Wigtown Book Festival starts in

Festival livestream

Wigtown Book Festival 2020

24 September-4 October

Watch our events for adults and young people here on our homepage or on YouTube

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Ask a Question

Audience questions

During, or prior to, a live event you can submit your question using the form below. You can also head to our YouTube channel and submit a question there (you'll need to have a google account to ask a question, but not to watch). If you're sending a question in advance, make sure to mention which author it's for.

Thanks for submitting your question!

What's on next

Festival events for adults and young people: watch here or on YouTube.

For children's events head to the Big Wig Facebook page

 
Shaun Bythell
Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops
Thu 24 Sep - 17:00 UK
More Info
 
Alexander McCall Smith and Tom Cunningham
Ninian's Gift - World Premiere
Thu 24 Sep - 19:30 UK
More Info
 
Melinda Salisbury
Hold Back the Tide
Thu 24 Sep - 21:00 UK
More Info
 
Festival Launch
Thu 24 Sep - 22:15 UK
More Info

Coming up at Big Wig

Our children's festival, Big Wig, is streaming every day on the Big Wig Facebook page.

 
Christopher Lloyd
Britannica Quiz Show LIVE
Sat 26 Sep - 10:00 UK
More Info
 
Alan Windram
One Button Benny and the Gigantic Catastrophe
Sat 26 Sep - 12:00 UK
More Info
 
Lari Don
Fierce, Fearless and Free
Sat 26 Sep - 14:00 UK
More Info
 
Eoin McLaughlin & Polly Dunbar
While We Can’t Hug
Sat 26 Sep - 16:00 UK
More Info
Can you help us raise £20,000?
Ticket sales are normally a huge part of our income. But this year's online events are free of charge. By giving generously, you can help bridge the financial gap, secure the future of Wigtown Book Festival, and ensure we survive - and thrive - in uncertain times.
Donate
£16,862.00
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Adults

BROWSE EVENTS
A young adult in an book festival event, listening, Wigtown.

Young People

BROWSE EVENTS
Bigwig, the children's festival mascot in the town square with a young reader.

Children

BROWSE EVENTS

Festival highlights

 
Neil MacGregor
Living with the Gods
Sat 26 Sep - 17:00 UK
More Info
 
Maggie O'Farrell
Hamnet
Sun 27 Sep - 19:30 UK
More Info
 
Dean Atta
The Black Flamingo
Mon 28 Sep - 21:00 UK
More Info
 
Andrew Marr
Elizabethans
Tue 29 Sep - 11:00 UK
More Info
 
George Alagiah
The Burning Land
Thu 1 Oct - 19:30 UK
More Info
 
Kate Humble
A Year of Living Simply
Fri 2 Oct - 19:30 UK
More Info
 
Meg McLaren
The Station Mouse
Sat 3 Oct - 14:00 UK
More Info
 
Helen Macdonald
Vesper Flights
Sat 3 Oct - 19:30 UK
More Info

Essential information

An event in the large marquee, during the book festival. View from the wings of the stage towards the audience.
A WARM WELCOME

A word from us

We might have gone digital but the warm welcome is no less sincere and we hope you'll support online as much as you can.

READ
image of the wigtown book festival website on a tablet mobile device
HOW IT WORKS

Facts and FAQs

It's a learning curve for us all so we know you'll have questions. Find information here about how to join in and other questions.

READ
An empty marquee waiting for the audience to arrive, Wigtown Book Festival
HOW TO GIVE

We need you

Normally, more than half our event income comes from ticket sales. Find out how you can support this year's festival.

READ
Visit our online bookshop

Our new online bookshop stocks all the titles for the 2020 Wigtown Book Festival, bestsellers and those from our recent online programme. You'll also find our exclusive Book Bond range and the chance to order any new title we don't stock to have delivered to your door within 3 working days (subject to availability). Each sale helps support the work of Wigtown Book Festival.

