Scottish PEN invites members and other guests to attend this annual event, which this year will be held in The Saltire Society on Edinburgh's High Street. The event will run from 19.00 - 20.30 pm on Thursday 30th May, 2024.

This yearly lecture is held in honour of one of the Scottish Literary Renaissance's most redoubtable figures. Helen Cruikshank was a poet, a suffragette and a focal point of the literary resurgence in Edinbugh in the 1920s-40s. She volunteered for fire-watching during the War and was a keen follower of the Edinburgh Film Festival in the post-War years.

She published many collections of poetry and her autobiography, Octobiography, on her eightieth birthday. Her last poem, which is about a woman who is too busy to wait for death, was left unfinished.

Please note: this event is ticketed. Tickets: £5.00.

Gerda Stevenson

Gerda Stevenson trained at RADA and is an award-winning actor, singer-songwriter and director whose has worked in theatre, television, radio film and opera throughout Britain and abroad. Her poetry, prose and drama have been widely staged and broadcast. She has written 'orginal plays' for BBC4 and dramatizations of classic novels. She won a BAFTA award for best actress for the lead role in Margaret Tait's film 'Blue Black Permanent'. a YES arts poetry festival award and a Robert Tannahill Poetry Prize. Appearances in film/television roles include BRAVEHEART, MIDSOMET MURDERS, HEARTBEAT, THE BILL and TAGGART. She was Associate Director of Communicado Theatre and the founder or STELLAR QUINES, Scotland's leading women's theatre company.

Gerda will speak about her career in terms of Writing and Performing, a subject close to her heart and her experience.

For more information and to book tickets, please follow the link below.