Showing posts with label Craig Robertson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Craig Robertson. Show all posts

Friday, 29 May 2026

Bute Noir 2026

 

Bute Noir Programme


Friday 7th August

4.00pm – 5.00pm 

Heard it Through The Grapevine

Craig Robertson & Alexandra Sokoloff

Interviewed by Louise Fairbairn


5.30pm - 6.30pm 

It’s The Police

G.R. Halliday, William Shaw & G.D. Wright

Chaired by Nicola Meighan


7.00pm - 8.00pm 

Hard Truths

Claire McGowan & Andi Osho

Interviewed by Nicola Meighan


8.30pm – 9.30pm 

Criminal Complexities

Louise Candlish & Liz Nugent

Interviewed by Bryan Burnett


10.00pm – 11.00pm 

The Friday Night Quiz

Or it might be a game show, we haven’t decided yet... But there will be a bunch of crime writers and lots of laughs. More to come!


Saturday 8th August

10.00am – 11.00am 

Crime, Coffee and Croissants

Kick off a crime-filled day with a chat, a cuppa, and a croissant or two in the company of Myra Duffy & Alex Gray


11.30am – 12.30pm 

Pride and Prejudice

D.V. Bishop, Allan Gaw & Louise Welsh

Chaired by Bob McDevitt


1.00pm – 2.00pm 

In Conversation:

Harriet Tyce & Erin Kelly

Two of the UK’s best writers talk books


2.30pm – 3.30pm 

Good Cop, Bad Cop

Remi Kone, Jay Stringer & Luca Veste

Chaired by Heather Fitt


4.00pm – 5.00pm

Scandi Noir

Ørjan Karlsson & Jenny Lund Madsen

Interviewed by Craig Sisterson


5.30pm – 6.30pm 

Missing Without A Trace

Tim Weaver

Interviewed by Ayo Onatade


7.00pm – 8.00pm 

21st Century Christie

Ruth Ware

Interviewed by Bryan Burnett


8.30pm – 10.00pm 

Dead Good Anniversaries

Chris Brookmyre & Doug Johnstone

Celebrating 30 years of Brookmyre and 20 years of Johnstone.

Interviewed by Marisa Haetzman


Sunday 9th August

10.00am – 11.30am Island Bus Tour

10.30am – 11.30am 

Hunting Shadows: Peter Tobin

Jane Hamilton

Interviewed by Craig Robertson


12.00pm – 1.00pm 

Thrillers and Killers

Ilona Bannister, Gavin Bell & Ajay Chowdhury

Chaired by Colin Sinclair


1.30pm – 2.30pm 

First Blood

Debut panel with Frances Crawford, Linda Duncan McLaughlin & May Rinaldi

Chaired by Craig Robertson


3.00pm – 4.00pm 

Gangland Girls

Alex Kane & Anna Smith

Interviewed by Alistair Liddle


4.30pm – 5.30pm 

Soldier, Soldier

C.J. Howell & Alan Parks

Interviewed by Craig Sisterson


Bute Museum

7 Stuart Street, Rothesay,

Isle of Bute, PA20 0EP

Opening Times

Summer: April - Sept (incl)

Monday to Saturday ~ 10.30 – 3.30

Sunday ~ 1.30 – 3.30

Winter: Oct - Nov and Feb - Mar (incl)

Tues, Wed, Thurs & Sat. ~ 1.30 – 3.30

Closed : Dec -Jan

Admission: Adults £5.00 ~ Concessions £4.00

Children (15 & under) – Free if accompanied by a paying adult

Bute Museum

Bute Museum, one of our original venues, will continue to host pop-up author events throughout the year and their volunteers remain an integral part of our Bute Noir team.

More information can be found on the Bute Noir website.

The programme can be found here.


Saturday, 31 January 2026

Denise Mina to be Guest Programmer for Bloody Scotland 2026

 



Denise Mina Revealed to be Guest Programmer for 
Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival 2026



International bestselling crime writer, Denise Mina, is today revealed to be the guest programmer for the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival 2026 which will return to the historic city of Stirling from 18-20 September.

