Packed programme at 10th annual Bloody Scotland festival

SCOTLAND'S international crime writing festival will once again feature an impressive line-up of international and local authors during its tenth annual outing in Stirling this year.

Bloody Scotland has presented hundreds of established and new crime writers to enthusiastic audiences during the past decade. Headliners this year include Sir Ian Rankin, Ann Cleeves, Anthony Horowitz, Deon Koontz, Sara Paretsky, Denise Mina, Jeffrey Archer and John Connolly, among others.

Faculty has been a key supporter of the festival for several years. In 2019, it staged You the Jury, a collaboration with Glasgow-born author Douglas Skelton, as part of the Bloody Scotland festival programme. Based on an actual case, the play saw advocates from the Faculty, court staff, a retired judge, a forensic pathologist and a forensic scientist all playing a part, along with selected members of the audience as the jury.

This year Faculty is sponsoring the ‘Dangerous Times’ event, featuring Anna Mazzola, DV Bishop and Douglas Skelton, who will discuss their respective historical thrillers.

One of the many ways the festival supports up and coming crime writers is through its ‘Crime in the Spotlight’ initiative. Inspired by the concept of support acts at music festivals, this pairs rising stars in crime fiction with established crime writers. This year Faculty member Ross Macfarlane QC has been paired with bestselling authors S J Parris & Laura Shepherd-Robinson. Mr Macfarlane’s articles and short fiction have featured in several national newspapers and his short story Charles Dickens and the Tale of Ebenezer…Scroggie was chosen as the featured work of The Dickens Fellowship in 2017. His first full-length novel, Edward Kane and the Parlour Maid Murderer, was published in November 2020.

Bloody Scotland events will take place in Stirling at the Albert Halls, the Tolbooth and the Golden Lion Hotel.

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