Author Archives: Jamie Cook

In which the Author appears in Tesco…

 

When you’re an author, people send you things – books, music, invitations, that sort of thing. Which is nice. Something new arrived the other day – what might be called my first example of a ‘book sighting’. “I was very surprised,” wrote my literary correspondent, “when I was shopping in Tesco in Dundee and came across the name Geoff Holder in the book section.” So surprised, indeed, that she took a photo on her mobile and sent it to me. Thank you, Sarah – this is the first time a reader has done that.

Three of my books on sale in Tesco. All this and points too.

Other photos of my books in situ welcome.

 
 

In which the author bloodies up Blackwell’s Bookshop in Edinburgh…

 

Battles. Massacres. Murders and assassinations. Beheadings and hangings. Fire and plague. Religious strife and clan enmities. Urban warfare and suicide squads. Pirates and riots. Bodysnatching and heads on spikes. Gunpowder plots. Sea battles inside Leith harbour. Witchcraft burnings on Castlehill. Breaking on the wheel. Drowning alive in a coffin in the Nor’ Loch.

 

Edinburgh hasn’t always been the Light in the North. Its past is a blood-splattered horrorshow of dark deeds, and on Tuesday 6 November I’ll be launching my new book The Bloody History of Scotland: Edinburgh with an illustrated talk at the famous Blackwells Bookshop on South Bridge, Edinburgh. This saunter through the sanguinary excesses of the city’s unsavoury history will cover everything from brothel creepers to the location of a cannibal’s oven – not to mention a mysterious medieval knight who turned out to be a woman.

 
 
 

In which the Author talks about Haunted St Andrews on Halloween…

 

 

Poltergeists. Secret mummified corpses in the Haunted Tower. Apparitions of the White Lady and other distaff spectres. Death warnings. Doppelgangers. Vortices of invisible evil.

 

All these subjects will be present and correct on Halloween night when I’m the guest of Abertay Historical Society at the St Andrews Preservation Trust Museum, 12 North Street, St Andrews, KY16 9PW.

 

The illustrated talk starts at 7.30pm and a small charge is made for non-members. Places are limited – it’s a small museum – so book a place at 01334 477629, or email curator@standrewspreservationtrust.org. Copies of Haunted St Andrews will be available for sale on the night.

 
 

In which the Author spills blood all over the Daily Mail…

 

 

‘Murder and Mayhem in the City where the Streets Ran with Blood’. Phew, you don’t get many headlines like that. That’s the introduction to a piece on my new book The Bloody History of Scotland: Edinburgh that appeared in the Daily Mail on Monday, October 22. You can read the full piece here, or by clicking on the image. The article is reproduced by kind permission of the Daily Mail and journalist Jim McBeth.

 

And a quick reminder that I’m giving an illustrated talk based on The Bloody History of Scotland: Edinburgh at Blackwell’s Bookshop, South Bridge, Edinburgh, on November 6. The event, which will have time for book signing, starts at 6.30 and tickets are free – details from the City of Literature website.