Topical chat on book fest agenda
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WITH Russia currently dominating news headlines around the world one of the star names of this year’s Ullapool Book Festival is sure to be a major draw.
Angus Roxburgh was booked for the event in August last year, long before the apparent poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, or arguments over the bombing of Syrian targets in the wake of an apparent chemical weapons attack.
The timing, however, could not be better.
Now a freelance writer, he was Sunday Times Moscow correspondent from 1987 to 1989 and took on the same role for the BBC from 1991 to 1997 before becoming the corporation’s Europe correspondent then working as media consultant to the Kremlin itself from 2006 to 2009.
His latest book is Moscow Calling – Memoirs of a Foreign Correspondent which he will discuss at the festival on Friday, May 11 at 10am in a session chaired by fellow journalist Ruth Wishart.
Now in its 14th year the Ullapool festival runs from Friday to Sunday, May 11-13.
Other highlights include an appearance by James Miller, whose latest book, longlisted for the Highland Book Prize, is The Finest Road in the World – The Story of Travel and Transport in the Scottish Highlands, which tells the dramatic and sometimes surprisingly humorous story of travel in the region.
He will be discussing both it and other subjects at 10am on Saturday, May 12.
On the fiction front there will be appearances by crime writer Denise Mina and literary author Bernard MacLaverty as well as poets Douglas Dunn and William Letford.
This year’s festival will even include at least one trilingual session when Gaelic writer John D Urquhart and Catalan novelist Teresa Solana read from their work, followed by a discussion on writing in minority languages.
Conducted in Gaelic and Catalan simultaneous translation of their chat into English will be available through individual headsets.
The full festival programme is available on the website at www.ullapoolbookfestival.co.uk
Tickets for individual events can be bought online.
