Undiscovered Scotland

 

Every year, as September turns into October, Wigtown, which since 1997 has been "Scotland's Book Town", hosts the ten day Wigtown Book Festival. For this short period of time Wigtown becomes the centre of literary interest across Scotland and well beyond it.

Wigtown is a fairly special place for book-lovers at any time of year. With many book-related businesses and bookshops, it's been said that this town of some 800 people is also home to a quarter of a million books. During the book festival a further dimension is added by the arrival of up to 10,000 visitors, attracted by the Festival programme and, of course, by the chance to browse through at least some of these books.

So what is on offer at the Wigtown Book Festival? The core of the festival is a programme of events in a variety of venues in an around the town. Most take place in the Festival Marquee erected in the centre of the village, the magnificent County Buildings, or the Bladnoch Distillery, though in a variety of other venues are used for individual events.

The trick is simply to make sure you get hold of a copy of the festival programme (contact information and website link in info panel) and spot what appeals to you: there really is something here for everyone.

All the more so because the main Festival programme is just one part of what is happening in Wigtown during the Book Festival. A Children's Marquee near the County Buildings plays host to a Children's Festival programme, which includes the appearance of a number of children's authors as well as family and "Bookstart" events and the Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children's Books.

In addition to Wigtown's many year-round bookshops, there is also a bookshop open during the period of the Festival selling the books of authors appearing on the programme.