After the exciting whirlwind that was @islaybookfest.bsky.social ‘25, I’m now busy preparing for the four events I’ll be chairing at Wigtown Book Fest! Very excited as it will be my first time going to Scotland’s National booktown. Thanks so much @islaro.bsky.social for inviting me to take part!

The first events of Islay Book Festival 2025 took place yesterday in the historic Round Church in Bowmore. Talks with Peter Mackay and Hamza Yassin were thoroughly enjoyed by all. 📚

✏️📚 Islay Book Festival School Programme 📚✏️ Thank you to the guest authors, schools, teachers, and students themselves for some wonderful sessions over the past couple of days!

Don’t worry if you are unable to attend Islay Book Festival this weekend… there is another exclusive Islay book event taking place next week 📚 ✨ Islay Scenes: Portrait of an Island by Diana Leitch Taking place on Friday 5th September 2025 @ 7pm, Islay House, Bridgend

Do come and join us 🥳

✨ Author Spotlight - Manda Scott✨ Scottish-born author Manda Scott will talk about her eclectic career and her new genre-bending political thriller Any Human Power. Read more and tickets here: www.islaybookfestival.co.uk

✨ Author Spotlight - Peter MacKay ✨ Scotland's first native Gaelic speaking Makar, Padraig MacAoidh (Peter MacKay), will open the book festival in conversation with Islay's own Iseabail Mactaggart. www.islaybookfestival.co.uk

✨ Author Spotlight - Len Pennie ✨ Len writes predominantly in the Scots language, she will share a few of her passionate, funny poems as she discusses poetry, the importance of promoting minority languages, and the destigmatisation of mental illness. www.islaybookfestival.co.uk

Tout vient à point à qui sait attendre. Mes lectures d’été sont enfin arrivées 📚

Today’s picture of Airmid illustrates pretty well the energy levels to be found in this household at the moment 😂 #moodoftheday

Plus d’un million de signatures contre la loi Duplomb : le gouvernement sous pression reporterre.net/Plus-d-un-mi...

Exciting news 🙌 Make sure to book your tickets before events you’d love to attend are sold out!

Très belle rencontre hier avec Sarah Louise Butler pour parler du magnifique Toutes les créatures dans ma ville natale de Saint-Étienne 💚 Un grand merci à la Librairie de Paris pour l’accueil chaleureux !

Top-notch illustrator @sarahmcintyre.bsky.social is coming back to Islay! ✨ Come join us for an Adventuremice party on Saturday 7 June at 2.30pm 🐭 Just email or phone us to book your free tickets 🎟️

Full lineup reveal 🎉 📚 📚

We are thrilled to announce another author for our 2025 lineup 🙌🏻 📖 Rory Cellan-Jones 📖 @rorycj.bsky.social www.islaybookfestival.co.uk

Hello from a beautifully sunny Islay this evening… We are delighted to bring you our second author announcement, ⭐️ PETER MACKAY ⭐️ More to come soon! www.islaybookfestival.co.uk

Sunday walk to Port an Eas ☀️🌊💙 #theoa #islay

This is fab! The problem with translating jokes into other languages, via the magic of Terry Pratchett

To the lighthouse, or almost #carraigfhada #islay

Spring has sprung 🌼 #swanspool #theard #portellen #islay

📚 BOOK FESTIVAL 2025 FIRST AUTHOR ANNOUNCEMENT 📚 We are thrilled to bring you the first author announcement for the IBF 2025 lineup… ⭐️LEN PENNIE⭐️ Stay tuned for further updates 👀 @lenniesaurus.bsky.social #islaybookfestival #islaybookfestival2025 www.islaybookfestival.co.uk

Exciting first day at #LBF2025, catching up with lots of lovely people (some I hadn’t seen in person since my bookselling days in France!). Award for best title so far goes to @saraband-books.bsky.social — looking forward to reading that one! Now off to the @babooksellers.bsky.social’s party🍸

London Book Fair bound!

