Colonsay Book Festival
26th & 27th April 2025
Welcome
The people of Colonsay, like many communities large and small, have always shared a love of books and literature, joining in book groups and participating in fringe poetry sessions at the music festival. At a community meeting in June 2011, the idea of a book festival for the island was tentatively mooted, and ten months later, at the end of April 2012, we were welcoming our first six authors and an eager audience. 2025 marks our 12th Book Festival and we are thrilled to welcome such a great line up to Colonsay for what promises to be another great festival.
“To say this is a
BRILLIANT festival
– simply the best –
is not to say too much…”
Liz Lochhead
Colonsay Book Festival
26th & 27th April 2025
Saturday 27th April 2024
| 12pm Light lunch and refreshments available for purchase |
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| Venue Colonsay Village Hall |
| 1.30pm Polly Pullar |
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| Inspirational wildlife author, journalist and photographer, Polly will lead us through some of the animals, people and places that have punctuated her life through readings from her acclaimed memoir The Horizontal Oak. |
| 3.00pm Michael Pedersen |
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| A poetic quest into the realms of friendship, grief, love and cats with prize-winning poet, author and Edinburgh University Writer-in-Residence, Michael Pedersen. Michael will perform work from his newest collection The Cat Prince & Other Poems as well as his prose debut, Boy Friends. |
| 4.30pm Eimear McBride |
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| Multi-award-winning novelist Eimear McBride in conversation about her work and style, as well as reading from her novels. |
| 9.00pm Literary Pub Quiz |
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| Venue The Hotel Bar. Adults £1. |
Sunday 28th April 2024
| 12pm Light lunch and refreshments available for purchase |
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| Venue Colonsay Village Hall |
| 1.30pm Victoria Bennett |
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| Victoria will be reading from her debut memoir, All My Wild Mothers: motherhood, loss and an apothecary garden, and talking about juggling writing, care and chronic illness, and the solace to be found where the wild things grow. |
| 3.00pm David (D.V.) Bishop |
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| Author of the Cesare Aldo historical thrillers set in Renaissance Florence, David will talk about writing real people from 500 years ago alongside his own invented characters to create stories which resonate with modern readers – and will be reading from his latest novel, Ritual of Fire. |
| 4.30pm Graeme Macrae Burnet |
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| Award-winning and Booker-nominated author Graeme Macrae Burnet in conversation about his work which has been described as ‘an experiment in a genre which might be called ‘false’ true crime’. |
| 5.30pm Festival closing |
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| Join us in a farewell glass or two… |
Colonsay Book Festival
26th & 27th April 2025
2024 Authors
| Victoria Bennett |
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| Victoria Bennett is an award-winning disabled poet, author and carer. She founded Wild Women Press in 1999 and curates the Wild Woman Web and Wild Women Writers’ Salons, an inclusive online space focusing on nature, connection and creativity. After living 25 years in Cumbria, she moved to Orkney in 2022 with her husband and son, where she can often be found seeking sea-treasures on the shore with her cat, or growing her new apothecary garden in the village of Hope. Her debut memoir, All My Wild Mothers, was published in 2023. |
| David (D.V.) Bishop |
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| D. V. Bishop writes the award-winning Cesare Aldo historical thrillers set in Renaissance Florence. His first, City of Vengeance, won the NZ Booklovers Award and was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. The second Aldo novel, The Darkest Sin, won the CWA Historical Dagger last year. The third, Ritual of Fire, was longlisted for the 2023 McIlvanney Prize, while the fourth – A Divine Fury – is coming this June from Pan Macmillan. |
| Graeme Macrae Burnet |
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| Graeme Macrae Burnet was born in Kilmarnock and now lives in Glasgow. His latest book Case Study was longlisted for the Booker Prize and included in The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2022. His Bloody Project was shortlisted for the Booker, the LA Times Book of the Year and won the Saltire Prize. Graeme is also the author of the French-set Georges Gorski trilogy. His work has been translated into over twenty languages. |
| Eimear McBride |
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| Eimear McBride grew up in the west of Ireland and trained at Drama Centre London. Her first novel A Girl is a Half-formed Thing took nine years to find a publisher and subsequently received a number of awards, including the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, and the Goldsmiths Prize. Her second novel The Lesser Bohemians won the 2017 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and her third novel Stange Hotel was published to critical acclaim in 2020. In a 2018 Times Literary Supplement poll of 200 critics, academics, and fiction writers, McBride was named one of the ten best British and Irish novelists writing today. |
| Michael Pedersen |
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| Michael Pedersen is a prize-winning Scottish poet and author, and the Writer in Residence at The University of Edinburgh. His prose debut, Boy Friends, was published by Faber & Faber in 2022 to rave reviews and was a Sunday Times Critics Choice. He’s unfurled three collections of poetry, the most recent being The Cat Prince & Other Poems —which won the Books Are My Bag Readers Award for Best Poetry. Pedersen has been shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Poetry, and won a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship and the John Mather’s Trust Rising Star of Literature Award. |
| Polly Pullar |
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| Polly Pullar is a naturalist, writer and photographer specialising in wildlife and countryside matters. She is also a wildlife rehabilitator specialising in red squirrels and birds of prey. She writes for numerous magazines and her books include – Fauna Scotica, Animals & People in Scotland; A Richness of Martens – Wildlife Tales from the Highlands; The Red Squirrel – A Future in the Forest; A Scurry of Squirrels – Nurturing the Wild; A Drop in the Ocean – Lawrence MacEwen & the Island of Muck; and The Horizontal Oak – A Life in Nature. |
“This was a wonderful start to a literary festival that I am sure will become one of the most enjoyable festivals on offer. Everything worked so well and the atmosphere was extraordinarily friendly.”
