Author Louise Welsh will appear at the Faclan book festival on Lewis. Inset: Peter May in Stornoway.
Fear – from unease and foreboding to outright terror – is the theme of this year’s Faclan: The Hebridean Book Festival, which will open on Hallowe’en, October 31. Faclan is one of the Thagship cultural events at An Lanntair on the Isle of Lewis and its uniquely dramatic location draws audiences and top-level authors from across the UK. This year, a new Faclan Fringe will spread the festival programme across the island. Highlights include Peter May, whose Lewis trilogy has brought Hebridean Noir to an international audience; Sir Christopher Frayling, who will discuss the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; and acclaimed author Louise Welsh, who will reThect on the role of fear in her work. The Faclan Fringe is supported by LEADER funding and is part of a new programme of winter festivals that will continue at An Lanntair until March 2019. Full programme details will be announced – along with the rest of the Faclan programme – at the beginning of September.