A three-day book festival will be held on Skye this week to celebrate local literature from the 18th century to the present day.
Skye Book Festival 2014 at the Aros Centre in Portree will commemorate significant local poets, bards and writers as well as supporting emerging authors with a varied programme of events from Thursday to Saturday.
Rosie Harrison, of the Aros Centre, said: “The festival celebrates books, the people that create them and the places that make, and are made by, people.
“This year there will be two book launches from local authors who echo this vision and several events celebrating local writers from the past, bringing their words to life through song, music and the landscapes of Eilean a’Cheo.”
The local books being launched at the festival are Norman Macdonald and Cailean Maclean’s Great Book of Skye and Scenery of Dreams by Morag Henriksen.
Ms Harrison said The Great Book of Skye was the most comprehensive study of Skye people ever attempted and, compiled almost entirely through research from original sources, She added that it was “refreshingly authentic”.
And she described Scenery of Dreams as “a delightful and poignant collection of short stories and illustrations”, which she said also illuminated life in the Highlands and islands.
Other events will include a guided tour to commemorate Mairi Mhor – a nurse from Skeabost and a prolific and politically significant song writer, writing songs of exile, praise, hope and protest.
The festival will also remember France Tolmie, of Uiginish, who saved hundreds of well-loved songs from fading into obscurity.
And it will close with a celebration of Rob Donn in conjunction with the Blas Festival.
Rob Donn was a drover, poacher and a bard in Sutherland during the 18th century. Though he was unable to read or write, he is thought by experts to be unparalleled in his time.