In Antarctic waters some 1,000 nautical miles from the Falkland Islands, the remote and inhospitable island of South Georgia is one of the most far flung corners of the world.
Frozen in time, the rusting remnants of the once all-powerful whaling industry sit in a rugged and beautiful landscape teeming with birdlife and sea mammals.
In late 2015, Scottish photographer and writer Jamie Grant left his home in Glen Lyon to take up the post of artist in residence on this remote Island for the South Georgia Heritage Trust (SGHT).
He made his home alongside other SGHT museum staff in the abandoned whaling station of Grytviken, close to the British Antarctic Survey Base at King Edward Point.
Joining field biologists on multi-day expeditions on remote peninsulas, Jamie was able to visit areas that most visitors can’t reach.
He will offer an insight into his unique experience and of “wildlife, conservation and wilderness” at the end of the world at the 13th annual Winter Words Festival, taking place at Pitlochry Festival Theatre between February 10 and 19.
More than 2,000 workers – many from Tayside – once called the island’s safe harbours home as the whaling industry caught and processed a staggering 1.6 million whales.
The community vanished overnight in the mid-60s as whale numbers plummeted and abandoned whaling stations – ships, factories, dormitories and power plants – now litter South Georgia.
Battered by the elements and often too dangerous to enter, they are otherwise untouched and have become something of a living museum – though few ever see them.
Jamie – one of the few in recent years to do so – will be part stellar line-up of more than 30 authors, writers, poets, filmmakers, adventurers and journalists to make their way to Pitlochry next month.
Among those sharing top billing at the event is politician Vince Cable who will share his view on the British economy and how best it should be managed over the next decade and beyond.
Nicholas Crane, whose face and name will be familiar to fans of BBC’s Coast, will deliver a talk on his new book, which describes the evolution of Britain’s countryside and the development of its cities.
Award-winning crime author Christopher Brookmyre, meanwhile, will read from his critically acclaimed new novel Black Widow, which revives the much-loved maverick reporter Jack Parlabane.
Winter Words will also see the return of the Banff Mountain Film Festival, which sold out last year and will once again offer some adrenaline-filled short films.
Full details of the entire Winter Words programme are available from www.PitlochryFestivalTheatre.com.
