Inverness Book Festival cancelled

Ali Smith is among the authors to have appeared at the festival

Inverness Book Festival has been cancelled after a 10-year run.

Eden Court, which has organised and hosted the event since 2004, said last year's was its final festival and this year's would not go ahead.

The arts venue said the time it took to programme and organise the festival had become "impractical".

Ali Smith, Ian Rankin, Christopher Brookmyre, Louis de Bernieres and Dina Mina have been among the authors to appear at the festival.

Eden Court chief executive Colin Marr said: "The past 10 years has seen a real change in the way that the public interact with books and authors.

"Once upon a time it was a really big deal to be able to see your favourite author in person, listen to them discuss their work and have an opportunity to interact with them.

"This has changed in recent years though and people can now access their favourite authors quite easily by contacting them directly on social media or seeing them at one of the many book signings and book store events up and down the country.

"This means that the very best book festivals spend a lot of time and effort constructing fringe events to supplement their main programme."

He added: "While we would have loved to continue, we have to be realistic and accept that we simply don't have the resources to commit any more time to the festival in order to keep pace with other brilliant book festivals."