Yesterday I went out for the day with my Mum. I had got us tickets for an event with JD Kirk at the ST Duthac Book & Arts Festival in Tain, so we made a day of it. We had a book filled day, as we drove from Caithness to Tain we passed various locations featured in Neil Lancaster’s Book, Dead Man’s Grave. Lybster, Latheron, Dunbeath, Berridale Braes all get a mention. We decided to stop at Dunrobin Castle and had a picnic in the forest area overlooking the castle, It was slightly breezy, but a good sunny day and a great stop. We then went on to Dornoch which was amazing, there is an old Jail that is now a shop, as you walk around you can go into cells which now display products but still lets you see original features of the building. We visited Dornoch bookshop which was filled with great books, we got one called The Guga Hunters by Donald S. Murray. It seems very interesting especially because I will be creating art inspired by Peter May’s ‘The Blackhouse’ which has Guga Hunter themes in, so this will be useful to do a bit of research. After a short stop at Dornoch we went on to Tain. The event was held at Carnegie Lodge Hotel and had around 60 people attending. From the Minute JD Kirk stepped on stage he had everybody laughing. He can definitely hold an audience. At times it was hilarious, everyone really enjoyed themselves as I looked around you could see it on their faces. It was a brilliant event and JD had lots to talk about and everyone had a good chance to ask lots of important questions like who will play Hoon if it’s made into a TV Series?! and do you have plans to stop writing DCI Logan books?! luckily.....he said no to that one. We had a good chat about my project after the event finished and it was great to share some ideas I have. After the event we got on the road back to Caithness, stopping at Helmsdale for some fish and chips and some more book talk, because that’s just what we do 😃, And that was our day!
Ill upload a reel of our day in images soon on Instagram, check it out.
Katie xxx
What question would you have asked JD Kirk if you had the chance? type in the comments :)
