Alexander McCall Smith will be joining award-winning Scottish jazz guitarist Nigel Clark in this year’s Advocates Choir charity concert at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh. He has written a short piece especially for the concert and will read it on the night.

Nigel Clark, whose work has been compared to Django Reinhardt, and whose list of musical collaborators range from Clannad, Jan Akkerman, Carole Kidd and Gloria Gaynor, will play a special arrangement of a Christmas classic devised for the occasion.

The Faculty of Advocates Annual Christmas Concert turns 21 this year, and the event returns to the Queen’s Hall, Clerk Street, Edinburgh, on Thursday, 15 December, at 7pm.

Admission is free – with a retiring collection for Edinburgh City Mission and its work with the homeless.

And, as always, there will be the traditional and ever-popular mix of seasonal readings, choral and community singing.

“Take a break from shopping, pop in on your way home from work or bring the children – it will be the perfect start to the evening,” said Ross Macfarlane QC, the Choir’s Artistic Director.

The Choir was founded in 1996 and, under the musical and artistic direction of Neil Beynon, Advocate, and Mr Macfarlane QC, and has performed in venues including St Peter’s in Rome, St Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Notre Dame in Paris and Off-Broadway in New York.

Tickets for the carol concert are free and can be obtained from the Queen’s Hall box office, Tel: 0131 668 2019.  A collection for Edinburgh City Mission will be taken at the end of the concert, around 8:15pm.