Popular Scottish writer and illustrator Mairi Hedderwick launched the second annual Portsoy Bothy Book Festival on Saturday.
More than 200 literary enthusiasts attended the two-day event at the village’s community-managed Salmon Bothy.
The festival was opened by its patron Lord Lieutenant Clare Russell, who joined Mrs Hedderwick on Saturday for a chat about her creation Katie Morag, who lives on an imaginary West Coast island.
Attendees were then treated to a talk by crime and mystery writer Sara Sheridan, while yesterday Scottish crime writer Alex Gray and historical novelist Shona McLean entertained the crowd.
Organiser Aileen Burnett said: “We’ve been more than delighted with the response. This is our second book festival in Portsoy – we started one at the bothy last year – but because we didn’t start early enough we didn’t have time to advertise.
“This year we had a different programme and started an awful lot earlier. We realised that Mairi Hedderwick was going to be so popular that on the day we actually took her up to the Station Hotel and had about 110 people there.
“She was great with the children and that went really well. Better than we could have imagined.”
Mrs Burnett added that fortune was on their side this year – when Sara Sheridan’s train was delayed, author Maggie Craig just happened to be in the audience and stepped in to give a talk about her own Jacobite-inspired work.
Mrs Burnett and her fellow committee members are hopeful that the money raised this year can help fund another book festival again in 2016.