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By Alastair HamiltonSeptember 25th 2014
Alastair Hamilton

Shetland's book festival, WordPlay, is now in its thirteenth year and has moved from September to November but continues to offer a varied menu in a packed programme.

The wide range of different writers, styles, and genres embraces sports journalist, Richard Gordon, who will talk about his new book, Scotland "74: A World Cup Story, and comedian, broadcaster, folk singer, flyfisher and poet, Mike Harding, who'll read his poetry. The BBC's Sally Magnusson makes a return visit to present her book Where Memories Go: How Dementia Changes Everything, in collaboration with Alzheimer Scotland.

Continuing the strong BBC Scotland connection to this year's festival, Steven Canny (Executive Producer of Comedy) and Jack Docherty (writer and actor) will offer a free workshop about writing comedy for television.

As ever, the festival features a number of collaborations and partnerships. Amnesty International support a visit by poet Ghazi Hussein; the Shetland Association of the Educational Institute of Scotland have again agreed to support a series of author visits to Shetland schools.

Shetland writers who feature in the programme include Julie Dennison, Donald S Murray, Nat Hall, Sheenagh Pugh, Marian Armitage. Jen Hadfield will appear with Elizabeth Reeder to celebrate 21 Revolutions, a project by Glasgow Women's Library. Also from Glasgow is Italian born best-selling novelist, Daniela Sacerdoti and she'll be joined by other writers including Roseanne Watt, Douglas Robertson, Ron Butlin and Regi Claire. Ian Stephen and Lawrence Tulloch will offer a session of storytelling.

If you're tempted to visit during WordPlay, you can find all the details on the festival website.