This year's Edinburgh Festival has seen the World Premiere of A British Subject, a play that tells how Daily Mirror journalist Don Mackay played a key role in freeing a man held on death row in a Pakistani jail for 18 years. It was written by Mackay's wife, the actress and star Silksoundbooks audio book reader Nichola McAuliffe.

At the age of 18, Mirza Tahir Hussain, a British Subject, arrived in Pakistan. 24 hours later a taxi driver was dead and Tahir was tried for his murder. Condemned to hang in the Criminal Court he spent the following 7 years on death row. Released on appeal, he prepared to return home to Leeds but was sent back to death row by a Sharia Court. He stayed there for a further 11 years. A British Subject is the true account of what happened and is playing until the end of August at Over The Road Two in Edinburgh.

Nichola has covered most roles in her hugely respected acting career, from her influential work with the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the Royal National Theatre to her British television hit Surgical Spirit and her appearances on the long running soap opera Coronation Street. She has also won several awards for her roles in West End musicals, including Kiss Me Kate, for which she won the Laurence Olivier Award, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, for which she was nominated for a further Olivier.

Nichola's Silksoundbooks audio book, The Water Babies , uses her talents to the full in bringing to life the many characters in this hugely popular children's novel written by Charles Kingsley.

View and Post Comments Here