#Review of Returning Characters – Bloody Scotland Panel with Vaseem Khan, JackAnderson and Dr. Lucy Andrew @vaseemkhanwriter @jacktedanderson @drlucyandrew #BloodyScotland

Returning Characters

Returning Character in books in this panel were Q from James Bond, Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes and Emma from Jane Austen. It probably isn’t easy to bring other people’s characters back, but Vaseem Khan, Jack Anderson and Lucy Andrew have brought back very iconic characters. The most fascinating were in this order.

Q because Vaseem Khan, after writing many successful books, was commissioned by the Fleming Ian Fleming Publications – The Ian Fleming Estate/Trust. The first book in this series is Quantum of Menace. He also continues to write award-winning Malabar House series.

Q has been kicked out of MI6 and has to adapt. It doesn’t always go well.
His childhood friend, Peter Napier dies in mysterious circumstances, his ground-breaking work may have attracted sinister forces…

Q doesn’t turn up much in the books, but Vaseem Khan talked about keeping the dry humour that Ian Fleming had. He describes the series being between Mick Herron (Slow Horses) and Richard Osman (The Thursday Murder Club and We Solve Murders) in style.

It was revealed that Ian Fleming was kicked out of Eton and his mother wanted him to join something. It turns out he joined the Navy, which was the making of him.

Interestingly, the characters he created, Scaramanga and Goldfinger were darkly and understandably, his revenge on Eton and an architect.

Mysteriously, Vaseem Khan says to look out for “Easter eggs” in the books…
The latest is The Man With The Golden Compass

Jack Anderson loves a murder mystery, especially those with a dinner party. He’s decided the end Reichenbach Falls was too neat, so explores the what ifs. What if Moriarty pulled himself out, destitute.

He talked of one of the characters, Clara being more of her time and being all about high society in both dress and attitudes, but Moriarty being ahead of it in a way through his liberalism, but not to forget, he is a super criminal.

Lots of people want to write Sherlock Holmes pastiches and he was up against time, 3 months to get a first draft done. He has now successfully published a few books. He’s known for The Grief Doctor, but has now got a couple in the Sherlock Holmes world. The latest is The Return Of Moriarty, where there is a twist in what’s happened to Sherlock Holmes…

Lucy Andrew is passionate about Jane Austen and Harriet Smith, in-particular. She’s turned her role into a murder mystery as Ms Churchill drops dead…

After studying her for GCSE, she thought there needed to be more Austen and set about doing fan-fiction in a way. She looked back through the books, adds some references from books other than Emma and created a detective story. She talked about how she reckoned this might be the genre, Jane Austen would be writing in if she were alive today. She reckons there’s enough in the books she wrote that lends itself to this genre and witht

She appeared to be partly inspired by the film, Clueless. So, her debut emerged into the world as, Harriet Smith Investigates A Very Vexing Murder.

#Review of Dark Caledonia with authors Morgan Cry (Gordon Brown), Kate Foster and Louise Heren @morgancryauthor @katefosterauthor @ #LouiseHeren @panmacmillan @severnhouseimprint

Dark Caledonia
A Bloody Scotland Panel

Exploring Crimes

This was a thought-provoking, gripping talk explored Scotland’s dark past and a bit of its dark present. The authors questioned whether it is crime that changes society or is it the nature of crime of society that changes. Women aren’t being accused of being witches anymore, but crimes are still happening, just differently.
It was also looked at whether we are getting kinder in society and less violent.
It’s all food for thought!
The latest burning of witches in Scotland was 1727, so quite late and there’s still lots of crime. There are parallels from the past to present day for that.

The authors books, in different ways, between fictional and true crimes explores the misogyny and injustice in Scotland. The authors cleverly talked about historical crimes, yet linking in-part to something more relatable in present times, such as people with money and power getting away with a crime, whereas others would or may not.

The research that goes into the books is astonishing and fascinating. There were insights into looking through letters, recipes and finding the human, personal touches to life, hundreds of years ago. Scotland kept good records. You can find them at Scotland’s People Centre in Edinburgh.