Browse the Bookshop
No 11 Main Street, the Wigtown Festival Bookshop

Featured

interview

5 Questions

Esther Woolfson

23 Sep 2020
Nature writer Esther Woolfson tells us about her new book Between Light and Storm.
eleven poets for wigtown

Water birth

Fiona Lindsay

24 Sep 2020
The first in our 2020 festival series of poets from Dumfries & Galloway.
podcast

Episode 20: A writer and an artist meet in Wigtown

Astrid Jaekel and Ken Ilgunas

22 Sep 2020
This episode has a distinctive Wigtown theme as we feature Astrid Jaekel and Ken Ilgunas, a married couple who met at the Festival.
Children

Reading Is Magic Festival

27 September - 2 October 2020

27 Aug 2020
An all-star lineup of authors and illustrators present 6 days of free digital events for schools and families. Programme runs 27 Sep to 2 Oct.
News

Year of Coasts and Waters

Festival 2020

2 Sep 2020
Take a look at how we're celebrating Scotland's Year of Coasts and Waters through this year's programme and an exciting new publication.
visual arts

Exhibitions

2020 Festival

2 Sep 2020
Throughout the festival we celebrate visual arts and welcome our very first sound artist. Here's a peek at what to expect.
News

Nine D&G businesses to take part in Spot-lit

Literary tourism

14 Apr 2020
How Wigtown Book Festival is working with businesses in Dumfries & Galloway to create unique new visitor experiences inspired by literature.
story

The Ghosts of Wigtown

Karen Campbell

11 May 2020
Commissioned by the festival, author Karen Campbell has written a new tale of the supernatural which takes inspiration from Wigtown's women's history.
essay

Captain, My Captain

Shaun Bythell

10 Jul 2020
Captain the bookshop cat has become one of the unexpected stars of Shaun Bythell's Diary of a Bookseller. Here the Wigtown-based author describes his love-hate relationship with his feline companion.
review

Wigtown Ploughman revisited

Patrick Laurie

28 May 2020
Farmer turned author Patrick Laurie takes a fresh look at Wigtown Ploughman, a classic novel of rural life.
Read

The Year of Living Digitally

Adrian Turpin

5 Jun 2020
Wigtown Book Festival's artistic director Adrian Turpin on the opportunities and threats created as book festivals are forced to go digital this year.
review

Peter Pan revisited

Stuart Kelly

19 Jun 2020
As part of our series about books with Galloway connections, author Stuart Kelly revisits Peter Pan and finds a layered, complex and occasionally cruel fable about our relationship to time.
Southlight Magazine 2020 - cover image. 1970s photograph of man with horses

Southlight

The latest edition of the Dumfries & Galloway new-writing magazine

Download Southlight (.pdf)
Motif Luke 3
Galloway landscape - dry stane wall, hills and pasture
We need you

Wigtown Festival Company is commited to engaging new and existing audiences throughout the current crisis. If you would like to support our work, we would be very grateful.

Donate

Find us in Wigtown, Scotland’s National Book Town

Designated Scotland's National Book Town in 1998 - by an international panel - Wigtown is home to a community of booksellers and literary events.

Wigtown: Scotland's National Book Town. Road signage on a grassy verge
Wigtown Book Town

A community regenerated through books

Read more
A browser outside The Bookshop on Wigtown's main street
Bookshops

Wigtown is home to more than a dozen bookshops

Read more
A panel event during Wigtown Book Festival
History of the Festival

We celebrated with our 20th Festival in 2018

Read More

More than just a festival: what we do

Since the first Wigtown Book Festival in 1999, we have expanded to become an energetic arts organisation working through the year to deliver a programme of literature development activities in the Dumfries & Galloway region of south-west Scotland.

Read more about our projects
Interior of The Bookshop, Wigtown. Armchair by fireplace, bookshelves
The sort of festival people become possessive about.

The Guardian