THE best selling pianist Richard Clayderman will perform his only 2019 UK show at the Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, on 28 February next year.

Marking the 40th anniversary of his music career, the French pianist will be accompanied by a string section from Glasgow for the show.

The pianist said: “For my concert in Glasgow, I will perform a good selection of my original titles as well as lots of romantic themes and film classics.

“I look forward to meeting all my fans at the Royal Concert Hall as they are true connoisseurs and we all share the same emotions and sensations.”

He has sold in excess of 150m records, and with 267 gold and 70 platinum albums.

www.glasgowconcerthalls.com

SCOTTISH Book Trust has announced the inaugural Ignite Fellowship award winners.

Theatre-maker Annie George and poet Marjorie Lotfi Gill were selected by the judging panel.

Annie George is based in Portobello, and her recent plays include Edinburgh Fringe productions ‘Twa’, ‘Home Is Not the Place’, and ‘The Bridge’.

For her Ignite Fellowship project, she will work on a screenplay, a wartime spy drama based on a true story.

Marjorie Lotfi Gill's poems have won competitions, been published widely in journals and anthologies in the UK and US (including The Rialto, Magma, Rattle and Gutter) and have been performed on BBC Radio 4.

Her pamphlet ‘Refuge’, poems about her childhood in revolutionary Iran, was published by Tapsalteerie Press in the spring of 2018.

She founded the Belonging Project, creative writing workshops and readings considering the experiences of refugees with over 1,500 participants.

The writer plans to use the Ignite Fellowship to explore the process of assimilation into a new culture.

An additional Gaelic Ignite Fellowship, funded by the Gaelic Books Council, will be announced in the New Year.

The Ignite Fellows will receive a £2000 bursary and tailored creative support to suit their individual projects. The fellowship will run for one year, from December 2018 to December 2019.

www.scottishbooktrust.com

A NEW award for women writers and comedians, launched at the Fringe in 2018, is joining forces with a major publisher.

The Comedy Women in Print (CWIP) Prize has announced the deal with HarperFiction.

The publisher will offer the winning female novelist a publishing contract and £5,000 advance.

The CWIP Prize was created by actress and stand-up comedienne Helen Lederer in "response to the lack of support and exposure for female comedy writing and as a way of discovering and nurturing new talent."

Judges for the award include international bestselling writers, Marian Keyes and Allison Pearson and Dr Jennifer Young, English and Creative Writing Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire.

Ms Lederer said: "It proves that witty female fiction is being taken seriously from the top down. I love HarperFiction for doing this. They will not be sorry…and they will definitely laugh more."

Entrants to the unpublished category are asked to submit a one-page synopsis and the first 5,000 words of their comedy novel, which, when completed must be at least 85,000 words in length.

Entrants can be of any nationality but must be over 18-years-old.

www.comedywomeninprint.co.uk