The creator of the popular time-travel romance drama Outlander has been added to the line up of a new Scottish literary festival.
Diana Gabaldon will take part in the Saltire Society’s first virtual literary festival.
She will join authors Val McDermid, Michael Faber, A. L. Kennedy, Vic Galloway, Juno Dawson and Kirsty Logan for the Saltire Society’s first “virtual literary festival”, taking place between the 24 and 26 June.
The festival will also feature a live screening of William McIlvanney: Living With Words, a portrait of the late Scottish author.
THE “Queen of crime”, Val McDermid is to be honoured for her outstanding contribution to fiction, it has been announced.
Val is very deserving of this accolade in the pantheon of legendary crime authors
The former journalist, whose works have sold 10 million copies in 30 languages and been adapted for television, will receive the award at an annual Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate this summer. The gong has previously been given to authors including Ruth Rendell, PD James and Inspector Morse creator Colin Dexter.
Announcing the news, judge Simon Theakston said: “As a writer, she is rightfully known as the Queen of Crime. Val is very deserving of this accolade in the pantheon of legendary crime authors.”
Originally from Kirkcaldy in Fife, McDermid was the first Scottish state school pupil to win a place at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, where she read English.
A vote to leave the EU could create a groundswell movement for a second referendum on Scottish independence, according to one of Scotland’s most successful authors.
McDermid, who is from Kirkcaldy in Fife, said she is keen to remain in the EU for both practical and cultural reasons.
She said “For practical reasons, as a writer the EU makes it easier to protect your rights and revenues and intellectual properties in the complexities of the digital world and those copyright issues.
As for the leave campaign, like Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, I wouldn’t follow them out of a burning building
Val McDermid
Val McDermid, who is well known for her suspense novels featuring Dr. Tony Hill that were turned into TV series Wire In The Blood, also said she would not follow Leave campaigners Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove “out of a burning building”.