She follows the success of Sir Ian Rankin, who as the first ever guest programmer brought a host of big names to the 2025 festival including Kate Atkinson, Kathy Reichs and the Reverend Richard Coles.

Denise is working alongside festival director, Bob McDevitt, and the programming team - which includes fellow authors, Abir Mukherjee, Lin Anderson, Craig Robertson and Gordon Brown - to bring another world class line-up of authors and special guests to the prestigious Festival.

All will be revealed when the programme launches in June 2026. Bob McDevitt said:

I'm very much looking forward to working with Denise on this year's programme and can't wait to share some of the details of what she's bringing to the party! She's one of my favourite writers, a passionate advocate for Scottish culture, a champion of other writers, and a huge supporter of book festivals.’ 

Denise Mina said:

“Bloody Scotland is the high point of the crime fiction calendar in Scotland and I’m thrilled and honoured to be the second ever guest programmer. Established by crime writers for crime readers, every year feels like coming home.

Denise is one of most charismatic authors writing in Scotland today and a great ambassador for crime writing internationally. She first won the McIlvanney Prize in 2017 with The Long Drop when she led the inaugural torchlit procession from Stirling Castle flanked by Val McDermid and Ian Rankin. She won again in 2019 with Conviction. The second time, slightly by default, when the chosen winner announced her intention to share the prize with her fellow finalists. The other winners looked perplexed; Denise was delighted.

She has a busy year in 2026. The world premiere of The Long Drop is on at The Citizens Theatre in Glasgow this summer and the play of her novella Rizzio (Polygon) is currently in development. Her most recent book, The Good Liar (Vintage), is published in paperback in March and will be Scottish Book of the Month for Waterstones. The Guardian, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the FT selected it as one of their Books of the Year 2025.


Tuesday, 5 October 2021

BLOODY SCOTLAND HYBRID FESTIVAL EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS AND EXTENDS RUN FOR 2022 

 

Bloody Scotland hybrid festival which ran from 17-19 September 2021 and closed its virtual doors on 30 September outperformed targets and has prompted organisers to extend their run for next year. Bloody Scotland 2022 will now start in the historic city of Stirling on Thursday 15 September with the torchlight procession and awards presentation and run through to Sunday 18 September.

Online and in person attendance this year was 16,000 and included visitors from over 30 countries. While many audience members were delighted to return to Stirling in person, the digital offering (paid for this year) was also extremely popular. The festival also extended its reach with approximately 25% of physical and online visitors attending the festival for the first time.

All sponsors remained on board and publishers welcomed the digital programme as a means of advertising their authors beyond those who normally pick up a physical brochure.

As Bloody Scotland starts planning for the 10th Anniversary in 2022, founding chair, Jenny Brown is stepping down. She said

It’s been an honour to chair Bloody Scotland since the idea of a Scottish crime writing festival was just an ambitious twinkle in the eyes of co-founders Lin Anderson and Alex Gray, to the splendid internationally-renowned event we have today. The success of the festival is down to the creativity of its directors and whole team, the dedication and energy of the Board, the commitment from our partners, the enthusiasm of crime readers and, above all, the brilliant support from crime writers themselves. As we look forward to Bloody Scotland’s 10th Anniversary in 2022, it’s great to be handing over the chair to Jamie Crawford, with the festival in such good shape for its second decade'.

Incoming chair, publisher and TV presenter, James Crawford said:

Having been involved with Bloody Scotland as publisher of the Bloody Scotland book, and as judge for two years on the McIlvanney Prize, I am delighted to be joining as Chair. This is a festival that has a very strong identity and a clear and ambitious vision for the future, and I am very much looking forward to helping shape the plans for its 10th anniversary in 2022

Bob McDevitt will remain as Festival Director for 2022 supported by the marketing team Fiona Brownlee, Tim Donald and Jessica McGoff and the rest of the board, Abir Mukherjee, Lin Anderson, Craig Robertson, Gordon Brown, Catriona Reynolds and Muriel Robertson.