There was a consensus that evolution doesn’t happen quickly, but there was enough to see that things do move on in 1660, women couldn’t speak in court and at least have that right nowadays.

There are many interesting parts the authors talked about in-light of the darker parts of life, including incest and rape. There are interesting differences between Scotland and England how they look at this and it came to light, Scotland was not coming out on top in this.

What’s the difference between true crime and real crime?

True crime can embellish, such as what you find in newspapers and podcasts. You may find embellishment in tone.
Real crime looks at the nitty-gritty, delving even into the minute details of the weather, which has its purposes.
In both, you need to be careful not to overstep the line as there are real people who may still be alive. There was discussion about anonymising cases and wisely checking details with lawyers.

The Books

Louise Heren’s Scottish History in 15 Violent Crimes explores real life crimes. Taking fifteen real-life criminal cases prosecuted at the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland between 1700 and 2000, this book explores developments in social attitudes and legal responses to violence.

Kate Foster was absolutely fascinating about her book, The Repentants. Set in St Monans, Fife, Scotland 1790. Two women are forced to publicly repent in church, one for adultery the other for breaching the sabbath. Florrie and Eliza, form a quick and unusual bond over their mutual humiliation. Florrie’s husband decides she must accompany him on a trade venture to Iceland and she wants Eliza with her.

She imparted fascinating information about Iceland about how someone in Scotland wanted Iceland. It evidently didn’t happen. It made me think about what is happening now, how now America wants Iceland and how neither idea would be good.

Morgan Cry as Gordon Brown, is currently writing as, is a founding director of Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s International Crime Writing Festival.
He introduced his new book, Dark Accords, a historical book, so rather different from his Blake Glover books, which he will return to.

What’s interesting is that his book is a Bloody Mackenzie Mystery. It turns out ‘Bloody Mackenzie’ was a real person who defended ‘witches in trial’. I took a further look into his life and it is fascinating what you can find out. It’s worth taking a look.

#Review of Nourish by Laura Baggaley An eco-food dystopian YA book #Nourish @zooloosbooktours #blogtour

Nourish
By Laura Baggaley

review by Louise Cannon – Bookmarks and Stages

A bit late due to family circumstance and other circumstances beyond my control, I have joined the Zooloos book tours, who gave me an e-copy of Nourish, a dystopian eco book for YA readers in-exchange of a review.

longlisted for the Yeovil Literary Prize and the author won Best Book for Teenagers in the 2025 Wishing Shelf Book Awards.

When we think of nourish, we think of food or wellbeing. Nourish, is the follow-up to Dirt for YA readers. What seems dystopian with just hooking yourself up to what the powers at be says is nutrition, although seems rather synthetic, could actually become part of a generation’s future and it is far removed from perfect and perfect can be.

Cal lives in a post-food world. The population have something mysterious called “Nutritional Provision.” It isn’t all that it seems. There’s quite a darkness in this industry. The fact it is not actual food as we know it as such, should make teens sit up and think and know the value of food and how important it is, so it doesn’t become a world of something just called “Nutritional Provision”.

It’s an eco-book in that it’s about air-miles, where food comes from, real food, packaging. All important topics to take notice of and shown that there’s not one nor easy solution to possible food shortages, but it felt a bit negative at times towards food in-parts. The book could have teens thinking about food and its important future in a good light or in a bad light, which could have the devastating consequences of a no food future and for no choice. It walks on this fine line. Baggaley just manages to stop short of the book being preachy in the narrative in its modernity and world creating around the characters narrative, which is well-written.

Cal lives in a post-food world. People don’t eat. They have Nutritional Provision. He then comes across something rare, something that is properly edible and realises that what he’s been told has been a lie, so sets off to investigate with Andi who is at the same boarding school to find the truth about what food was, that it was real. This narrative creates a bit of a thriller feel, which becomes quite involving.

Nourish is far from a cosy read, but it is thought-provoking and like most dystopian books, it sees a bit into what the future could hold, which isn’t exactly pretty, but shows it doesn’t have to be like that.

Blurb

When Cal is enrolled in a fancy boarding school after the death of his father, he discovers a rare edible substance that forces him to question everything he’s been told about nourishment.

