THE team behind the Hippodrome Silent Film Festival (HippFest) have launched their second season of silent films.

A Taste of Silents begins this week with Pandora's Box (1929) starring Louise Brooks on 23 and 24 June.

It aims to introduce new audiences to silent film, with live music, presented in Scotland’s oldest cinema, the Hippodrome in Bo’ness, where HippFest takes place each year.

The two screenings of Pandora’s Box on Saturday 23 June are accompanied by a recorded orchestral score by German composer Peer Raben, and on Sunday with a new live score by Jane Gardner (piano) and Roddy Long (violin).

The film is directed by GW Pabst and follows the rise and fall of Lulu (Brooks), a spirited but innocent showgirl.

Next up is Lotte Reiniger’s 1926 silhouette animation The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926).

The third film in the season is The Lodger (1927) screening on 15 September with live music from award winning musician Stephen Horne.

The season concludes with Buster Keaton’s The General (1926) screening on Saturday 29 September with live accompaniment from silent cinema’s musical maestro and HippFest regular Neil Brand.

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THE Borders Book Festival, which took place last weekend, registered ticket sales up 15% compared to last year.

A third of the programme was sold out over the four days of the event.

Alistair Moffat, festival director, said: "Since we believe that to expand the Borders Book festival to more than its four days would be to dissipate its unique magic, our aim has always been to improve its quality and the spectacular 15% increase in ticket sales means that we are doing that."

The Walter Scott Prize went to Benjamin Myers for The Gallows Pole.

The Baillie Gifford Borders Book Festival will return to Melrose from 13 – 16 June in 2019.

www.bordersbookfestival.org.