Monday, 1 March 2021

Bloody Scotland Book Club

 

Announcing: Bloody Scotland Book Club!

Bloody Scotland have launched a new initiative to keep crime fans entertained! Every month, They will be hosting an exclusive discussion with a variety of journalists, bloggers, podcasters and booksellers. Their guests will hand-pick a selection of crime novels, from exciting new works to old favourites.

We invite you to read along and join our Facebook Group for discussion, then tune in to Facebook Live as we broadcast the panel’s discussion on the last Wednesday of every month.

Head over to their new Facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/bloodyscotlandbookclub/

Craig Robertson will be hosting the first event and he says -

I'm delighted to be hosting our first live event at the end of March and really looking forward to getting stuck into our first three books.

So, this month we're reading Laidlaw by William McIlvanney; Worst Case Scenario by Helen FitzGerald; and Deborah Masson's Out For Blood. It took a lot of discussion to whittle all our thoughts down to three books but we got there, and I think It's a good mix to get us started.

If you want to read one, two or all three, then we can chat in here, spoiler free of course, then have our live discussion at the end of the month.

This is going to be your book club and I'm sure things will change along the way, so let us know what you think.


Sunday, 20 September 2020

Bloody Scotland from Infinity to Beyond


Scottish Festival Goes Global

Sponsored by The Glencairn Glass with match funding from Culture & Business Fund Scotland


Bloody Scotland online concluded today with an audience far greater than we could have ever squeezed into the Albert Halls for a conversation between two of the biggest crime writers on the planet, Val McDermid in Scotland and Lee Child in the US.

The virtual Festival allowed us to break down borders and have authors and audience from across the world. Five Continents of Crime challenged time zones with J P Pomare, an award-winning Maori author nursing a midnight dram on one side of the world and Attica Locke having breakfast on the other. Throughout the weekend the chat forum was buzzing with crime fiction fans from as far afield as Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Austria, France, Spain, Netherlands, Poland and South Africa.

The new format didn’t mean we lost old favourites. The much loved cabaret, Crime at the Coo, normally sells out as soon as tickets go on sale with around 80 packed into the whisky bar but the virtual version, brilliantly chaired by Craig Robertson, brought in ten times that on Saturday night with a combination of archive footage, live performances and pre-recorded packages from various members of the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, some debut authors and a stellar performance from Festival Director, Bob McDevitt.

One of the most exciting new additions was the Never-Ending Panel, a rolling event which went on for four hours with authors and chairs coming in and out every 20 minutes. Chaos, entertaining and fun which pretty much sums up what Bloody Scotland is all about.

The transition to online proves that although Covid-19 may have temporarily floored us it couldn’t take away the spirit of the Festival.

Bob McDevitt, Festival Director, said: 'Bloody Scotland 2020 was quite unlike any other year but rather than being the poor relation of previous years, I think it will stand proud as one of the most enjoyable festivals yet with a truly dazzling array of international talent, a sizeable and engaged (often emotional) audience and just as many memorable moments as any other year. We may not have been able to visit Stirling in person, but we were definitely still able to go to Bloody Scotland!'

Bloody Scotland 2021 will be back 17-19 September 2021 hopefully in Stirling, possibly on-line or a combination of the two. Thanks to everyone who has supported us this weekend.

Most of the panels will be available on YouTube for a month after the Festival.


Tuesday, 23 June 2020

Bloody Scotland Debut Shortlist and McIlvanney Long List announced.


