Wigtown - Discovering what makes a great Book Town

On a recent visit to the sleepy coastal village of Port William, south-west Scotland, imagine my delight when I discovered that Wigtown, Scotland’s famous book town, was a mere ten minutes drive away. Twelve bookstores in one pretty rural location; I couldn’t wait to explore.

But what exactly makes a book town?

Well according to the all-knowing Wikipedia ‘A book town is a town or village with a large number of used book or antiquarian bookstores. These stores, as well as literary festivals, attract book-loving tourists’. Count me in!

Further Google searches revealed that Wigtown was in excellent company. Other globally recognised book towns include, where it all began - Hay-on-Wye, Wales; Hobart Book Village, New York; Fjaerland, Norway, with countries as disparate as Spain, Australia, Italy, Belgium, Malaysia and Canada all proudly encouraging the ‘Book Town’ philosophy.   

So why did Scotland choose Wigtown?

Well during my visit to The Old Bank Bookshop I had the pleasure of meeting the proprietors, Joyce and Ian Cochrane, along with their daughter Helena, where Joyce kindly explained that after the collapse of the local economy, when the town’s main employers, the whisky distillery and creamery, were forced to close, this remote rural town was struggling to survive. Fortunately, its regeneration was secured when Wigtown won a national search, beating off stiff competition, to create Scotland’s first book town. Booksellers, including Joyce and Ian, quickly snapped up empty premises, establishing over a dozen bookshops and highly successful literary festival.

Bookshops with personality...

Whilst I was browsing the five rooms of high quality antiquarian books on sale at

The Old Bank Bookshop, Joyce was keen to share that some 250 years ago, the building was used as a customs house, before it was bought, 100 years later by the City of Glasgow bank. However, records show the directors of the City of Glasgow bank were found guilty of indulging in some creative accounting and were sentenced to lengthy periods in jail – little changes! The original safe makes for an unusual feature in this truly unique bookstore.

Crossing the wide main street, my next stop was Curly Tale Books, specialising mainly in children’s and young adult literature, where I received a warm welcome from publisher and author, Jayne Baldwin. Here’s Jayne seated outside Curly Tale Books on what is affectionately known as ‘the Beltie bench’. Painted in black and white, the bench is a tribute to the iconic Belted Galloway cattle, which dot the surrounding countryside. To find out more about Jayne's writing, you can watch her recent television appearance on Border Life here.   

Next door we find the oldest bookstore in Wigtown, aptly named  The Bookshop. Claiming to be Scotland’s largest second hand bookstore, The Bookshop has no less than nine quirky rooms to investigate. This is the kind of heaven I used to dream of as a child; row upon row of books, leading ever deeper into the depths of the bookstore.

 After an hour or two browsing, I was ready for some coffee and cake, so made a welcome stop at the trendy, newly refurbished ReadingLasses Bookshop and café. Comfy sofas, Peggy Lee’s Fever playing in the background, over 8000 books on sale in the shop and another 10000 stored in the ‘Hut’ (an old WW2 telephone exchange), there was plenty to keep the most avid bookworm happy whilst enjoying their coffee. The thing that attracted me to the

ReadingLasses café though, was that their front room is dedicated to books ‘by and about women', proudly stocking directly from Persephone Books. A publishing house specialising in reprinting neglected fiction and non-fiction by mid-twentieth century women writers.

My only disappointment during my visit to Wigtown was that The Open Book, which offers an unusual holiday experience, welcoming guests from all over the world to stay and run a bookshop in the middle of Scotland’s book town, was closed on the day I visited… I supposed you've guessed, I’d love to try that some day!

Making new friends...

As well as the terrific selection of books Wigtown has to offer, it was the wonderful friendly welcome I received that made such fond holiday memories. Thankfully, Wigtown’s annual book festival, running from late September to early October, provides the perfect excuse to return.

Now, which other book towns might I explore... 

New Year, New Faces, New Views..

Novel Points of View is introducing a few changes for 2016. We want to say goodbye and many thanks to Jenny Harper and Mary Smith, and a big hello and welcome to new members Rae Cowie (writer), Jennie Bohnet (writer) and Neil Donald (photographer). We’re really looking forward to having new voices – and amazing photographs – in the weeks and months ahead. 
 

 To get things rolling we have asked each of our new members to give us three words or phrases that best describe their creativity. And also to tell us a little bit about themselves. Over to you, Neil… 

 

 

 

 

Hello and many thanks to the Novel Points of View team for inviting me to join their  gang. 
 

