MARGARET Atwood, the Canadian author, performed transatlantic signings of her new novel from Scotland yesterday, with the aid of an internet autographing device.

The award-winning writer was in Dunfermline, Fife, where she read to fans in her home country via video link.

Scores of book lovers listened from Toronto where they had gathered as part of the city's annual Word on the Street book and magazine festival.

Atwood later used her own invention, the LongPen, to sign copies of her latest novel Moral Disorder.

It works by signing a special pad with a magnetic pen. The inscription is immediately replicated by an electronic arm at the other end of the internet link.

The Booker Prize winner is spending a month in Scotland after being chosen as the inaugural Muriel Spark International Fellow earlier this year. The fellowship, named after the renowned Edinburgh novelist, invites authors to spend time writing and researching at Cove Park in Argyll and Bute, while also performing readings and lectures around the country.

Atwood has written more than 30 works of fiction, poetry, and critical essays, including The Blind Assassin, which won the 2000 Booker Prize. Her other works include The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake.