HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY TO ORKNEY LIBRARY & ARCHIVE!

Ron Butlin talks to P7 from Glaitness Primary

This week has seen the tenth anniversary of Orkney Library & Archive moving into the new purpose built library on Junction Road. Though the Laing Street premises were much loved by generations of Orcadians, the library and particularly the archive, had outgrown it.

So to celebrate, we've been having various events. 

James Oswald

On Monday we hosted an event with farmer-crime-writer James Oswald who told the fascinating story of his recent phenomenal publishing success. 

Two books out this summer, one coming out in February next year and a further three book deal with Penguin to take the Inspector McLean mysteries to six. 

James reckons he can turn out two a year. AND run his 350 acre farm in Fife. Good luck to him! We were lucky here in Orkney to see James for his first gig on his own as an author. He might be a bit harder to book in future. I imagine he will be reaping the whirlwind of his success along with his silage!

Evisceration, I said, your first book is full of it. Was this a working through of your guilt that you send some of your animals to slaughter?

Louise Graham and James Oswald

No, replied James Oswald, it arose from me and Stuart McBride trying to out-gross each other!

Ron Butlin and children from Glaitness Primary School

Ron Butlin, Edinburgh's Makar or Poet Laureate, worked with two groups of young folk - five from Wirdsmit Young Writers' Group on Tuesday and on Wednesday, 31 from P7, Glaitness Primary!

Ron was very impressed by both groups. The Wirdsmit youngsters wrote at an enviable rate and produced excellent work. And he kept the group of 31 enthralled as he told them to stop thinking and allow their imaginations full rein.

Q. What's read again and again but never bought? was the riddle one came up with.

Ron Butlin in conversation with David Lea

Ron did a reading from his work in the evening - poetry and short stories - to a good crowd of folk and generated lively interesting questions and discussion. 

Tim Morrison, Cary Welling, Ron Ferguson

When politicians and corporations fail us, all we have is our shared humanity. Poetry can put us in touch with that.

Karen Walker and Jim Bergen

Ron got a surprise when two old friends of his turned up unexpectedly for his reading. Novelists Louise Welsh and Zoe Strachan were on holiday in Orkney and came along.

Zoe Strachan, Louise Welsh and Louise Graham

Amber Connolly who runs Wirdsmit

David Drever and Liam Stewart

Answer to the riddle: A library book!

Ron Butlin's and James Oswald's books are available to borrow - again and again! - from Orkney Library & Archive.

JAMES OSWALD comes to Orkney

When you think of successful writers, you don't often think about their day jobs. Successful writers don't have day jobs. Do they? Well, not only does James Oswald have a 24/7 kind of a day job, it is not the kind of job that immediately springs to mind.

James Oswald is a farmer. He runs a 350 acre livestock farm in North East Fife, where he raises pedigree Highland Cattle and New Zealand Romney Sheep.

And as if that didn't take up enough of his time, he has recently become a highly successful author of the Inspector McLean mysteries.

In Natural Causes, Inspector McLean tramps the genteel streets of Edinburgh and solves a particularly grisly series of crimes reminiscent of Scandinavian noir. But look closer to home for the comparisons in the reviews: yes, James Oswald has been hailed as 'the new Ian Rankin'. Like Rankin's Rebus, McLean is a flawed but likeable character who overcomes incompetence and lack of imagination in his senior officers, survives attempts on his life and pulls all the disparate strands of the crimes together.

And there is more. Both Natural Causes and The Book of Souls were published by Penguin this summer. Like other recent publishing phenomena, James Oswald published his books first online. When they became huge sellers, there began a bidding war among the publishers that ended when Penguin picked them up for an undisclosed sum.

What did he do with the money? He bought a tractor!

Read more about his life here:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/books-poetry/interviews/face-to-face-james-oswald-author.20986697

and here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22447175

With such an interesting hinterland to his publishing success, we thought in Orkney Library & Archive that James Oswald would be the ideal author to kick off Discover it Yourself Week. Don't miss out! Get your tickets for this event while you can!

James Oswald

7.00 pm

Monday 2 September

MacGillivray Room

Orkney Library & Archive

FREE but TICKETED

Phone: 01856 873166

E-mail: general.enquiries@orkneylibrary.org.uk