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Book Week Scotland, Arlington Baths, 28th November – 2 December, 2017

Book Week at the Baths

Swimming suffragettes, supernatural sleuths and end of the world are just some of the talks for Book Week Scotland 2017 at the Arlington Baths Club.

The Arlington Baths Club, in Woodlands, Glasgow, has organised a series of free talks and workshops for Book Week Scotland, including several events featuring a few of its talented members.

Gordon MacDougall, Chairperson of the Arlington Baths Club Board, said: “We’re delighted to be able to host these events for Book Week Scotland. We hope that both members and people who may not have heard of the Baths before will find something to interest them, can enjoy a talk and see our unique building. Join us at the Arlington Baths throughout the week to meet our authors, enjoy a chat and relax with a drink in our cosy bar.”

Here Be Dragons: delving into Scotland’s dark places and wild side

Explore the wild and dangerous landscapes of the Highlands and the darker side of the Scottish psyche.

At this event Charles E McGarry will introduce us the world of supernatural sleuth Leo Moran in his debut novel The Ghost of Helen Addison. As Leo seeks to use his psychic insights to solve the murder of a young woman, he exchanges the familiarity of Glasgow’s West End for the foreboding but beautiful Loch Dhonn (based on real-life Loch Awe).
Madeline Tait will discuss the Gothic literature of the once very popular but now largely forgotten, Victorian novelist Margaret Oliphant whose novel The Wizard’s Son is also set at Loch Awe.

Chaired by Martin Greig of Backpage Press https://backpagepress.co.uk/
Tuesday 28 November, 6.30pm
Buy tickets at eventbrite

Women, Water and Wheels

Jenny Landreth, author of Swell. A Waterbiography and The Guardian swimming blog, will take us through the story of the ‘swimming suffragettes’: the determined women who demanded equal rights in the water, threw off their restrictive costumes and became Olympic champions. Glasgow Women’s Library will showcase a few of the many items from its archive related to sporting women; from 19th century women who found freedom through cycling, to the 2014 Commonwealth Games and today’s fast-growing female-dominated sport of roller derby.

Discussion will be led by Karen Mailly-Watt and Rachael Purse, The History Girls Scotland thehistorygirlsscotland.com/

Wednesday 29 November, 6.30pm

Book at eventbrite

Imagining the worst of times: why do we love an apocalypse?

Join Louise Welsh, one of Scotland’s best novelists (and Arlington Baths member), to explore morality in the worst of times. What would it be like to survive the plague? Could you make a good life in a brutal new future? That’s the fate of the few survivors of a worldwide epidemic that wipes out billions of lives in Louise’s terrifying Plague Times trilogy, completed by No Dominion published this year.

Thursday 30 November, 6.30pm

Book at eventbrite

Always wanted to write a novel? Here’s how to kickstart that book!

Have you always dreamt of writing a book? But are you unsure about starting? Best-selling novelist, children’s author and columnist Fiona Gibson (an Arlington Baths member) is here to help you kick-start your writing ambition. In this two-hour session, she’ll gently lead you through practical exercises designed to get you started and give you the confidence you need to carry on. Fiona will share her tips and advice on how to set the boundaries and invest the time in your own creativity.

Friday 1 December, 3pm to 5pm

Book at eventbrite   (This event is now ‘sold out’ but you can join the waiting list).

First novel journey: from Japan to broom cupboard to Richard and Judy

Glasgow-based author Jackie Copleton published her first novel two years ago inspired by the years she spent in Japan in the 1990s. A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding is a heart-rending story of mothers and daughters, love, lies and family secrets set in the city of Nagasaki. Just a few weeks after publication her novel was selected for two of the biggest and best-known UK book groups: Simon Mayo’s Radio Two Book Club and the Richard and Judy Book Club, and was longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Friday 1 December, 6.30pm

Book at eventbrite

Millennial Munros – A postman’s record-breaking round

Join Glasgow postie Charlie Campbell, who got motivated, got fit and completed an unprecedented endurance event. With the help of his mum and some mates, he broke the world record for a continuous self-propelled round of all 284 Munros, Scotland’s mountains over 3,000 feet. He averaged nearly six Munros every day, and cycled or swam between them. Anyone who has done just one Munro in a day will know how big a deal this was.

Saturday 2 December, 6.30pm

 Book at eventbrite

There will be book sales and signings at all the events, and a short tour of the Baths at 6pm each day.

The Arlington Baths Club is an historic Victorian bathing complex, owned and run by members for members on a not-for-profit basis. Founded in 1870, this community club is the oldest of its kind in the world.  

Our ‘A’ listed building is home to a 21 metre sky-lit swimming pool with trapezes and travelling rings, a unique and beautiful Turkish suite, saunas, a steam room, free-standing slipper baths and hot tubs, a gymnasium in an airy Victorian loft, a spacious and elegant old Reading Room and a members’ lounge. Every member of the club has a personal peg for their swimming costume so they can pop in any time for a swim. Costumes are then cleaned and dried, ready for their next visit.

We’re a community with rich memories. Many members joined as children to swim with their parents; they’re now bringing their own children to the Baths. From learning to swim, to swinging across the pool on the rings, to relaxing in the warmth under the star-studded dome of the Turkish suite, the Arlington Baths is a special place with a colourful history and strong sense of community and heritage.

www.arlingtonbaths.co.uk/      

Learn to swim at the Arlington with William Young Swim School   

More about the Arlington Baths            

The Arlington Baths, 61 Arlington Street, Glasgow, G3 6DT

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