by Siobhann Dunn

UNIVERSITY West of Scotland are taking part in Book Week Scotland by hosting two events welcoming successful Scottish authors.

The talks will be held Thursday November 30 and Friday December 1 at their Ayr campus and will have guest speakers Gemma Cairney, Alan Riach and Louise Welsh promoting their books to students to celebrate the week of reading.

Gemma Cairney’s book, OPEN A TOOL KIT FOR HOW MESSED UP LIFE CAN BE, consists of short stories under headings of- your heart, your mind, your body and soul and your word and your future. She describes it as ‘your guide in times of need’.

We spoke to Ayr campus Librarian, Janet wilson and asked who this would appeal to, she said; “Gemma’s book will appeal to college leavers, first year students, that sort of age group.”

Author, Alan Riach, will be delivering talks on Friday about his book- The Winter book.

He told UWS what they would expect to hear from him: “I can talk happily about my own experience, starting in Scotland, then my own early reading as a boy, how books and reading liberated me very early on, but more importantly kept and keeps on keeping the world open to me. Including, most recently, India.”

Talking about other writers, he continues; “I could talk a little too about a couple of great writers whose stories apply in exactly this way: the nourishment writing brings: Hugh MacDiarmid, growing up in the town library in Langholm, reading all its contents as a boy, and Jessie Kesson, a working class girl from a very impoverished background, underprivileged in just about every way imaginable, and how reading, and then writing her impeccable, wonderful novels and stories, opened the world up to her – and to her readers.”

Paisley, Dunfries and hamilton campuses will also receive from the authors during their book tour.