Festival Events That Have Caught My Eye
Isla Rosser-Owen, WFC Chief Exec gives us her 2026 festival picks
This year’s programme by the brilliant Lee Randall is a sweet shop of irresistible goodies. There’s something to stir nostalgia, spark curiosity, challenge assumptions, and send you happily down unexpected paths. Here are just a few of the events that have caught my eye so far, which I hope will pique your interest too.
1. Mathijs Deen – Down Old Roads
As someone with Dutch forebears, I’m thrilled we’re welcoming the award-winning Dutch writer Mathijs Deen to this year’s festival. But that’s not the only reason this event appeals to me. I love finding out about the hidden stories of seemingly ordinary places, discovering the unexpected threads that connect people and places with the past. Down Old Roads sounds like an invitation to do just that – to wander along Europe’s ancient roads and meet the warriors and refugees, bandits and pilgrims, fortune-seekers and conquerors who travelled them. I have a real soft spot for books that blend history and travel with personal reflection. I hope we’ll come away looking at the roads beneath our feet rather differently.
Mathijs Deen will be talking to Stuart Kelly at 4.30pm on Friday 25 September. Find out more about the event here.
2. Shara Atashi, Sana Nassari & Marjorie Lotfi – Iranian Women's Voices
Against the backdrop of the current US incursion into Iran, this feels like an essential conversation for us to be having, from the perspectives of women who have each experienced in different ways the complexities of life under the modern Iranian regime as well as the often-confused opinions of outside observers. This event will feature both stunning creative work and some challenging personal accounts, and what better way to ask confronting questions than through the media of poetry, film, photography and music?
Iranian Women’s Voices, sponsored by WritersMosaic, takes place at 6pm on Sunday 27 September. Find out more here.
3. Robin Yassin-Kassab – The Blood Between Us: Syria After the Fall of Assad
As a former student of Arabic, Syria is a country I’ve always felt drawn to but have never managed to visit. Thinking about the utter devastation that this country has experienced in recent years, and indeed for many decades, I selfishly regret never having made it there, realising that the Syria I once imagined visiting as a young student – with its awe-inspiring centuries-old architecture – is probably a Syria that no longer exists (and perhaps it was always a Syria that existed only in my imagination). With the country now standing at a crossroads, I’m really interested to find out what British-Syrian commentator Robin Yassin-Kassab thinks about its future without the Assad regime. Will the new government embrace justice or will old divisions reignite violence?
Robin Yassin-Kassab will be in conversation with Brian Taylor at 12 noon on Monday 28 September. Find out more here.
4. Manni Coe & Reuben Coe – Little Ruins: Rebuilding a Life
Manni and Reuben Coe are just a tonic for the world! My niece has Down’s Syndrome – or, as Reuben rightly calls it, ‘Up Syndrome’ – so I am very personally invested in this event. I have been following the Coe brothers for a few years now and have been lucky enough to hear them talk on a couple of occasions about their heartwarming, at times heartbreaking, experiences as brothers trying to navigate a broken care system. Their beautifully written first book, brother.do.you.love.me., is now one of my all-time favourites. I’m looking forward to finding out more of their story with Manni’s recent book, Little Ruins, a memoir about the healing power of nature and community set against the Andalusian landscape. With stunning endorsements of the book from Clare Balding and Clover Stroud, this event is a must-see – do take the opportunity to come and meet this charming duo.
Manni and Reuben will be talking to Gerda Stevenson at 4.30pm on Monday 28 September. Get your tickets here for what will be a gorgeous conversation.
5. Lesley Ferguson – Wanderings with a Camera: The Photography of Erskine Beveridge
I first came across the photography of Erskine Beveridge when I was living on North Uist, where his book on the archaeology and topography of the island was pretty much required reading for any newcomer like me. As a fan of photography, his work fascinates me – not only do his images capture the landscapes and seascapes of a bygone era, and haunt the imaginations of those examining them, but his archaeological excavations, particularly in and around North Uist, were hugely significant. Hundreds of discovered glass-plate negatives of landscapes, harbours and archaeological sites across Scotland reveal him to have been one of the finest amateur photographers of his generation. This will be a fascinating exploration of his collection with the researcher who knows his work best.
Lesley Ferguson will offer an illustrated talk about Beveridge’s collection at 6pm on Monday 28 September. Find out more here.
