Ian Rankin was bemused at first. The plumber and heating engineer, based in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, couldn’t understand why his van, parked on the seafront with his name on the side, was generating such hilarity among those visiting the island to attend its unexpectedly popular new book festival.
A few years on, Rankin will meet his famous namesake in the flesh next weekend when the multi-award-winning author Ian Rankin makes his first, and headlining, appearance at Bute Noir. He’s just one of the big names in detective fiction who will be taking the ferry across the Firth of Clyde for the three-day crime writing festival, during which 23 authors will take part in 18 events, many of which have sold out.
The festival was conceived by Karen Latto, owner of Print Point, the island’s only bookshop, and the bestselling author Craig Robertson, who holidayed on Bute as a child. Now in its fourth year, Bute Noir is punching well above its weight as readers come to appreciate the attractions of more intimate literary festivals.
Alongside Rankin, fellow Scots Chris Brookmyre and Denise Mina, as well as the author of the Shetland murder mysteries, Ann Cleeves, and Tom Thorne creator Mark Billingham, will appear at four venues – the library, museum, bookshop and cinema – which are all within walking distance of the pier.
The festival also features a popular quiz night and a putting competition, which was won by Booker nominee Graeme McRae Burnett last year. The Bute Noir bus tour, hosted by author Myra Duffy, takes in some of the island’s most beautiful beaches, standing stones and Rothesay castle, which are all locations for her Isle of Bute mystery series.
“Locals love it,” Latto says between serving a steady stream of customers at the bookshop. “As soon as it’s over, they start talking about the next one. There’s a good buzz about the island and all the money goes back into the local economy.” Both readers and writers remark on the unique camaraderie of a smaller, volunteer-led festival, she adds.
“Bute is a small place and Rothesay is even smaller, so if you’re down for the weekend, you have a high chance of meeting up with one of your favourite authors,” says Anne Speirs, curator of Bute Museum, who joined Latto and Robertson on the organising committee along with local librarian Patricia MacArthur.
Speirs believes that Bute Noir is part of a wider reinvention of the island after its popularity as a family holiday resort fell away with the advent of cheap package holidays.
Glasgow-based author Myra Duffy, who holidays regularly on Bute and who outsells all other crime writers at Print Point, says the island was the ideal place to base her “cosy crime” series.
“It’s a small community, so there is a lot of gossip. Everyone knows everyone else and it’s a contained setting, which is all useful for an amateur sleuth like mine.”
Literature Alliance Scotland estimates that there are more than 50 book festivals around Scotland, about half of which are smaller enterprises such as Bute Noir or the nearby Cove and Kilcreggan book festival. The latter was started six years ago by writer and broadcaster Ruth Wishart “in order that folks in our rural part of Scotland could come and hear, and talk to, some of their favourite authors on their own doorstep”.
“One of the bonuses of these boutique village hall festivals is that there is one venue, one stage,” says Wishart. “Everybody who comes can go to every event, should they wish.”
Craig Robertson points out that about half of the 1,700 Bute Noir tickets sold so far have been snapped up by islanders. “Locals feel a greater sense of ownership of a festival in a smaller, perhaps more rural, setting than is possible in a city,” he says.
“One of the strengths of Bute Noir is that most of the organisers live and work on Bute,” adds Robertson. This was especially important when navigating the sensitivity of holding the festival after the killing of Alesha MacPhail, six, on Bute last summer, and the subsequent conviction of local teenager Aaron Campbell for her murder. “We had long and frequent discussions about what to do with Bute Noir in the summer of 2018 in the aftermath of the murder … We were sensitive, I hope, to the feelings and needs of the family and community.”
He adds: “We took the pulse of the island and finally made the decision to carry on with the festival. We made modifications to our website, we changed things in our printed brochure. We will continue to be mindful and respectful of what happened, but hope that by bringing a prestigious event to the island, we can help the community to move on and to recover.”
