Award winning Scottish family business Glencairn Crystal is proud to sponsor this year’s 2020 McIlvanney Prize for the Scottish Crime Book of the Year and the Bloody Scotland Debut Crime Novel of the Year, with its famous Glencairn Glass.
The winners were announced at the opening of the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival on Friday evening.
Two debut women writers, published by Transworld, have scooped the prestigious awards for the first time; the winner of the McIlvanney Prize 2020 is Francine Toon with Pine, and the winner of the Debut Prize is Deborah Masson with Hold Your Tongue.
All four finalists for the Debut Prize, along with Gordon Brown – the crime writing marketing director at Glencairn Crystal – and one of Bloody Scotland’s founding directors, have also collaborated on a short story which was published exclusively in Scotland’s The Sunday Post newspaper at the weekend.
The gripping short story features the Glencairn Crystal Studio premises, home of The Glencairn Glass, and is soon to be broadcast on the Tartan Noir podcast as well as via The Glencairn Glass website with the five authors narrating the story.
It is the first year that The Glencairn Glass has sponsored the prizes and been involved in the Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival. Kirsty Nicholson, Glencairn Crystal’s Marketing Manager said:
“First time authors winning both prizes this year highlights what a bright future the fantastic tradition of Scottish crime writing has.
“We are delighted and proud to sponsor such prestigious awards with The Glencairn Glass and would like to congratulate both Francine and Deborah, while wishing them all the best for the future.”
The annual Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival took place over the weekend. Usually based in Stirling, Bloody Scotland has brought hundreds of crime writers – new and established – to the stage along with enthusiastic festival attendees since 2012.
Due to Covid-19, the festival was forced to take place virtually online this year, however it meant that far greater audiences could attend the virtual events which featured some of the biggest crime writers in the world such as Val McDermid and Ian Rankin in Scotland and Lee Child and Lawrence Block in the US, as well as the Never Ending Panel featuring 26 authors on screen over four hours.
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