SHORTLIST FOR THE BLOODY SCOTLAND DEBUT SCOTTISH CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 & LONGLIST ANNOUNCED FOR THE McILVANNEY PRIZE 2020

Winners to be presented on Friday 18 September 2020
 
Four years ago the Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award was renamed the McIlvanney Prize in memory of William McIlvanney who is often described as the Godfather of Tartan Noir. Last year Bloody Scotland also introduced a prize for The Bloody Scotland Debut Scottish Crime Book of the Year. This year both are sponsored by the Glencairn Glass. At a time when debut writers have suffered more than anyone else due to bookshop closures the debut prize is more important than ever:

Shortlisted authors are:
Hold Your Tongue by Deborah Masson (Transworld)
The Crown Agent by Stephen O’Rourke (Sandstone),
See Them Run by Marion Todd (Canelo)
Pine by Francine Toon (Doubleday)

One, Francine Toon, is also longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize which includes:
Time for the Dead by Lin Anderson (Macmillan)
Bad Memory by Lisa Gray (Thomas & Mercer)
Whirligig by Andrew James Greig (Fledgling)
A Dark Matter by Doug Johnstone (Orenda)
How the Dead Speak by Val McDermid (Little, Brown)
The Island by Ben McPherson (HarperCollins)
Bury Them Deep by James Oswald (Headline)
The Art of Dying by Ambrose Parry (Canongate) aka Chris Broomyre and Marisa Haetzman
The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing by Mary Paulson-Ellis (Mantle)
The Red, Red Snow by  Caro Ramsay (Severn House)
Watch Him Die by Craig Robertson (Simon & Schuster)
Pine by Francine Toon (Doubleday)

Finalists for the McIlvanney Prize will be revealed at the beginning of September and the winner of both prizes will be revealed on Friday 18 September.

The Bloody Scotland Debut Prize will be judged by a panel including crime writer and founding director of Bloody Scotland Lin Anderson and representatives from Waterstones and the Glencairn Glass.

The McIlvanney Prize will be judged by Stuart Cosgrove, writer and broadcaster, James Crawford, chair of Publishing Scotland and presenter of BBC series Scotland from the Sky and Karen Robinson, Editor of The Times Crime Club.

The McIlvanney award recognises excellence in Scottish crime writing, includes a prize of £1000 and nationwide promotion in Waterstones. The 2020 longlist features established crime writers and debuts, corporates and indies. Previous winners are Manda Scott with A Treachery of Spies in 2019 (who chose to share her prize with all the finalists), Liam McIlvanney with The Quaker in 2018, Denise Mina with The Long Drop in 2017, Chris Brookmyre with Black Widow in 2016, Craig Russell with The Ghosts of Altona in 2015, Peter May with Entry Island in 2014, Malcolm Mackay with How A Gunman Says Goodbye in 2013 and Charles Cumming with A Foreign Country in 2012. The inaugural Bloody Scotland Debut Prize 2019 was won by Claire Askew with All The Hidden Truths.


Friday, 24 April 2020

Quizknobs and Zoomsticks - Friday 1st May 2020



Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival
 18-20 September 2020

 BESTSELLING CRIME WRITERS JOIN FORCES TO RECREATE THE BLOODY SCOTLAND QUIZ FROM THE COMFORT AND SAFETY OF THEIR OWN HOMES

Val McDermid, Chris Brookmyre and Mark Billingham have teamed up with two major crime writing festivals – Bloody Scotland and Bute Noir – to hold a version of their popular quiz live online.

Along with fellow authors Susi Holliday, Luca Veste and Mason Cross they will appear live on YouTube to bring some festival fun to lockdown.

Hosted by quiz master and crime writer Craig Robertson, the teams will play it for laughs as they try to outdo each other in a battle of wits and knowledge, with music rounds, charades and quickfire questions all likely to be on the menu.

Like so much of the country, authors have taken to Zoom in the last month to interact with friends and family and like so many others they’ve been doing quizzes to escape lockdown boredom. Now they’ve decided to go public and go live so that everyone else can join in the fun.

Val McDermid said: 'Quizzes are always a highlight of crime writing festivals, and now that there's no more University Challenge to divide the nation, we're virtually stepping up to the plate. Readers will be able to hurl abuse at our stupidity or marvel at our knowledge. Something for everyone, really.

Chis Brookmyre said: 'Festivals are probably the thing I am missing most about lockdown, as that is
not only the chance to speak to readers, but to catch up with my fellow writers. Given the issues with online synchronisation, I’m just hoping there isn’t a buzzer round.'

