The author of the bestselling book Secret Diary of a Call Girl has been named as the ambassador of a Highland festival.

Dr Brooke Magnanti was the anonymous author, Belle de Jour, whose books about life as a call girl were adapted for the ITV2 series starring Billie Piper.

The researcher, author and former call girl has agreed to be the ambassador of this year's Inverness Whisky Festival.

The author wrote of her experiences as a London call girl under the pseudonym of Belle de Jour but her identity was revealed by the Sunday Times in November 2009.

She will appear at the Highland festival, now in its second year, which runs at Bogbain Farm, south of Inverness, on April 6 and 7.

Festival co-director Yvonne Murray said: "I was watching old episodes of Secret Diary of a Call Girl over the weekend and decided to Google Belle de Jour to find out what had happened to her.

"It was then I discovered that Brooke liked whisky, and I read the blog post she had written about it.

"I decided to follow my own mantra for life that 'fortune favours the brave' and so I loaded up Twitter to ask her if she fancied being our ambassador. She accepted and we are now really looking forward to her attendance at this year’s festival.

"Brooke is a highly intelligent woman, and has a remarkable talent for writing - with her love of whisky, she was the ideal choice to be our ambassador this year."

The two-day festival will include live music, talks, tastings, food and, of course, whisky.