6. Samantha Ellis – Chopping Onions On My Heart
I have a particular fascination with the languages and dialects that inhabit the Middle East, so I’m hugely interested in Samantha Ellis’s book about the Iraqi Jewish heritage of her parents. In her life-affirming memoir, Samantha discovers the healing power of dancing to her ancestors’ music, cooking up their recipes and sharing their stories. I’m particularly looking forward to hearing about her encounters with demon bowls, the perils of kohl and the unexpected joys of fusion food, all of which leads Samantha to ask what we might need to let go of to preserve our culture, and ourselves, in what The Observer has called “an optimistic and wryly funny book”.
Samantha Ellis will be in conversation with Kat Hill at 3pm on Tuesday 29 September. Find out more about the event here.
7. Anne-Marie Te Whiu – Mettle
Anne-Marie Te Whiu joins us this year as part of a Cove Park/Varuna International Writers’ Exchange programme. Australian-born of Māori heritage, Anne-Marie is a seasoned writer, poet, cultural producer and weaver – and we’re excited to be welcoming her to Wigtown Book Festival during her residency in Scotland. Anne-Marie will be sharing her new poetry book, Mettle, hailed as a remarkable collection that speaks to the complexity of family, identity and the proud legacy of Māori language and culture. Woven into her work are the many fascinating stories that Anne-Marie carries with her, such as that of her great-aunt, Dame Whina Cooper, who led a 29-day Māori land rights march from Te Hapua Marae to Wellington in 1975, when she was 79 years old. This is a chance to discover a dynamic voice from the other side of the world.
Anne-Marie Te Whiu will be talking to Julia Farrington at 12 noon on Thursday 1 October (also National Poetry Day). Get your tickets here.
Anne-Marie will also offer a poetry workshop that embraces multiple creative formats. Join her for Weaving Poetic Diamonds at 10.30am on Friday 2 October.
8. Dee Lawlor – Scotsferatu: The Vampire in Scottish Culture and Folklore
What’s not to love about a 16th-century vampire from Galloway? Possibly due to a childhood steeped in Celtic folklore and tales of sinister fairy folk (the sith), I have always had a morbid fascination with horror stories and the supernatural, so this event is right up my street! I’m looking forward to finding out more about Scotland’s apparently rich blood-sucking past – and not-so-distant past, if Lochmaben Castle’s spooky resident, last spotted in the 1990s, is anything to go by. Scotland can even lay claim to being Bram Stoker’s inspiration for Dracula’s Castle. This event promises to be fascinatingly creepy and I am definitely here for that!
Dee Lawlor will be in conversation with Bryan Burnett at 6pm on Thursday 1 October. Find out more here.
Dee Lawlor
Olia Hercules - Image credit: Joe Woodhouse
Tharik Hussain
9. Olia Hercules – Strong Roots: A Ukrainian Family Story, Interrupted
I first saw Ukrainian chef Olia Hercules speak at the excellent Boswell Book Festival back in May and was immediately captivated by her family’s story – one that spans a century, from the days of Stalin, famine and gulags right up to the current Russian invasion. Olia’s book offers us a truly personal story of Ukraine told through the generations of her family, via their stories and through the recipes they passed down through the years. Pairing Olia with thoughtful interviewer and restaurant critic Chitra Ramaswamy is a perfect choice and this will be a moving and thoroughly engaging conversation, and a reminder of how much the human spirit can endure when born from a land rich with strong roots.
Olia Hercules will be talking to Chitra Ramaswamy at 10.30am on Saturday 3 October. Get those tickets here.
10. Tharik Hussain – Muslim Europe: A Journey in Search of a Fourteen Hundred Year History
With Islamophobia on the rise, European Muslims inhabit a world of contradictions: too often made to feel like outsiders in the places they call home. Tharik Hussain’s timely, revelatory new book offers a powerful corrective to the persistent assumption that Muslims – and Islam – are alien to Europe. Part history, part travelogue and part personal quest, Hussain's myth-busting account uncovers the forgotten and overlooked Muslim histories that are woven into the continent's cultural, political, economic and social fabric from Sicily to Spain and Portugal, Malta to Cyprus. Written with the curiosity and warmth that have made him an award-winning travel writer, and with enthusiastic endorsements from the likes of William Dalrymple and Colin Thubron, this is a book that doesn't just challenge what we think we know about Europe's past – it asks us to rethink who gets to belong in its story.
I’m looking forward to chairing this event with Tharik Hussain at 12 noon on Sunday 4 October – please come and join us, whether in person or online! You can find out more about the event here.
~ Isla Rosser-Owen, WFC CEO