Determined to discover more, he joins forces with classmate Andi, heiress to the Nutritional Provision Corporation. But as their investigations lead to trouble and a friend’s life is in danger, will they dare risk everything to expose the truth?

Nourish was longlisted for the Yeovil Literary Prize and the author won Best Book for Teenagers in the 2025 Wishing Shelf Book Awards.

#Review of The Dark Wine Sea by Victoria Hislop @vichislop @headlinebooks #TheDarkWineSea #VictoriaHislop #review by Lou – Bookmarks and Stages

The Dark Wine Sea
By Victoria Hislop

review by Louise Cannon – Bookmarks and Stages

Victoria Hislop is an excellent storyteller of historic events and finding hidden or forgotten areas or those not perhaps at the forefront of people’s minds. She fills in those gaps with the meticulous research she does and then compels you to read it by mixing in fictional writing that’s intriguing, relatable and transporting in the places she travels to and the characters you meet. If you enjoyed The Island and The Figurine, this is one I recommend to put on your, possibly already burgeoning to-be-read piles.

The year is 1946 and there’s a power vacuum between the right and the left factions. You feel the tension in this period directly after the second world war. The world war may have finished, but it is shown that Greece is still at unrest with fighting. What’s painted is a frightful picture of life, not as we know it nor imagine it to be, shown through Fotina, who has had her second child. She later lands in prison, meanwhile the fate of children is not as you would think when the government’s soldiers arrive and families are separated.

It’s an all encompassing, absorbing book that makes you truly feel what’s happening, emotionally as well as sensory. The characters are the type you can invest in and you want Markella and Fontina to find their children safe and well. What comes next is a need to read more about what happens to the characters and travel further into this period of history. It ensures its place as an intriguing page-turner.

Blurb

Beloved, bestselling author Victoria Hislop explores the chaos unleashed on Greek families during the post-war era in this page-turning new novel that will delight fans who cherish The Island and The Figurine.

Greece, 1946. In the power vacuum remaining after the Second World War, a brutal civil war erupts between rival left- and right-wing factions. The conflict spirals as the country pays a bitter price in human lives and fighting soon erupts in the mountains, turning villages into battlefields and pulling ordinary women and children into the fray.

When the government soldiers come to Kalopetra, Fotini is nursing her newborn second child. She urges her daughter, Iliana, to hide with the older children as she and the other women are herded into trucks. Weeks later, soldiers return for the children . . . but they are not to be reunited with their mothers, a wholly different fate awaits them.

Fotini finds herself transported to a prison on the island of Chios, where she befriends Markella, whose little son, Nikos, is wise beyond his years. After months of imprisonment, when Fotini and Markella find themselves separated from one another – and from Nikos – Fotini vows to hunt not only for her own child but for Markella’s too.

The Wine-Dark Sea tells of families flung apart across continents and of a strong, determined mother who resolves not to let war destroy hers.

Victoria Hislop is at the height of her storytelling powers in this compelling and thought-provoking new novel, which offers insight into a little-known chapter of Greek history.

Review of I’ll Be Seeing You By Martin Sherman Directed By Alan Cumming and Ben Occhipinti starring Simon Russell Beal and Fra Fe @pitlochryft #IllBeSeeingYou #SimonRussellBeal #FraFe #AlanCumming

I’ll Be Seeing You
Written by Martin Sherman
Directed by Alan Cumming and Ben Occhipinti

Starring Simon Russell Beal and Fra Fe as main characters

Review by Louise Cannon – Bookmarks and Stages

Poignancy and flamboyancy as well as the most surprising of endings are the order of the day in this play focusing on Liberace.

The set is simple on the face of it. It’s a writer’s room and one who wants to dig into Liberace’s life, especially the trial. The set springs to life any time Liberace, played terrifically by Simon Russell Beal appears in all his sparkly, flamboyant glory.

The fun and romance of songs and music, the past and the present are well-balanced as they weave in and out of each other, like a conflicted dance of words and views. It brings to light something deeply poignant amongst the rhinestones and frivolity that comes from the sparkle, him flying in and a car…

Simon Russell Beale brings a lot of high energy to Liberace and really seems to let loose to showcase his big personality. He gives you a big sense of how Liberace was on-stage, but also what simmers under his skin in his personal life.

