The Big Scottish Book Club announces two special episodes with Cleeves, Welsh and O'Farrell

Two special episodes of BBC Scotland’s "The Big Scottish Book Club", hosted by Damian Barr, will be available on BBC iPlayer this month. 

The first episode focuses on crime fiction and television adaptations within the genre. Barr speaks to Ann Cleeves, author of the Shetland and Vera series, both of which have been adapted for television, about her new novel The Raging Storm (Pan Macmillan). To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Trainspotting (Vintage) Irvine Welsh also features on the episode to talk about The Long Knives (Vintage) and ITV’s "Crime", an adaptation of Welsh’s eponymous novel. Leading actor of the "Karen Pirie" series Lauren Lyle also speaks about bringing Val McDermid’s character to life. The episode is already available on BBC iPlayer. 

On the second episode, available from 24th October at 10:30 p.m., Barr is joined by author Maggie O’Farrell, actor Rochelle Neil, who starred in television’s "Three Little Birds", and author Leila Aboulela, winner of the first Caine Prize for African Writing, to discuss "rewriting history". The episode also celebrates Alice Walker’s The Colour Purple (Orion) and Colin Grant, Michael Perdersen and Jackie Kay share their personal histories through memoir and poetry. 

A Christmas special episode airing in December will feature authors Jenny Colgan and M G Leonard and actor Graham McTavish. 

Barr commented: "We get right into all the issues in the books featured – expect plenty of good-natured disagreement."