About our Chairs

Janet Smyth is Deputy Head of Learning & Engagement at the National Galleries of Scotland, with responsibility for programmes seeking to overcome barriers to active participation in the Galleries. Previous to this, Janet was a Programme Director at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, responsible for children, school and community programmes. She is also a programme consultant with Bath Festivals and with Boswell Book Festival. Lee Randall is the programmer for Granite Noir. She has worked in trade publishing, as a journalist, and is a frequent chair at book events throughout the UK. Fiona Stalker is a BBC Scotland journalist and presenter. She presents Seven Days and The Seven on the BBC Scotland channel, Friday Drive Time on BBC Radio Scotland and is one of the presenters of BBC Scotland’s new Sunday politics programme. She loves climbing, sharks and crime fiction. Bryan Burnett is one of Scotland’s best-known media personalities, mainly due to the many shows he has presented for BBC Radio Scotland and Scottish TV. He is the presenter of BBC Radio Scotland’s drivetime show, Get It On. Born and raised in Aberdeen, Bryan is delighted to return to Granite Noir as a host again in 2021. Dr Jacky Collins aka Dr Noir, formerly Senior Lecturer at Northumbria University in Literature, is currently based at Stirling University. In 2014 she established Newcastle Noir. More recently, she has been co-hosting a fortnightly crime fiction programme on SpiceFM, hosting on-line literary events and is part of the Corylus Books team, a new indie publisher of crime fiction in translation, from Romania, Iceland and beyond. Alex Clark is a journalist and broadcaster, often seen in the pages of the Guardian, the Observer and the Times Literary Supplement, and heard on BBC R4 programmes such as Front Row and Open Book. An experienced chair of live events, she has also worked as an artistic director at the Bath Festival and the Cambridge Literary Festival. The literary awards she has judged include the Man Booker Prize and the Orwell Prize. Theresa Talbot is a crime writer, radio broadcaster, podcaster and gardener. She is best known as the voice of traffic and travel for BBC Radio Scotland, and host of The Tartan Noir Show podcast. In a broadcasting career spanning 25 years, she’s covered The Dunblane Tragedy, the death of Princess Diana and the case of Harold Shipman, among others.