Val McDermid, Douglas Stuart, Andrew O’Hagan, Liz Lochhead and Kirsty Wark to feature in exciting lineup for our Winter Words Festival 2025
We are thrilled to reveal the exciting lineup for our twenty first Winter Words Festival, featuring authors, poets, broadcasters and chefs from around Scotland for a celebration of the country’s rich artistic, literary, and cultural life.
Running from 21 to 23 February and curated by our new Artistic Director Alan Cumming, we will host an extraordinary three-day programme of interesting events, entertaining performances, delicious literary lunches with award-winning chefs, and stimulating conversations, throughout the weekend.
The Winter Words Festival 2025 programme of authors includes Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart, celebrated crime writer Val McDermid, Mayflies and Caledonian Road author Andrew O’Hagan and broadcaster and journalist Kirsty Wark, who will all be in conversation about their work with Alan Cumming, whose own career is the subject of a Q&A on the opening morning of the Festival.
The Festival also includes conversations with the former Scots Makar Liz Lochhead, in conversation with Andrew O’Hagan, as well as the current Edinburgh Makar Michael Pedersen; Scottish Indian writer, musician, and academic Arun Sood; Scotland’s Geographer Royal Jo Sharp; author James Jauncey in conversation with First Minister of Scotland John Swinney; and broadcaster and author, the Highland Hutter Peter MacQueen. The Festival also features Fierce Salvage: Contemporary Scottish Publishing, with the award-winning independent publishing house 404 Ink and author Titilayo Farukuoye chaired by Heather Parry.
Along with this impressive programme of writers, Winter Words Festival 2025 includes several special events. For food lovers, there are opportunities to enjoy a literary lunch with cuisine writer, restaurateur and food ambassador Carina Contini, MasterChef 2022 finalist and food writer Sarah Rankin and chef, author, and Café Canna owner Gareth Cole. Writer, broadcaster, and Food Tourism Ambassador Ghillie Bașan will talk about food, whisky and life accompanied by whisky tastings.
For an energetic start to each day, there is the opportunity to join Finlay Wilson, the author of Kilted Yoga, for a morning yoga session, or to join the runner and author Chris Carse Wilson on a 5km run with readings from his book Fray.
For theatre lovers, there is a rehearsed reading and a performance from our Associate Company, the Borders based Firebrand Theatre; A Room of One’s Own, dramatised by the company from the writings of Virginia Woolf and performed by Ellie Zeegen. The rehearsed reading The Race to 1984 by Richard Baron celebrates author George Orwell’s momentous novel, the women in his life, and the battle to complete his masterpiece in a Scottish hospital.
Artistic Director Alan Cumming said:
“It’s a happy surprise that my first bit of programming as Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s new Artistic Director is not plays but another of my passions- writers! And in the same way that I want to celebrate and nurture the best of Scottish talent in the work we produce onstage, I also want to make Winter Words Festival a literary celebration of our hugely rich Scottish heritage. So, I am delighted that we will be welcoming Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart, Mayflies and Caledonian Road author Andrew O’Hagan, the Quine of Crime Val McDermid, former Makar Liz Lochhead, and current Edinburgh Makar Michael Pedersen. We’ll also have a play, a play reading, cooking, yoga and running (yes, running!) events, the Geographer Royal and to top it all, Kirsty Wark!”
The Winter Words Festival 2025 runs from 21- 23 February 2025. Members priority booking is currently on sale until Thursday 28 November and on general sale from 10am on Friday 29 November. For tickets and further information call the Box Office team on 01796 484626 or visit Winter Words Festival 2025