Scotland’s crime writing festival Bloody Scotland returns

Fifth instalment features Martina Cole, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Brooke Magnanti, Val McDermid, Ian Rankin and Graeme Macrae Burnet

The audience will be treated to a creepy menu of authors from ten different countries, including international superstars Martina Cole, Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Brooke Magnanti. Among the tartan noir contingent will be Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Caro…

Book Festival for music lovers: Wilko Johnson, Billy Bragg and more share their stories

Compelling stories and insights across the Book Festival’s music strand

It’s pleasing to note that none of the music-related events at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival Music Meaning series are based around cheap cash-ins; across the programme there are recognisable stars with compelling stories to tell…

Theme of transformation for 2015 Book Week Scotland programme

Appearances from Diana Gabaldon, AL Kennedy, Val McDermid, Alan Cumming and Andy McNab

The programme for this year’s Book Week Scotland has been announced. Taking place from Mon 23–Sun 29 Nov, the event is centred on the theme of ‘transformation’. The programme celebrates the power that books have to change lives, laws and the way we…

Bloody Scotland 2015 programme announced

Martina Cole, Linwood Barclay, Ian Rankin and more set to appear at the crime writing festival

The mystery of who will be found on the Bloody Scotland scene this year has been solved, with a host of major names confirmed to appear at the literary crime festival in 2015. The event, which takes place across Stirling from Fri 11–Sun 13 Sep…

Top 5 new book releases this autumn

Including David Nicholls, Ian McEwan, Val McDermid, Ian Rankin and Lena Dunham

Flushed by the success of the intensely loveable One Day and creditably not put off by the poorness of the film version which followed, David Nicholls here swaps youthful romance for lived-in, mature love, as a couple and their teenage son go on what…

Bloody Scotland crime writing festival enjoys most successful year yet

‘Tartan noir’ highlights include Christopher Brookmyre, Denise Mina, Tony Parsons and Ian Rankin

Bloody Scotland started in 2012 with the intention of showcasing the best of Scottish and international crime writing. This has been the festival’s most successful year yet, with packed out author events and less traditional happenings, such as a…

Ian Rankin, Tony Parsons, Kathy Reichs and Ian Mcwhirter among highlights at Bloody Scotland 2014

The crime fiction festival also welcomes Denise Mina, John Gordon Sinclair and David Hewson

Now an established literary festival which continues to grow and attract ever more well-known international guests, Stirling-based Bloody Scotland was established with the intention of celebrating what co-founder Lin Anderson calls ‘Scotland’s other…

Ian Rankin, Denise Mina and Christopher Brookmyre among highlights of 2014 Bloody Scotland crime writing festival

Tony Parsons, John Gordon Sinclair and MC Beaton also set for Stirling-based festival

A medieval murder mystery set in Stirling Castle, a drama based on the trial of one of Scotland’s most notorious killers and updates on the first Poirot novel in almost 40 years – Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s crime writing festival, is back like a TV…

What’s your favourite thing about winter in Edinburgh?

Ian Rankin, Daniel Sloss, Mark Cousins and more share their festive favourites

Ian Rankin (author) I love it when the canal freezes over. I’ve never quite dared to try walking across the ice from one bank to the other, but it does make for an otherworldly scene. Kim Kjaerside (Apex Hotels Ltd sales executive) I enjoy sipping…

Edinburgh Lyceum’s Mark Thomson discusses Dark Road, the first play by Ian Rankin

The Rebus author has crafted a shady serial killer story for the stage

Artistic director of the Edinburgh Lyceum and co-writer of Dark Road, Mark Thomson recognises that there is something natural in the theatre’s collaboration with Ian Rankin, a crime writer who has become part of Edinburgh’s cultural landscape. Dark…

Top 5 literary heatwaves at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2013

Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Jones and Chris Dolan deliver some of the hottest Book Fest events

Whether the sun is shining or it’s raining so much that yellow plastic ducks pop up in the puddles, things are getting damn steamy at Charlotte Square Gardens. Put extra ice in your drink and delve into these high-temperature books. Jonathan…

Rebus author Ian Rankin set to launch Lyceum’s 2013/14 programme

The new season features works from Chris Hannan, Tony Cownie and David Haig

A play by Ian Rankin is just one of four world premieres and three new co-productions to be announced as part of the Royal Lyceum Theatre’s new season. Rebus novelist Rankin’s play will launch the season as part of a crime double bill, with Maureen…

