THE leading Scottish crime writer Val McDermid has become a new patron of the Scottish Book Trust.
The charity said that the writer will "lend her support to Scottish Book Trust to help inspire and support the people of Scotland to read and write for pleasure through programmes and outreach work."
McDermid, who was born in Fife, studied English at St Hilda's College, Oxford.
After graduation, she became a journalist and worked as a dramatist.
Her first success as a novelist was in the late 80’s and she has now sold millions of copies of her work.
The Mermaids Singing, the first of McDermid’s Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series, later adapted for television drama Wire in the Blood staring Robson Green, won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year.
She said: "Any writer would be proud and delighted to be invited to be Patron of Scottish Book Trust.
"The work they do across Scotland, supporting readers and writers across the generations, is key to building our future.
"It’s a charity that works with children and parents, with teachers and libraries, with avid readers and potential readers alike, and supports both established and aspiring writers."
www.scottishbooktrust.com
THE Document Human Rights Film Festival has announced its programme for 2018.
It will run from 30 November to 2 December.
It has re-located to the Scottish Youth Theatre for its 16th edition, and includes 40 feature length and short documentary films, including 11 Scottish premieres.
Events include a screening and lecture celebrating the recently passed Egyptian filmmaker Ateyyat El Abnoudy, a series of films recovered from and about the lost Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) Film Unit archive introduced by scholar, researcher and writer Anandi Ramamurthy and the Scottish premiere of Silence is a Falling Body.
Filmmaker and artist Louis Henderson will present this year’s Superlux Masterclass in conjunction with Lux Scotland, focusing on recent collaborative work Overtures, which seeks to find an anti-colonial method of filmmaking.
Other confirmed guests include Steven Eastwood, director of Island, and Sara Fattahi, director of Chaos, which won the Pardo d'Oro Cineasti del presente at Locarno Film Festival this year and has its Scottish premiere at Document.
Fattahi, winner also of the Fipresci Award at the 2015 Viennale, will lead a free Director's Masterclass in conjunction with the Scottish Documentary Institute on Saturday 1 December.
Sam Kenyon, producer of the festival, said: “A central theme of this year’s edition is the histories, afterlives and generative potential of archives - looking at what they can tell us about how we understand our individual and collective histories, particularly in relation to some of the seismic political events of the twentieth century. The festival is a place where we can tease out lots of interesting questions around these subjects."
www.documentfilmfestival.org
Glasgow-based pianist Fergus McCreadie has won a place in the BBC Young Jazz Musician 2018 final at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on November 24.
Twenty-one-year-old McCreadie, who won the Best Instrumentalist at the Scottish Jazz Awards this summer and was shortlisted as Best Newcomer in the recent Parliamentary Jazz Awards, graduated from the jazz course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in June and released his first album, Turas earlier this year.
Before heading to London for the final, which is part of EFG London Jazz Festival and will be broadcast on BBC Four on Sunday November 25, he has gigs at Biggar Corn Exchange (Saturday 10), Glasgow University (Thursday 15) and Jazz at St James in Leith (Saturday 17). The judges for the final are pianists Zoe Rahman and Monty Alexander, bassist Gary Crosby, singer Zara McFarlane and saxophonist and composer Iain Ballamy.
www.bbc.co.uk
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