Kevin MacNeil

In his own words, Kevin MacNeil is a book writer and bike rider. This succinct description reflects Kevin’s style but belies the volume of projects he works on. He is a poet, novelist, playwright, lyricist, lecturer and cyclist. Kevin’s second novel is published this September The method Actors Guide to Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. After a bike crash in a foggy Edinburgh, young actor Robert Lewis wakes to find that life has changed for the darker. And the weirder. He's still a deceitful egoist but now life seems to be deceiving and manipulating him. Everything that can go wrong is going wrong. In Part II, Robert wakes up after his bike crash again, but this time finds that life is encouraging him to be kind, thoughtful and compelling. He does charitable work; he studies Buddhism. How will he keep everyone happy? Can one live a wholly compassionate life of sacrifice and good will? Is man not one but two? Kevin’s first novel The Stornoway Way, described as Whisky Galore meets Trainspotting, received overwhelming critical acclaim. Kevin is currently writing the treatment for a feature film based on the book for local film and TV producer Don Coutts. Born and brought up on Stornoway, Kevin now lives and works in Edinburgh. He teaches Creative Writing at Edinburgh University where he himself studied under another of the Inverness Book Festival authors, Andrew Greig. Kevin will read from and discuss his new novel and answer questions on his work from the audience. This event will be chaired by Hamish MacDonald. Hamish is a published author of fiction and poetry. He has written several plays which have toured in Scotland and abroad and has written comedy and drama for radio and television. He is also the Director of Moniack Mhor, the Arvon creative writing centre in Beauly.