the Festival spread its wings beyond the confines of the Bonar Hall and, in the months and years to come, we aim to increase the amount of events increasing engagement with literature and storytelling across Dundee.

“We’re taking the written word to the good people of Dundee. It would be rude not to take advantage of a pub called the George Orwell and Brian Taylor and Hannah Engelkamp will be speaking at some of the city’s finest public libraries. Our walking tours will celebrate Dundee’s literary heritage while revealing some interesting facts about its heroes and villains.”

More than 60 workshops, talks, book signings, readings, walking tours and other events will be held during the Festival’s five-day run from 22nd to 26th October. As a result, 2014 will be the biggest Dundee Literary Festival to date as sports, crime, comics, translation, poetry, comedy, music, politics, history and children’s books are all covered

Full information about this year’s Literary Festival programme, including how to obtain tickets, can be found at http://www.dundee.ac.uk/literarydundee/.

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Grant Hill
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University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
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