Thursday 27 September 2012

Adventures At Wigtown


Living in Stirling for four years made me miss city life.  Is Stirling not a city, I hear you say.  Well, yes it is but the fact that it does not have a 24 hour supermarket makes me dismiss its city status.  Where I am from I am used to 24 hour supermarkets, taxi's at any time and being able to get Chinese food at 3am.


I am comfortable in the luxuries of city life but when you step outside the bubble of city life you may find a whole other level of comfortable living.

For the next ten days I am going to be one of two journalism intern’s at the Wigtown Book festival.  
 Yesterday I arrived in Wigtown at 10.30am after travelling from 6.20am – I find this rather impressive considering I am not a morning person.  From then onwards myself and everyone else (the wonderful events interns who have been here a week more so than me) have been working to get the festival set up for beginning tomorrow. Right now Wigtown feels a bit like the calm before the storm.  I have been embracing the quietness of country life but I know this will change come tomorrow

First impressions of the town are that it is quaint and has a certain charm that a lot of places do not have nowadays.  It is Scotland’s National Book Town and as expected such a title the streets are lined with equally as charming book shops.








Tomorrow the festival officially begins and there is plenty on the agenda.  Every time I flip through the festival program I find something new and fascinating that’s on – you too?

The first event I am going to is Jen Campbell talking about her book Weird Thing’s Customers Say in Bookshops at 4pm.  I read the book yesterday and found it utterly hilarious. An example from the book is - a customer asking if they stock the book ‘Lionel Richie and The Wardrobe’.  I will be chatting Jen beforehand too about the book and challenges bookshops face in the economic downturn; so I will report back on this tomorrow night.

Tonight I am going to launch of Wigtown The Festival which is a book festival for young people by young people specifically for ages 14 - 25 and a growing part of The Wigtown Book Festival.  You can find the schedule for all events on the groups Facebook page. 


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