Swans Pool #portellen #isleofislay

A beautifully written book about what it feels like to live with OCD. Hugely recommended, particularly if you know people with this condition, as it will give you a very good idea of just how tremendously brave they are forced to be on a daily basis. Scorpions by Tuppence Middleton, out on Feb 27th

Les premiers retours sur Toutes les créatures de Sarah Louise Butler sont dithyrambiques ! Au cas où vous chercheriez un cadeau de Saint Valentin de dernière minute… ❄️🌲🐾 Éditions Phébus www.babelio.com/livres/Butle...!

En librairie aujourd’hui ! #publicationday #BookSky 📚 💙

Seen a few folks astonished by my lack of support for ChatGPT and similar. Because AI, right? Yeah, no. What we have right now is glorified autocorrect. Glorified autocorrect that takes the energy of an entire city to do what it does, plus half of Lake Erie to cool down while it's doing it.

Omar El Akkad is absolutely right that the West’s support of genocide in Gaza fundamentally undermines its claim to moral superiority, for many of its own citizens as well as people around the world. www.channel4.com/news/omar-el...

When the Times Darken When the times darken will there be singing even then? There will be singing even then. Of how the times darken. Bertolt Brecht, translated by Edwin Morgan

Still my favourite place on earth #lossitbay #islay

Great article by @kotrynagaranasvili.bsky.social about the various things literary translators actually do www.thebookseller.com/comment/tran...

Carraig Fhada and the Singing Sands #Islay

— Margaret Atwood

Toutes les créatures, magnifique premier roman canadien de Sarah Louise Butler, dans toutes les bonnes librairies le 13 février 🇨🇦

And it’s only the beginning 😳 #portellen #islay #stormeowyn

We are *very* excited to welcome our brilliant new festival co-ordinator Dawn Geddes! 📚 Dawn has a real passion for books and has dedicated her career to championing Scotland’s thriving literary scene through her journalism, PR and digital communications work.

The sunrise looking like a painting this morning #islay

What a day! 😍 #islay #portellen #swanspool

Discovering Kim Moore’s poetry and just, wow! 💙📚 #BookSky

Quick walk in snow showers on the Big Strand #islay

That’s what you call a good start to the new year 💙 #islay #northernlights

This 👇 I cannot wait to read AL Kennedy’s new book, coming out in January with the excellent @saraband-books.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/books/commen...

@theceltichouse.bsky.social in The Sunday Post 📚🎄 Photo pinched from our colleagues over at The Wedale Bookshop, also featured, along with The Edinburgh Bookshop (typically, there were no Sunday papers for us because of this weekend’s storm) #choosebookshops 💙📚 #BookSky

Many thanks to The Booksellers Association for featuring my story in their winter issue of Bookselling Essentials! ❄️ 📚 #booksellerstories #choosebookshops @booksaremybag.bsky.social

On Thursday the 2024 issue of @theneweuropean.bsky.social comes out and they have given me the platform to explain why Gisèle Pelicot is my hero and how she radically changed the conversation about shame and sexual assault It is my proudest writing. app.theneweuropean.co.uk/2024/10/26/v...

Quote of the day: ‘—but dearer are those who reject us as unworthy, for they add another life: they build a heaven before us, whereof we had not dreamed, and thereby supply to us new powers out of the recesses of the spirit, and urge us to new and unattempted performances.’ —Ralph Waldo Emerson

I do love our new Makar’s style: “We’ll just have to see how the next couple of weeks and months go,” he says. “And – in the words of RuPaul – try not to fuck it up.” 😆🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 www.theguardian.com/books/2024/d...

We've just arrived on Bluesky, just in time to show you our wonderful selection for all your Christmas gift ideas! Please share 🤗 #shopindependent #shoplocal #choosebookshops #islay #highlandsandislands #scotland www.theceltichouse.co.uk