A Night of Scottish Witch-Lit with Philip Paris, Mairi Kidd, and Anna Caig
Friday 27th March
Pilrig St. Paul's / LARCH, Leith Walk, Edinburgh EH6 5AH
6.30pm
7pm
Join us this March for a very special panel event where we welcome three authors who specialise in witchy fiction; Philip Paris, Mairi Kidd, and Anna Caig. We will be exploring Scotland’s dark and fascinating history of witch trials through the lens of historical fiction and gothic storytelling - it is not one to miss! From the royal courts of Edinburgh to rural villages and remote Highland parishes, these stories bring to life the women accused of witchcraft and the communities and courts gripped by paranoia and power struggles.
Philip Paris:
PHILIP PARIS is the bestselling author of The Last Witch of Scotland, Waterstones' Scottish Book of the Year 2024 and Blackwell's Edinburgh Book of the Year 2023. His hugely varied work is often inspired by events or issues that have previously had little coverage. Men Cry Alone, a novel about domestic abuse against men, won the Scottish Association of Writers Barbara Hammond trophy in 2019, while his non-fiction book Orkney's Italian Chapel: The True Story of an Icon is recognised as the leading authoritative work on the history of the famous WW2 building.
Mairi Kidd:
Mairi Kidd graduated with a First in Celtic Studies from the University of Edinburgh and has worked in books ever since. Her novel The Specimens - a retelling of the 1828 crimes of Burke and Hare - was Waterstones Scottish Book of the Month and the short stories from her collection We Are All Witches formed the basis for the award-winning 'Heal and Harrow' project. She lives by the sea in Edinburgh with her illustrator husband and their rescue cat.
Anna Caig:
Anna Caig has worked in communications for over 20 years. A former Head of Communications and MA Journalism tutor, she runs a business training creative people in how to do their own marketing. Anna's submission The Spae-Wife was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger prize in 2020 and was the springboard for The Wise Witch of Orkney. She lives in the Hope Valley in Derbyshire with her family. The Wise Witch of Orkney is her first novel.