THE organisers of the Cove and Kilcreggan Book Festival have hailed the success of the sixth annual celebration of reading.

Bookworms from across Scotland descended on Cove Burgh Hall on Saturday and Sunday for a packed weekend of talks featuring some of the leading lights of literature from all over the UK.

From crime fiction with Dame Denise Mina and Ambrose Parry to war journalism with David Pratt and music with Stuart Cosgrove, and much else in between, there was something for fans of all genres to enjoy.

And the queues for signed books after each session testified to the appetite of the audiences for new and previous works by all those on the bill.

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The audience’s hunger for books was matched only by their hunger for the delicious home baking – provided, like everything else at the event, by a small army of enthusiastic volunteers, and which was eagerly snapped up in between each session.

The event, held in partnership with Book Week Scotland, has evolved steadily from humble origins in 2014, and from small scale roots has evolved steadily to become a firm favourite in Scotland’s ever-growing book festival calendar.

It is now officially twinned with the long-established annual festival in Ullapool, whose organisers have provided plenty of helpful hints and words of encouragement for their Peninsula counterpart.

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A spokesperson for the festival told the Advertiser: “We were thrilled with the audience numbers this year; every session was packed, with our final event, with Sir Tom Devine, sold out.

“Dozens of volunteers pulled it altogether and their hard work paid off.

“It seems that our home baking is now the stuff of legend!”

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