Blog posts
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Writing is often about real-time reminders of some of the most basic of truths about the craft we know and love. One of those truths is that characters provide the heartbeat of stories and sometimes the best thing is to give them their head and see where they take you. I mention this because I
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The countdown is gathering pace as the team behind Kirkcudbright Book Festival prepares to launch the programme for the 2026 event on New Year’s Day. There will be more than twenty literary-themed events staged between March 5-8 in the Dumfries and Galloway town and details of the eagerly-waited programme will be available on the website
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The book review site Goodreads has announced its most popular books of 2025, based on vote from its members. Among the winners in the seventeenth annual Goodreads Choice awards are Holly Jackson, with Not Quite Dead Yet, which won the Mystery and Thriller category, and Rebecca Yarros with Onyx Storm, topping the Romantasy section. More
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Another reminder of one of my older crime novels that you may have forgotten. Strange Little Girl She is the one who DCI John Blizzard remembers with a stab of guilt. Still missing after a murderous attack on her family, she was an awkward child, difficult to know, difficult to like, everyone said, the one
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The team behind the 2026 Kirkcudbright Book Festival has been announced and the seven-strong committee, led by chair Naomi Johnson, pictured here, brings an impressive range of skills and experience to the task. Supporting them is a team of experienced and enthusiastic volunteers, who will play a key role in delivering the work that needs
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Excited by the information emerging about the 2026 Kirkcudbright Book Festival, whose programme will be announced on January 1? So excited, indeed, that you fancy being involved in the run up to the festival and during the event itself, when it is staged between March 5-8? Well, that’s a happy coincidence because the organisers are
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Preparations for Kirkcudbright Book Festival 2026 are well under way with the new website having gone live ahead of publication of the programme and the recent launch of a new gift voucher scheme. The 2026 festival will take place between March 5-8 in the Dumfries and Galloway town and will build on the success of
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Preparations are well under way for the beginning of the National Year of Reading 2026, which aims to tackle the steep decline in reading for enjoyment among readers of all ages. The campaign is being run by the National Literacy Trust and the Department for Education under the rallying call Go All In, which was
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I have always been a huge fan of libraries – my father was a chief librarian, my first summer job was in my local library and many years later, as a volunteer, I played a role in the successful campaign to save that library, and one other in the same town, which had been under
John Dean - Crime Writer 