Ticket sales for this year's Glasgow book festival are ahead of this time last year, organisers said in the week Aye Write! begins in the city.
The festival starts on March 9, with authors, writers, poets and thinkers appearing at three venues across Glasgow, and ticket sales are described as "robust."
The festival begins with the launch of the 2017 City Read which is Homeground: New Writing Inspired by the 2016 Homeless World Cup.
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Thousands of copies of Homeground, which features work by new and established writers, will be distributed during Aye Write! for free and it is also being made available as an e-book.
Several sessions have sold out, including Ian Rankin who is marking 30 years of his most famous creation, John Rebus, David Hayman’s back to back performances of Chris Dolan’s plays The Pitiless Storm and The Cause of Thunder, Susan Calman being interviewed by Val McDermid and Richard Holloway discussing A Little History of Religion.
This year Aye Write!, for which The Herald is a media partner, is at three venues for the first time: the Mitchell Library, the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and, for the first time, the Centre for Contemporary Arts or CCA.
The festival runs until March 19.
Bob McDevitt, Aye Write! programmer said: "Once again it has been a pleasure to work on the programme for Aye Write! I’m excited now to begin and can’t wait to welcome our authors to Glasgow with their diverse voices on a wide range of subject matter – it should be a blast.”
The events called The Books that Made Me return and features John Byrne, Elaine C. Smith, Sanjeev Kohli and Sally Magnusson, while politicians Vince Cable, Alan Johnson, Catherine Mayer, Chris Mullen and Roy Hattersley discuss their latest books.
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In another event, Scotland’s Makar Jackie Kay is joined by former Makar Liz Lochead and Glasgow’s Makar Jim Carruth.
Also appearing are Jenni Murray, The Reverend Richard Coles, Matthew Parris, Joanna Trollope, Miranda Sawyer, MC Beaton, Val McDermid with her new book, AL Kennedy, Denise Mina and the BBC’s Frank Gardner.
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