Ian Rankin the Author Meets Ian Rankin the Plumber at Bute Noir

As reported a couple of months ago, Bute Island Foods was delighted to sponsor one of the island's most prestigious events, the Bute Noir Crime Fiction Festival, held a few days ago on a beautiful, sunny weekend.

One of the main attractions of the festival was a talk by top Scottish award-winning crime writer Ian Rankin, author of the highly-successful Rebus books.    During his visit, Ian (pictured) was delighted to meet his namesake, Ian Rankin, a plumber and heating engineer on the island, whose van had caused some amusement with visitors in the past.   Was the author moonlighting in his spare time?

But of course the weekend was about far more than the two Ians, as 26 of the world's top crime writers descended on the island to give talks to enthusiastic audiences of locals and visitors in various venues around Rothesay.   Ann Cleeves who, in 2006, won the inaugural Duncan Lawrie Dagger, the richest crime-writing prize in the world, for her novel "œRaven Black ", proved a great hit with audiences, as did Glasgow-based author Myra Duffy, who hosted the Bute Noir bus tour.

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 has become a firm favourite with readers as they come to appreciate the attractions of more intimate literary festivals.

Karen was delighted with the response to the festival, the most successful yet.   "Locals and visitors love it.   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.   And of course we are grateful to our sponsors, including Bute Island Foods, who have supported us to help make the event grow quickly into what it is today."

Bute Island Foods is delighted to assist local events, which undoubtedly gives the island even more of an appeal than its natural beauty and history, and wishes Bute Noir every success in the future!