PUBLISHING THIS WEEK
Shetland-based author Jon Dunn followed in the wing-beats of one of the world’s most remarkable avian species in his quest to observe and photograph the hummingbird. Having traversed the creature’s diverse territories from Alaska to Chile, he has recorded his journey in a new book, The Glitter of The Green: In Search of Hummingbirds (Bloomsbury, £20).
One chapter describes a fascinating expedition to the Pacific island on which Fife-born sailor Alexander Selkirk was famously marooned, inspiring Daniel Defoe’s novel, Robinson Crusoe. The island is also home to a critically endangered hummingbird. “He seemed to glow from within, like a hot ember, a rich burning umber,” writes Dunn of his first sighting of a Juan Fernandez Firecrown. “I could feel the hairs rising on the back of my neck, and realised I was holding my breath.” The Glitter In The Green contains astonishing photographs and stories about these rare and beautiful birds. It’s published on Thursday (June 24).
EVENTS
A literary paeon to immigration is launched this Wednesday, on the fifth anniversary of the 2016 Brexit Referendum. In Barbara Henderson’ s Scottish By Inclination (Luath Press, £12.99), the German-born author writes of falling in love with and choosing Scotland as her home some 30 years ago.
Henderson is an Inverness-based children’s writer and drama teacher and her book includes interviews with 30 of her fellow EU citizens, including founding member of the Princes Trust Scotland Gio Benedetti, Austria-born Hearts of Midlothian midfielder Peter Haring, University of Glasgow Principal, Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli and NatureScot environmental lawyer Maria de la Torre. Their stories, writes Henderson, “have become part of the warp and weft of Scottish society”. The launch, at 6pm on Wednesday, June 23, sees Barbara Henderson in conversation with novelist Margaret Kirk. Free tickets can be booked at scottish-by-inclination.eventbrite.co.uk
AWARDS
Scottish-Bengali author Abir Mukherjee has been shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award for his book, Death in the East: the fourth in his Sam Wyndham & Banerjee series of crime stories set in Raj era India. Raised in Hamilton, Mukherjee is now London-based and Death in the East is based in that city’s East End and in Assam during the early 20th century. The Herald’s Teddy Jamieson described the Death in the East as both “a satisfying locked-room mystery and a sly take on current affairs”. The public are invited to vote for the winner via http://harrogatetheakstoncrimeaward.com and the result will be announced on the opening night of Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival on July 22.
George Orwell was born 118 years ago this Friday (June 25) and as usual, the Nineteen Eighty-Four author’s birthday will be marked by the announcement of the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and the Orwell Prize for Political Writing.
Inverness-born Ali Smith is on the six-strong fiction prize shortlist for her novel, Summer: the culmination of her Seasonal Quartet. Book two – Winter – was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2018. Will Summer take this year’s prize?
ON-AIR
Scotland’s literary landscape will be explored in a new four-part BBC Radio 4 series. Written In Scotland is presented by Kirsty Wark and looks at the influence of past and present writers on the nation and its image. “Scottish literature has always revealed something about our national character, our preoccupations - what makes us laugh and what makes us cry,” says Wark. “I’m thrilled to have talked to some of the most stellar Scottish writers and poets for Written in Scotland.” Politics, social history, writers’ responses to landscape as well as Glasgow and Edinburgh’s literary rivalry, are among the topics to be explored. Written In Scotland begins this Thursday (June 24) at 11.30am on BBC Radio 4
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