Faclan Book Festival 2014

By John MacLean, 03/11/14:

At the end of October I photographed the four-day Faclan Book Festival at An Lanntair, Stornoway. This event has run annually since 2006, and since 2011 in its current Halloween slot.

The theme this year was “The Past is a Foreign Country” and included the launch of Ian Stephen’s first novel A Book of Death and Fish, an account of Dolina MacLennan’s early years, friendships and influences in her book An Island Girl’s Journey, and Robert MacFarlane in conversation with Finlay MacLeod about his multi-award winning book The Old Ways.

The festival opened with Peter Urpeth playing a live piano accompaniment to Theodore Dreyer’s classic 1928 film “The Passion of Joan of Arc” and closed with a Club Night collaboration between piper/singer/songwriter Iain Morrison and New Delhi based audio-visual club act B.L.O.T.