Quizknobs and Zoomsticks – the title dreamed up by Mark Billingham – will go live on Friday May 1st at 8.15pm. It will be hosted on the Crime Waves YouTube channel. Author Craig Robertson who is on the board of both Bute Noir and Bloody Scotland explained the thinking behind the quiz show and the idea to put it free on YouTube.

The quiz has proven very popular on Saturday nights at both Bloody Scotland and Bute Noir. Sadly, so many book festivals have had to be cancelled this year so we decided to get together and do the quiz live and free so that people would have something to be entertained by.

For those that haven’t been, it’s not taken seriously at all – think more like Never Mind the Buzzcocks or Mock the Week. The authors are very quick-witted and funny, and occasionally a bit sweary, so we hope we can give people a laugh and take their minds off lockdown for an hour or so.

‘There’s already been a lot of international interest in the event and we know there will be people watching from the US, Canada and the Nordic countries. We’ve been shocked by the interest in it.’

Thursday, 21 November 2019

Books to Look Forward to from Simon & Schuster,

January 2020

When a man is found on a Norfolk beach, drifting in and out of consciousness, with no identification and unable to speak, interest in him is sparked immediately. From the hospital staff who find themselves inexplicably drawn to him; to international medical experts who are baffled by him; to the national press who call him Mr Nobody; everyone wants answers. Who is this man? And what happened to him? Neuropsychiatrist Dr Emma Lewis is asked to assess the patient. This is her field of expertise, this is the chance she's been waiting for and this case could make her name known across the world. But therein lies the danger. Emma left this same small town in Norfolk fourteen years ago and has taken great pains to cover all traces of her past since then.  But now something - or someone - is calling her back. And the more time she spends with her patient, the more alarmed she becomes.  Has she walked into danger?  Mr Nobody is by Catherine Steadman

Deep State is by Chris Hauty.  Hayley Chill isn't your typical West Wing intern. Ex-military and as patriotic as she is principled, she is largely vilified by her peers and lauded by her superiors - it's a quick way of making enemies.  It is Hayley who finds the body of the White House chief of staff, Peter Hall, on his kitchen floor having died from an apparent heart attack. It is also Hayley who notices a single clue which suggests his death was deliberate, targeted. That he was assassinated.  Unsure who to trust, Hayley works alone to uncover a wide-ranging conspiracy that controls the furthest reaches of the government. And Hall is just the beginning - the president is the next target.  Hayley must now do the impossible: stop an assassination, when she has no idea who the enemy is, all while staying hidden, with Peter's final words to her ringing in her ears: Trust no one. Because the Deep State will kill to silence her. And they are. It is entrenched. It is hidden. It is deadly.  Who can you trust?

February 2020

Firewatching is by Russ Thomas.  One wrong move. A body is found bricked into the walls of a house. From the state of the hands, it's clear they were buried alive and had tried to claw their way out before they died. Soon, the victim is linked to a missing person's case and DS Adam Tyler is called. Will ignite. As the sole representative of South Yorkshire's Cold Case Review Unit, Tyler recognises his role for what it is - a means of keeping him out of the way following an 'incident'. When this case falls in his lap, he grabs the opportunity to fix his stagnating career.  The City. When he discovers he has a connection to the case that hopelessly compromises him, he makes the snap decision not to tell his superiors. With such a brutal and sadistic murder to unpick, Tyler must move carefully to find out the truth, without destroying the case or himself.  Meanwhile, someone in the city knows exactly what happened to the body. Someone who is watching Adam closely. Someone with an unhealthy affinity with fire . . .


