We're all going on a (Reading Group) summer holiday .....

We hope you've all been enjoying the lovely weather Orkney has been experiencing recently - okay we know it's raining today but maybe it's just a shower?! After spending a fine spring evening engaged in a lively discussion of The Junior Officers' Reading Club  the Stromness Library Reading Group has decided to avoid the dilemma of choosing to spend further precious sunny evenings in the library by taking an extended summer break.

Therefore there will be no Reading Group meetings during May, June or July - our next meeting will be Wednesday 31st August at 7pm when we will be discussing The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.

In the meantime let's hope we have many more long summer evenings of reading in the sun to look forward to!

We'll miss you too ....

We thought we ought to alert you to the fact that, due to essential maintenance to our IT systems, we will have no internet connection tomorrow Saturday 30th April. But although you won't be able to get online, check the online library catalogue or catch up on with library goings-on via our blogs, twitter or our Facebook page, you will still be able to borrow books and browse our selection of newspapers and magazines. Apologies for the disruption to our normal service which will resume on Tuesday 3rd May.

"Tuesday?!" I hear you cry, well the other piece of bad news I must impart is that, for the second week in a row, Monday is a public holiday and so we will be closed. Although I know you will miss us, it does give you an extra day to recover from the Royal Wedding celebrations - a trip up the hill to wash your face in the May Day dew might be just the thing!

The Junior Officers' Reading Club

What with all the excitement of the Orkney Book Festival last weekend, the Easter Monday holiday and perhaps one too many chocolate eggs, we nearly forgot to remind you about this month's Reading Group meeting. Tomorrow evening we meet at 7pm in the Exhibition Room to discuss The Junior Officers' Reading Club by Patrick Hennessey. We hope our reading group meeting will not involve any violence, explosions or gore - there will however be tea and coffee! See you there.

Orkney Book Festival 2011

Today Friday 15th April, sees the start of the first Orkney Book Festival. The weekend of events kicks off with a Book Fair at the Orkney Library in Kirkwall. Featuring books for sale by Scottish Island Writers from a range of island publishers and booksellers, the fair also includes a sale of withdrawn library books.

Also in the Orkney Library today at 3.45pm Ragnhild Ljosland will give a talk on Orkney writer Christina Costie.

Then this evening at the Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, at 7.30pm, Ron Ferguson will give the 2011 GMB Memorial lecture on George Mackay Brown's spiritual journey.

Saturday Events

The Book Fair continues in the Orkney Library tomorrow Saturday 16th April, from 9.30am-5pm. Also at Orkney Library at 2pm Alayne Barton from the Islands Book Trust will give a talk on the work of the trust, then at 4pm Simon Hall will give a talk entitled From fjord to island foreshore - three neglected treasures of the Orkney Room.

Saturday's events will round off with an evening of readings and music by Lise Sinclair, John Aberdein and Orkney writers and musicians, at the Cromarty Hall, St Margaret's Hope, South Ronaldsay starting at 7.30pm.

Sunday Events

Sunday sees the Orkney Book Festival head to Stromness Library for a day of writing workshops. In the morning Lise Sinclair will give a workshop on poetry and lyrics from 11am-1pm. Then in the afternoon Kevin MacNeil will lead a workshop on characterisation and dialogue in prose from 2-4pm. If you would like to sign up for either or both of these workshops please contact pamela.beasant@virgin.net

The Festival concludes on Sunday evening in the Lynnfield Hotel, Kirkwall when Kevin MacNeil and Nalini Paul (GMB Writing Fellow 2009-10) will join with local writers and musicians for an evening of readings and music.

Entry to Okney Book Festival events costs £5 (£3 concession) payable at the door, and a Whole Festival Pass is also available for £20  from any of the events or from the Orkney Library.

It's going to be a busy weekend!

Orkney Book Festival

We are very excited about next weekend's Orkney Book Festival, organised by the George Mackay Brown Fellowship and supported by Orkney Library, Scottish Island Writers' Network and Scotland's Islands.

See poster below for full programme of events:

The Sea Road

The Stromness Library Reading Group will meet tomorrow evening (Wednesday 30th March) in the exhibition room of the Library at 7pm. The book we will be discussing is Margaret Elphinstone's The Sea Road,  an historical novel retelling the Viking exploration of the North Atlantic through the eyes of the extraordinary Gudrid.

We are looking forward to a lively discussion and will let you know what the group thought of the book. New members are always very welcome, so come along and join in - tea and coffee provided!

Poetry Workshop

Stromness poet Yvonne Gray will be leading a poetry workshop in the exhibition room of Stromness Library today from 2-4pm as part of the Shadows of Our Ancestors weekend of events organised by Historic Scotland. Tomorrow (Sunday 20th March) there will be a guided visit to the Ring of Brodgar and Barnhouse Settlement from 10-12noon followed by another poetry workshop in the St Magnus Centre, Kirkwall from 2-4pm. The work generated from the weekend will culminate in a poetry reading at the Pier Arts Centre and an installation of words and neolithic artefacts in and around the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site on World Heritage Day, Monday 18th April.