Look, I can’t say for certain - lord knows, I’m no scientist - but I think I successfully cloned myself for three hours at the end of last month. There I was, on the stage, co-hosting Stirling Pride with drag superstar Cherry West, surrounded by bedazzling guests like pop icon Michelle McManus and electro-folk trailblazer Malin Lewis; and there I was, at the very same time, presenting my radio show on Central FM, reminiscing about the day I interviewed Dolly Parton, and the night I reviewed her Glasgow gig for this very paper. (Easiest five stars I ever gave.)

Now I’ll grant you, we set up our makeshift studio a fifty second sprint away from Pride HQ, which is why I could do these two jobs at once, but even so: I felt like a truly powerful force, or at least a bit less maladjusted than usual. As I kamikazed up and down King Street, my mum - who was in the crowd, while also listening to the wireless (multi-tasking runs in the family) - hollered over to me, “I can’t believe this is happening!” She seemed quite shocked and dare I say impressed. That said, on reflection, this might well have been on account of her seeing me running for the first time in my so-called life.

That old street in Stirling has been livelier than usual lately. Just the other evening, it was packed with murderers and friendly folk with death on their minds and blood on their hands, which is par for the course every autumn when international crime writing festival Bloody Scotland rolls into town.

It kicked off with a particular sense of celebration this year, thanks to guest programmer and goddess Denise Mina, and the brilliant writer Frances Crawford, who made history by claiming both of the festival’s prestigious literary awards - the Debut Prize and the McIlvanney Prize - for her extraordinary first novel, A Bad, Bad Place. I was a McIlvanney Prize judge this year, alongside broadcaster and author Sally Magnusson and crime fiction aficionado Gordon McGhie, and while we were truly bowled over by Crawford’s voice, what we didn’t know, until the ceremony at the Church of the Holy Rude on Friday night, was that she had won both of the prizes.

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