Christmas 2012 TV round-up

Featuring Bad Santas, Friday Night Dinner, The Office, The Girl and The Snowman and the Snowdog

It’s not exactly a particularly seasonal thought, but 2012 might be less than fondly remembered as the year when many of our showbusiness heroes of the past were outed as, at best, sleazy letches and, at worst, sexual predators. Hurtling headlong into…

Ian Rankin – Standing in Another Man’s Grave

Rankin’s Rebus resurrection is a welcome return

The surprise comeback that everybody expected has finally arrived with the return of John Rebus, the fictional detective most associated with both Ian Rankin and the city of Edinburgh. Five years on from his retirement in 2007’s Exit Music, Rebus is…

Tartan noir: An A-to-Z of Scottish crime writing

A dictionary of Scottish literature’s darkest genre

A is for Aberdeen While Edinburgh and Glasgow get most of the crime fiction attention, the Granite City has been re-awakened from its seemingly law-abiding slumbers by the likes of writers Lance Black, Bill Kirton and MG Kincaid while Stuart MacBride is…

Creative Scots sign open letter to Creative Scotland

As artists revolt and the Scottish Government steps in, the attacks on Creative Scotland continue

The stormy relationship between artists and Creative Scotland has picked up pace with 100 of Scotland’s leading artists writing an open letter to the agency’s chairman, Sir Sandy Crombie. The letter, from 9 October, laid out the reasons that artists…

Ian Rankin to deliver keynote speech at Bloody Scotland 2012

The first book festival dedicated to crime fiction will take place in Stirling

It had to happen sooner or later. Given the uncanny and possibly disproportionate ability for Scotland to churn out crime writers by the dastardly dozen, someone somewhere just had to suggest inaugurating a festival wholly dedicated to the felonious…

Unusual highlights from Edinburgh Festival 2012 programme

Barges, a spoken word section, free shows from big names and more

Dip in for some watery goings-on at the Art Festival as Tania Kovats invites you on a canal boat trip on 3 August. The vessel sets sail from behind Cargo on Fountainbridge at 9am, making the return voyage from Jupiter Artland at 3pm. Call 01506 889 900…

Stephen Fry to produce and star in adaptation of Ian Rankin’s Doors Open

TV drama filmed in Edinburgh also stars Douglas Henshall

Stephen Fry will produce and star in a new TV adaptation of Ian Rankin’s novel Doors Open due to be filmed in Edinburgh this month. Rankin’s 2008 novel will provide the plot for a two-hour ITV drama starring Fry and Scottish actor Dougie Henshall.

Stephen Fry to star in Doors Open

TV Gossip

Stephen Fry is to star in new ITV drama ‘Doors Open’. The ‘QI’ host will appear alongside Dougie Henshall in the two-hour TV film, which is based on the best-selling book by Ian Rankin. ‘Doors Open’ tells the story of a self-made millionaire…

Anonymous sculptor leaves literary artworks around Edinburgh

11 sculptures made from the pages of books have been discovered

On a quiet day last March, the Scottish Poetry Library received an unexpected gift; a tree, fashioned from words and paper, blossoming from the yellowing book it rested upon. Throughout 2011, ten intricate sculptures appeared at creative organisations…

Edinburgh International Book Festival 2011 line up highlights

Grant Morrison, Will Self and Jo Nesbø among highlights

A selection of international authors, a bunch of Scottish novelists, an array of top non-fiction scribes, a host of children’s writers and a series of exciting innovations: yes, it’s just another Edinburgh International Book Festival programme. A cliché…

Five of the best books set in Edinburgh

Five books set in the Scottish capital, including Kidnapped and Trainspotting

1: Confessions of a Justified Sinner – James Hogg Don’t be put off by the title, this is a compelling and surprisingly modern novel which confronts the hypocrisy of the self-righteous. It inspired numerous later works, including Robert Louis…

How seven key figures in Scottish culture have fared over 25 years

25 years of The List

Didn’t they do well? Scotland has more than its fair share of talent, finds Kirstin Innes, as she chronicles the highs and lows of some of our finest exports over 25 years, including Peter Capaldi, Carol Ann Duffy, Ian Rankin, Douglas Gordon, Tilda…

Edinburgh, My Home: Jonathan Mills

Edinburgh International Festival director Jonathan Mills on the virtues and indiscretions of his adopted home