The 2008 Scottish Book Town Festival will take place from 26th September to 5th October 2008

Please join us to celebrate our 10th anniversary this autumn. The full 2008 Scottish Book Town Festival programme will be launched a little later in the year but, in the meantime, we hope that the following information gives you a flavour of what the festival is about.

Last year the festival celebrated peace in Northern Ireland with First Minister, Rev Ian Paisley, giving the opening address, and a good number of Irish and Northern Irish writers in the programme. We welcomed a new audience from Belfast and the surrounding area and would like to thank Stena Line, our principal sponsor, for allowing the practicalities of cross-channel links to be undertaken in great luxury.

Amidst a growing number of book festivals, Wigtown continues to set itself apart from the crowd. We are, and always will be, Scotland’s National Book Town, with its unique concentration of bookshops, but we are not content to rest on our laurels. Last year we introduced a new theme, “On The Edge,” which will run through future festivals.

On the Edge events will reflect Wigtown’s geographical situation on the edge of the mainland, and will include talks on islands, coastlines, peripheral and remote places. Thus, you heard Brian Keenan on Alaska, Lesley Riddoch on the Outer Hebrides, or Robert Twigger recounting his quest to discover one of Egypt’s lost oases.

On the Edge events will also reflect situations where individuals go against the flow of mainstream culture. Thus, we celebrated Samye Ling Tibetan Centre’s 40th Anniversary, heard Teresa Pascual launch a Catalan poetry anthology and learnt about the wild boys of 20th century Scottish art, Robert McBride and Robert Colquhoun.

As always, I would like to thank our growing number of sponsors for their generosity, our growing band of helpers for their support, and our dedicated team of organisers for their hard work. Finally, I would like to thank the people of Wigtown for being such gracious hosts to festival visitors and for helping us try to fulfil their town motto “Let Wigtown Flourish.”

We look forward to seeing you at the festival.

Michael McCreath
Festival Director

A visit to this Festival is never just about the talks. Recent years have seen the introduction of film seasons and live music, while last autumn’s programme featured performances by the National Theatre of Scotland and the Fitzwilliam Quartet and a very special tribute to Magnus Magnusson as Wigtown played host to the inaugural Magnusson Lecture- set up by Magnus’s family to commemorate his contribution to Scotland’s intellectual life.

Other 2007 speakers included:

Allan Massie, Alasdair Gray, A C Grayling, Neal Ascherson, Malachi O`Doherty, Leslie Riddoch, Louis de Bernieres, David Pratt,  R F Foster, Janet Paisley,
Tom Morton, Jeremy Bowen, Christopher Brookmyre, Colin Bateman,
James May, Joanna Blythman, Glenn Patterson, John Walsh, Tobias Jones,
Robert Crawford, Liz Lochhead, Mark Cocker and Rosemary Goring.

2008 Festival Programme

Our 2008 programme will be available soon.
Please check back for updates.

Ticket Box Office

Phone: (01988) 403222
Email: mail@wigtownbookfestival.com

We accept the following credit and debit cards:

Visa - UK Delta, UK Electron, Purchasing, Business, Corporate, All other Visa. Mastercard - includes Purchasing, Business, Corporate, All other Mastercard. JCB - All JCB. Maestro and Solo.

Wigtown Book Festival - Scotland's National Book Town Festival
26th September - 5th October 2008