Fra Fee, who plays writer, who is commissioned, in this instance, by Pitlochry Theatre, Scotland, to write about Liberace gives a strong performance, but in a more understated way.

The project should be exciting for a writer, except he hates anything to do with Liberace and is obsessed by a trial that occurred, involving his sexuality and a lie he told. The dismay and anger comes across exceptionally well about the fact Liberace denies and side-steps the issue. You can feel the tension bubble away from the writer, the frustration from Liberace, even when he goes off to play music, instead of confronting the issue fully to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Alan Cumming and Ben Occhipinti have done an excellent job in the directorial role to get visually get the story across.

The play shows the juxtapositions of today’s sensibilities and how gay people were viewed and faced persecution in the past. What’s fascinating is there’s a bit of a blame game going on, how today’s writer almost blames people like Liberace who denied their sexuality and how he, as a gay writer today is also finding this hard.

So, for all the laughs and fun, it’s a surprisingly deep and meaningful play that is clever in its construct to get its audiences thinking and talking as well as leaving the auditorium with a feeling of being entertained.

How it ends is brings a giant switch, but one that makes sense that brings the most unpredictable of twists, especially with who comes on stage and what is said… Let’s just say, there’s not hint, so it is unexpected and the part is played poignantly and well.

For more info and tickets, click this link to the theatre: Book Tickets here

#Review of Happy Days by Samuel Beckett starring Siobhan Redmond and Forbes Masson Pitlochry Festival Theatre until 10th Oct 2026 @pitlochryft #HappyDays #SiobhanRedmond @forbesmasson #RoxanaSilbert

Happy Days
By Samuel Beckett
Directed by Directed by Roxana Silbert
Starring Siobhan Redmond and Forbes Masson

review by Louise Cannon – Bookmarks and Stages

A sand dune sits impressively on the stage in Pitlochry Festival Theatre. In the middle of the sand up to her waist is Siobhan Redmond, who wakens to the sound of a bell ringing. The sound eerily signals the beginning and end of the day. Around her are just the normal things you need like a bag, a comb and trying to work out what it says on her toothbrush. The set truly is where the ordinary meets the extraordinary in this two-hander play.

Winnie, a complex, optimistic character played by Siobhan Redmond, who is buried in sand, first up to her waist and then up to her neck, it’s quite representative of what she’s been through and going through. It’s an existential play that is thought-provoking and darkly humorous.

Siobhan Redmond delivers monologues in the most poetic, lyrical manner with perfect timing. She oozes with exceptional talent that is captivating. Her stage presence and flair for telling Winnie’s story is exquisitely powerful and compelling. She also makes you care about Winnie and her predicament. The changes from humour to poignancy are shown well throughout and in character, shows strength of courage and resilience. There’s a fierce determination and optimism in challenging times, which comes strongly across.
What the audience is ultimately treated to is a masterpiece in acting.

Winnie talks about pain and yet has optimism, even to the extent of reckoning it’s a happy day when her husband, Willie, played by Forbes who you rarely see, grunts here and there or says the occasional word.

Forbes Masson brings understanding and life to Willie, even through the grunts and the occasional words. Whether you see much of him or not, he makes his personality known. There are times when he has his back turned to the audience or you don’t see him at all and yet, still, Forbes Masson manages to have a strong stage presence, playing the part with perfect timing!

Happy Days is a play you don’t want to miss!

Check it out here: Ticket Info

Venue: Studio

Date: 18 Sept – 10 Oct 2026

Running time: 1 hour 40 mins (approx.)

Accessible Performances:

Captioned: Wed 30 Sep 8pm & Thu 8 Oct 2:30pm

Audio Described: Thu 1 Oct 2:30pm & Wed 7 Oct 8pm

BSL Interpreted: Fri 9 Oct 2:30pm

Relaxed & Dementia Friendly: Sun 4 Oct 2:30pm

Ticket Info or call box office 01796 484626