A NEW book about one of Scotland's greatest tragedies is to be launched at the Hebridean Book Festival.
The Darkest Dawn, by Malcolm Macdonald, a writer and chair of the Stornoway Historical Society, marks the forthcoming 100th anniversary of the Iolaire tragedy.
Around 200 men from Lewis and Harris lost their lives when His Majesty's Yacht Iolaire, carrying them home from the First World War, was caught in a fierce storm as it approached harbour - many men died only metres from the shore.
The book will be launched at the festival, which runs from October 31 to November 3.
The HMY Iolaire was lost on New Year's Day, 1919, when, in rough seas, the boat - packed with 300 servicemen returning home from war - hit rocks known as the Beasts of Holm, and sank.
Macdonald's new work has been described as the "definitive" new book on the tragedy, and it is being published by Acair Books.
An Lanntair, the arts centre in Stornoway, is staging a series of events to mark the centenary.
READ MORE: Glass artist to mark Stornoway naval tragedy
Earlier this year, Alasdair Allan, the Western Isles MSP, called for the site of the HMY Iolaire to be listed as a protected place under the Military Remains Act.
He said: "There was barely a family on the island that didn't lose a relative in the disaster and even now it is still very raw in people's minds."
Norman MacDonald, convener of the Western Isles Council, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, said earlier this year that the tragedy had "subdued the islands of Lewis and Harris for two generations and it seems to be only now in the third generation that we are witnessing the start of the healing process."
The book festival is to take place on the Isle of Lewis and will also feature Sir Christopher Frayling, Peter May, Kathryn Mannix, Hollie McNish and Louise Welsh.
READ MORE: Art in the Western Isles
Peter May and Malcolm Mackay will be discussing 'Hebridean Noir', and Frayling, the educationalist and writer, will be talking about the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
The theme of the festival is 'Fear' and will include of the vampire movie Nosferatu with a live piano score by
Peter Urpeth.
This year’s programme will also include a new Faclan Fringe, and a programme of events for schools, Faclan Òga, running throughout the festival.
Roddy Murray, An Lanntair’s Head of Visual Arts and Literature, Roddy Murray, said: "Faclan each year is not so much programmed as orchestrated.
"The intention is to juxtapose, cluster and sequence speakers and events to create an experience that exceeds its component parts.
"It is no accident that writers like Philip Hoare have called it ‘extraordinary’ and ‘a gift’."
Faclan is now in its 8th year ans has previously had writers such as Madeleine Bunting, Richard Dawkins, Jackie Kay, Helen Macdonald and Robert Macfarlane as guests.
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