Alexander McCall Smith
Colonsay Book Festival
26th & 27th April 2025
Getting here
The island of Colonsay, one of the most remote and most beautiful in the Southern Hebrides, is a 2 hours, 20 minutes sail from Oban, on the west coast of Scotland. South of Mull and west of Jura and Islay, the island is about 8 miles long and 2 wide. Famous for its golden beaches, such as Kiloran and Balnahard, it is home to a wealth of bird, animal and plant life, and has a fascinating history and archaeology. Whatever your interest – walking, swimming, fishing, golf, painting or photography – you will be able to enjoy it here.Find travel and accommodation at Visit Colonsay.
Past authors
2024
Victoria Bennett / David (D.V.) Bishop / Graeme Macrae Burnet / Eimear McBride / Michael Pederson / Polly Pullar
2023
Louise Gray / Kathleen Jamie / James Oswald / Sarah Thomas / Louise Welsh
2022
John D Burns / Karen Campbell / Martin Edwards / Alex Gray / Andrew O’Hagan / Robin Robertson
2019
Ann Cleeves / Robin A Crawford / Jen Hadfield / Clare Hunter / Sarah Maine / James & Tom Morton
2018
Malachy Tallack / John Glenday / Bathhurst Bella / Lin Anderson / Janice Galloway / A. L. Kennedy
2017
Sue Lawrence / Alexander McColl Smith / Karen Campbell / Jim Carruth / James Hunter / Christine De Luca
2016
Jim Crumley / Julie Davidson / Denise Mina / James Naughtie / Jacob Polley / Hew Strachan
2015
James Buchan / Mary Contini / William Letford / Sarah Maitland / Aline Templeton
2014
Christopher Brookmyre / Lesley Glaister / Andrew Greig / Jackie Kay / Val McDermid / Patrick Richardson
2013
Maggie Fergusson / Tom Pow / Ian Rankin / Angus Peter Campbell / Candia McWilliam / Sara Sheridan
2012
Sophie Cooke / Margaret Elphinstone / Liz Lochhead / James Robertson / Alexander McColl Smith / Kenneth Steven
Colonsay Book Festival
26th & 27th April 2025
Latest news
2025 INITIAL LINE-UP
Dec 8, 2024The Colonsay Book Festival is delighted to announce the bright lights of the line-up for its 2025 Festival. The initial seam of award-winning writers and authors appearing at the latest edition of the festival on 26 and 27 April 2025 are confirmed as: Janette Ayachi, Ben Macintyre, Coinneach MacLeod, Adam Nicolson, and Caro Ramsay. Further programme details will be released in due course. Early-bird tickets for what promises to be an entertaining weekend go on sale as from today. You can book them here
PROGRAMME CHANGE
March 24, 2024Sadly, ES Thomson is not now able to join us this year (though she is on a promise for another year…).We are pleased to announce however that David (DV) Bishop has agreed to assume the mantle (or should that be dagger?) of award-winning historical thriller writer at our wee festival.You can still buy weekend passes here – or individual tickets for author slots on the door.
2024 INITIAL LINE_UP ANNOUNCED
December 12, 2024The Colonsay Book Festival is delighted to announce the core group of authors for its 2024 Festival. The initial raft of award-winning writers and authors appearing at this “wee gem of a festival on a jewel of an island” on 27 and 28 April next year are confirmed as: Victoria Bennett, Graeme Macrae Burnet, Eimear McBride, Michael Pederson and Elaine (E.S.) Thomson. Further programme details will be released in due course. Early-bird tickets for what promises to be a stimulating, engaging and thought-provoking weekend go on sale as from today. You can book them here.
PROGRAMME CHANGE
April 13, 2023As many of you may already know, in last few days CalMac have drastically changed Colonsay’s ferry timetable until mid May.However we can confirm that the Festival is going ahead. Friday’s ferry from Oban on 28th April is still timetabled, but Sunday 30th’s ferry back to Oban has been cancelled. Disappointingly, CalMac cancelled the Sunday ferry in the full knowledge that Festival is taking place. Foot passengers may be able to return to Oban by rib on the Sunday (please contact us for details). Passengers with cars will need to travel on the Monday service back to Oban.Sadly Bernard Maclaverty has had to withdraw from the Festival because of this disruption, but we are delighted that Zoe Strachan will join the author line up in his stead.
INITIAL LINE-UP ANNOUNCED
January 13, 2023The Colonsay Book Festival is delighted to announce the opening line-up for its 2023 Festival. The initial raft of award-winning writers and authors appearing at this “wee gem of a festival on a jewel of an island” on 29 and 30 April this year are confirmed as: Louise Gray, Kathleen Jamie, Bernard MacLaverty, Sarah Thomas and Louise Welsh. Further programme details will be released in due course, but tickets for what promises to be an engaging and thought-provoking weekend go on sale as from today.For the first time in twelve years, sadly, we’ve had to revise event ticket pricing to reflect the inevitable increases in costs we’ve seen over that time. Individual author sessions will now be £12, with a full weekend pass for all six sessions at £60 – but the ‘early bird’ weekend pass is just £55 if booked before the end of February. You can book it here.
EARLY BIRD EXTENSION
January 31, 2022Early Bird booking for this year’s Colonsay Book Festival has been extended until midnight on 15th February. As Covid rules are likely to remain in force we anticipate requiring contact details from everyone attending the festival. Using Early Bird booking is an easy way of logging your contact details and getting a discount on the ticket price. Book it here.
