Paisley-born author hails town’s book festival buzz

Paisley-born author hails town’s book festival buzz

An award-winning Paisley-born author has hailed the buzz around the town’s rejuvenation.

Karen Campbell spoke of the change she has seen as she prepares to discuss her thought-provoking new novel at Paisley Book Festival.

The festival, which starts tomorrow (Friday) and runs until Sunday, is in its sixth year and has grown into one of Renfrewshire’s events highlights, attracting audiences from all over Scotland.

This year’s event – centred on the theme of The Lives We Live –  has attracted some of the biggest names in Scottish writing, including Trainspotting creator Irvine Welsh, acclaimed contemporary author AL Kennedy and Glasgow author Chris McQueer, all showcasing new releases.

Karen has a busy schedule of commitments promoting her new book, This Bright Life, with her Paisley appearance on Sunday (April 27) one of the highlights.

The former police officer said: “I lay claim to being a Buddie from being born in Paisley – and I think the festival’s brilliant.

“Times are hard for people and the act of actually buying  a book gets harder for people when they don’t have disposable income. So for book festivals thrive, rather than wither, is fantastic, especially for Paisley.

“I lived in the southside of Glasgow for a long time and my eldest daughter used to go to the PACE theatre group in Paisley, so I used to spend lots of Saturday afternoons kicking my heels around Paisley town centre, waiting for her to finish.

“To be honest, at that point, there were a lot of shut-up shops and a real sense of lost potential.

“So to see things like the transformation of Paisley Museum  and the book festival happening – as well as thriving local markets – it just gives a real buzz to the place.

“Paisley’s got an abbey, it’s an important place, yet it felt for a while, it was dormant, but it doesn’t feel that way now.”

This Bright Life tells the story of a 12-year-old boy navigating life in foster care, alongside the life of the woman who inadvertently put him there.

Described as a “heartbreaking and yet brimful of humour, compassion and hope” it is a story about messy lives and second chances.

Karen said: “This Bright Life ties in really well with the theme of Paisley Book Festival.

“The cover of the book is, visually, a tenement idea. Very much at the forefront of my mind is this idea of all the lives we live side-by-side. That you can be through the wall from somebody and you don’t know that person.

“You might nod to them on the stair, or you might not given that more and more we live in isolated wee pockets. But there’s still that underpinning of community.

“I was very interested in this notion of how we are all separate entities, but they kind of touch each other.

“This Bright Life is about how a boy’s life spirals over one summer and who helps him – those quiet voices and helping hands and who hinders him as well.”

The event at which Campbell will speak at Paisley Book Festival – Growing Up and Getting Out – is being billed as one for fans of Shuggie Bain and The Young Team, with three Scottish writers exploring the hardships of growing up in tough circumstances and finding ways to escape to a better life.

The others featuring are Tom Newlands – whose book Only Here, Only Now portrays a teenage girl growing up in post-industrial Fife, whose ADHD provides her with a unique and eye-opening perspective on where she lives – and Juano Diaz whose memoir, Slum Boy, reimagines his own upbringing in Glasgow tenements in the late 1970s, filled with the debris of his mother’s alcoholism and poverty, before being adopted into a Roma family in the countryside.

Campbell says her book helps to highlight the way in which young people can seize opportunities which they did not realise existed.

The authors will be in conversation with fellow writer Brian Conaghan, as they discuss emerging from life’s challenges and whether the past must dictate the future.  

Paisley Book Festival 2025 is organised by OneRen and supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland.

Full details about the Paisley Book Festival line-up – including booking information – are available at www.paisleybookfestival.com.