Bound For Edinburgh

Author Martin Stewart joins an illustrious line-up to celebrate storytelling in all its forms at the international literary festival

- by DAWN GEDDES

SINCE its launch in 1983, Edinburgh International Book Festival has celebrated the written word every August by welcoming some of the world's best authors to Scotland's capital, and this year is no exception.

To mark the festival's 42nd year, we chatted to Ayrshire-based author Martin Stewart, who will be appearing on stage this year with his latest children's book, Sandy Fin: Operation Splash Landing.

"I've always wanted to be a writer," Martin says. "I think there was a central moment very early on for me when Roald Dahl died. I was eight years old, and I remember thinking, 'There's a gap in the market now! I can write the Matilda sequel'."

"Stories were really important to me growing up, and the ones I went back to the most were Roald Dahl," he adds. "I think the fact that his name wasn't something ordinary like Dave Smith made him sound exotic and exciting. It added to the kind of magic around him. Then when he died he was on the news, and my mum said 'That's Roald Dahl'. I remember being like, 'Oh, he's like somebody's grandpa'.

"It really shifted my thinking. The next time we were in the library, I remember looking around and thinking the books were all just written by people."

Martin began penning his own story on sticky notes and has been writing ever since.