The Brewin Dolphin Borders Book Festival, which ran from June 11-14, had a successful year.

The main festival site had 22,300 visitors over the four days - an increase of 31% on last year.

There were also 8,000 visitors to the new adjoining festival site, The Orchard, many of whom would have also visited the main festival site. The Orchard was set up to celebrate Scotland's Year of Food & Drink.

This year, the festival put on nearly 100 events, with speakers including Gordon Brown, Alex Salmond, Rory Bremner, Andrew Marr, Michelle Mone, Patricia Hodge, John Lister-Kaye, Dom Joly and Jenny Colgan.

bordersbookfestival.org

Paolozzi Revealed, a book by former Herald journalist Ann Shaw, has been published.

In July 1996, Edinburgh College of Art offered a Masterclass with the Italian- Scottish sculptor, pictured. The selection process chose 17 students with widely different backgrounds and aolozzi asked the members of the class to keep a diary of their time with him.

Ann Shaw, who studied at Glasgow School of Art after her time with this newspaper, documented her days and recorded scenes of chaos and progress. Her unabridged account is illustrated throughout with some of the photographs she took as the appointed 'official' class photographer.

kennedyandboyd.co.uk

The National Theatre of Scotland and Aberdeen City Council are inviting the people of Aberdeen to take part in a new production that will explore the city's history, celebrate the character of its citizens and re-imagine its future place in the world.

From September 2015 to April 2016, a National Theatre of Scotland team of creative artists will produce a programme of performances, interactive multimedia installations and events before the project culminates in a series of large-scale performances within the quadrangle of Marischal College.

National Theatre of Scotland Associate Director Simon Sharkey (The Tin Forest, Extreme) will lead the project and the NTS team will work closely with some of the city's leading creative groups, who will lend their ideas, expertise and performing talent. These include Aberdeen Performing Arts, ACT Aberdeen, Citymoves, SHMU and the Sound Emporium Research Group (SERG) from the University of Aberdeen's Department of Music.

The project will be launched in September 2015, at which point full details of how to participate will be made available at www.nationaltheatrescotland.com/granite.