Agnes Owens at 100: Dame of Darkly Comic Working-Class

Agnes Owens at 100 is on at the National Library of Scotland on Wednesday 4 November, a talk marking the centenary of the Scottish writer. It runs from 18:00 to 19:00, so it's a proper mid-week evening thing rather than a lunchtime drop-in.

Owens wrote working-class stories, and this talk looks at her collections and her wider body of work. She's described as one of the most unfairly neglected of all Scottish authors, and that's the sort of thing the evening will be getting into — why she's slipped under the radar and what's actually there in the writing. If you've never come across her, she's known for a darkly comic touch, the kind of writer who finds the humour in the bleak bits of working-class life without polishing the edges off them.

It's a good one if you're into Scottish literature but fancy something a bit off the beaten track. The talk is free, and the venue is the National Library of Scotland on Cowgate, EH1 1JN, right in the heart of the Old Town. It's an hour long, from 18:00 to 19:00, so you're in and out in time for dinner.