March 2020

It's sweltering in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Temperance Brennan, still recovering from neurosurgery following an aneurysm, is battling nightmares, migraines, and what she thinks might be hallucinations when she receives a series of mysterious text messages, each containing a new picture of a corpse that is missing its face and hands. Immediately, she's anxious to know who the dead man is, and why the images were sent to her.  An identified corpse soon turns up, only partly answering her questions.  To win answers to the others, including the man's identity, she must go rogue. With help from a number of law enforcement associates including her Montreal beau Andrew Ryan and the always-ready-with-a-smart-quip, ex-homicide investigator Skinny Slidell, and utilizing new cutting-edge forensic methods, Tempe draws closer to the astonishing truth.  But the more she uncovers, the darker and more twisted the picture becomes ...  A Conspiracy of Bones is by Kathy Reichs.

April 2020

Little Disasters is by Sarah Vaughan.  You think you have the perfect family.  But everything can be broken.  Liz and Jess have been friends for ten years, ever since they both started a family. But how well do they really know each other?  When Jess arrives at hospital with a story that doesn't add up, Liz is the doctor on call. Jess has devoted her life to family and home. But she is holding so many secrets. As the truth begins to emerge, Liz is forced to question everything she thought she knew: about Jess, and about herself.   When something feels so personal, how do you stay professional? 

May 2020

Los Angeles, December 4th - exactly three weeks until Christmas day. Angela Wood, a master in the art of pickpocket, has just finished for the day - six hundred and eighty-seven dollars - not bad for less than fifteen minutes work.  As she celebrates her profitable day with a cocktail, one of the patrons in the lounge she's in catches her attention by being rude to an old man. Angela decides to teach him a lesson, and steals the man's expensive-looking leather bag.  Inside is no money ... no laptop computer ... nothing of any value ... at least not to Angela. Just a black, leather-bound book, surprisingly heavy. Curiosity takes over and in the comfort of her apartment, Angela quickly leafs through the pages.  That is when the worst nightmare of her life begins.  This is no ordinary book.  Read it at your own peril.  Written in Blood is by Chris Carter.

Kill the King by Sandrone Dazieri and I Saw Him Die by Andrew Wilson are also due to be published in May 2020.

June 2020

The Other Passenger is by Louise Candlish.  You're feeling pretty smug about your commute to work by riverboat. No more traffic gridlock or getting stuck on the tube in tunnels (you're claustrophobic); now you've got an iconic Thames view, fresh air - a whole lifestyle upgrade. You've made new friends onboard - led by your hedonistic young neighbour, Kit - and just had your first 'water rats' Christmas drinks.  But the first day back after Christmas, Kit isn't on the morning boat. The river landmarks are all the same, but something's off. You disembark to find the police waiting. Kit's wife, Melia, has reported him missing and another passenger witnessed the two of you arguing on the last boat home after your drinks. Police say you had a reason to lash out at him. To kill him.  You protest. You and Kit are friends - ask Melia, she'll vouch for you. And who exactly is this other passenger pointing the finger? What do they know about your private lives? No, whatever coincidences might have occurred that night, you are innocent, totally innocent.  Aren't you?

When a string of horrific terrorist attacks plagues the Western world during the holiday season, the broader markets fall into a tailspin. The attacks are being coordinated by a shadowy former Iraqi commando who has disappeared into Europe's underground. The United States government has an asset who can turn the Iraqi against his masters: James Reece, the most-wanted domestic terrorist alive.  After avenging the deaths of his family and team members, Reece emerges deep in the wilds of Mozambique, protected by the family of his estranged best friend and former SEAL Team member. When a series of events uncovers his whereabouts, the CIA recruits him, using a Presidential pardon for Reece and immunity for the friends who helped him in his mission of vengeance.  Now a reluctant tool of the United States Government, Reece travels the globe, targeting terrorist leaders and unraveling a geopolitical conspiracy that exposes a traitorous CIA officer and uncovers a sinister assassination plot with worldwide repercussions.  True Believer is by Jack Carr.

Watch Him Die is by Craig Robertson.  Evil found its twin despite there being an ocean between Matthew Clelland and Ethan Garland.  One is dead but the dying has only just begun.  The search is on for dead bodies in Los Angeles. The hunt is on for live victims in Glasgow.  Meanwhile, the world is watching as a young man slowly dies in front of their eyes.