PEEBLES Arts Festival may be over for another year but it is continuing to create headlines this week.

The organising committee have just announced the winners of the photo competition, which was judged by Neil Shaw and Stephen Mathieson.

Paul Nicolson, from the local imaging company, Outsphere, who sponsored the competition, presented the prizes.

Entries were to the theme of Peebles People - A portrait.

The winners are as follows: Dr. D Baird won first prize with his portrait of Leonard Grandison; 2nd, Abi Reed; and shared 3rd was awarded to Peter Norris, Maureen Sansom and Malcolm Killcross.

In the children’s entries, Ellen Roper took first prize with a great image of Bruce in the woodshop. Neve and Elise Reed took second and third.

All the entries were put on display in the Eastgate Cafe.

Last week the Peeblesshire News reported that retiring Festival chairman Douglas Roberts begged the question: Does Peebles still need an Arts Festival.

Based on the evening with Scottish poet and author Jackie Kay at the Eastgate Theatre, Maria Halliday replied a vehement yes. Here she reviews the performance: After a warm and welcoming introduction from theatre manager Caroline Adam, Jackie had the appreciative Peebles audience captivated from the word go. She was chatty, down to earth, full of fun and laughter but her poems, at times spoken in the Scots dialect, often had great poignancy. “She also read from her biographical book in which she describes with the whole gamut of emotions her journey, as an adopted child, to discover her birth parents – a Scottish mother and Nigerian father.

“However, her warmest words were for her 'real’ parents – the couple in Glasgow who adopted her, a mixed race child, and later a boy, also of mixed race. “And then she surprised the audience by saying these same parents, now in their 80s, were sitting there in the front row of the audience. “As she continued, her father threw in the odd quip and joined in a song they used to sing as a family on road trips.

“As I said to Jackie as we made our way out, having her parents there had made the evening extra special.

“With events like these, long may the Peebles Arts Festival continue.”