Words of War

Word up! We at Small City love everything to do with words! Bring us the spoken, written, scribbled or scrambled and we are happy, well-fed people.

Which is why we’re so looking forward to the Black Watch Castle and Museum’s first ever book festival ‘Words of War’ next weekend.

Following on the success of their lecture series, the two day festival featuring fact and fiction books, war and military stories, will have a little something for everyone – with events for children and adults alike.

Giving book-lovers a chance to meet and listen to a fascinating array of authors and experts from across the country – including those from our very own Perthshire doorstep – we’ve selected a few highlights from the lengthy list that we won’t be wanting to miss…

Parachuting pigeons helping win the First World War? Kids will be all over Gill Arbuthnott’s A Secret Diary of the First World War on Saturday, September 21 at 2pm which weaves facts like these into the story of 14 year old Scottish boy James Marchbank who served in the Royal Scots during the Great War. Illustrated by Darren Gates, the book places the reader in James’s boots as he marches off to war.

Gill will explore the mix of real experiences and facts, offering insights and explanations into this moment in Scottish history for readers aged 6 to 12.

After the session, children will get to visit the WW1 gallery and step back in time to enter the replica WW1 trench and meet old soldier Private McNiven to learn about life on the front line.

Paul Moorcroft’s  War Journalism event on Sunday, September 22 at 1.30pm will draw on his latest books on war reporting, Deadlines on the Front Line and Dying for the Truth: A History of Frontline Combat Reporting to reveal some of the amusing and hair-raising moments he’s experienced in danger zones.

With a fascinating and varied career and over 30 published books, Paul has many stories  to tell, not least from his work in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Sudan alongside Jihadists in frontline combat.

Finally, Scottish World War II Heroine on Sunday, September 22 at 3pm tells the fascinating story of Jane Haining - a ‘British Hero of the Holocaust’ who worked tirelessly to protect Jewish schoolchildren in Hungary during World War two.

Author Mary Miller has produced a powerful, tender account of this Scottish heroine in her book ‘A Life of Love and Courage’ which details Jane’s devotion to pupils in her care and her death in Auschwitz.

Mary will be in conversation with author Ajay Close whose novel A Petrol Scented Spring which is based on a group of Scottish suffragettes imprisoned in Perth.

These are just a few of the events we have earmarked. Check out all the events that will be during Words of War Event at The Black Watch Castle & Museum.