New year, new challenges. I will let you into a little secret, in the photo above you will see me Neil, the one in the suit, and my better half Audrey. She is the one writing the blog as I struggle to string sentences together but she will be writing in the first person, as me, so not confusing at all. 

 

I am a landscape photographer, who has learned through trial and error. I initially started with the camera on my phone and was more interested in the paranormal, taking photos in supposedly haunted castles, and Aberdeenshire has no shortages of castles. I then realised that I had an eye for taking photos and my love for photography and exploring our beautiful country grew, along with my camera equipment. 

 

The first word that I would use is patience, taking photographs is time consuming and waiting for the perfect light takes time. Something that I don't usually have, but when I am out in nature time seems to stop. It won’t be the first or last time that I will  have driven for a few hours to take photographs only for  the weather to turn and the only thing I can do is wait it out in the hope that it lifts. So it’s good that I am happy with my own company. 

 

Coast is my second word, originally a city boy until the age of 23, I moved to the North East of Scotland from Birmingham. A bit random you may think but my parents are originally from this area. Over the years I have always been drawn to the sea and the coastline and this has become a major source of inspiration for my photographs. I can visit the same spot every day and it will change every time according to the height of the tide or the shifting of sands. I am lucky enough to live a moments walk from one of the most beautiful beaches in Scotland (this is my personal view). 

 

 

The final word that I would use that helps gives my photographs a creative flair is light. The golden hour of sunrise or sunset can make a photograph and the quality of the light we have had this winter has been amazing. Usually when the alarm goes off for work purposes I am reluctant to get up, however when it's my day off and the sun is rising I am up and out the door in a flash. Although I do take photographs during the day simply to satisfy my addiction to photography, it's the soft glowing light of sunrise or set that does it for me. 

 

I hope I have managed to convey my passion for taking photographs, in fact I should call it an addiction as I have two external hard drives full of photographs and I take my camera everywhere. It's a good excuse to escape the house but Audrey has now realised that if she suggests a weekend away somewhere with stunning scenery, then I'll be more than happy to oblige. So the plan for 2016 is to visit more of Scotland. 

I will be sharing my thoughts and photographs with you but if you want to take a look prior to my next blog click on the link http://on.fb.me/1RfnnlY  this will take you to my Facebook page. 

 

I am looking forward to our journey together. 

 

 

NEW YEAR, NEW FACES...

Novel Points of View is introducing a few changes for 2016. We want to say goodbye and many thanks to Jenny Harper and Mary Smith, and a big hello and welcome to new members Rae Cowie (writer), Jennie Bohnet (writer) and Neil Donald (photographer). We’re really looking forward to having new voices – and amazing photographs – in the weeks and months ahead.

To get things rolling we have asked each of our new members to give us three words or phrases that best describe their creativity. And also to tell us a little bit about themselves. Over to you, Rae…

Hello and a thousand thanks to the Novel Points of View team for inviting me to join their not-so-secret gang.

This is the perfect time of year for setting those New Year writing goals and thinking about how best to describe my creativity was just the push I needed to return to the typeface after the sloth of the festive season.

So what do I write? - Contemporary women’s fiction stuffed full of family drama with a tender sprinkling of romance.

And how best to describe my creativity? - Well I’m a bit of a chameleon when it comes to inspiration, as that magical ‘what if?’ question can be sparked by places, photographs, objects, song lyrics…anything really.

However, like most writers I’m drawn to write about what interests me and travel has always been a firm passion of mine. Part of the joy of writing, for me, is researching other cultures, finding out what makes people and places tick. My current work-in-progress, Leaving Baku, is set in Azerbaijan (to the east of Turkey, cradled by the Caspian sea). It’s the story of a young, local widow, Samira, and the relationship she develops with a Western oilman, against her family’s wishes.

Which brings me to my second phrase - family and relationships. Having been lucky enough, along with my three siblings, to be brought up in a picturesque fishing village, where community spirit was strong, perhaps it was envitable that as a writer the importance of family and friendship would feature strongly in my writing. However, just as in real life, the road any family follows is far from smooth and part of the fun in fiction writing is throwing boulders in characters paths – testing those relationships to the limit.

My final phrase links both travel and family/relationships, as I love to write of individuals who are struggling to find their place in the world, searching for where they belong, finding friendship and romance in unexpected places.

Whilst enjoying travel, I also love home which nestles in a tiny hamlet in rural NE Scotland, overlooking the fertile Ythan estuary, where geese come and go with the seasons. As well as my imaginary characters, I also have my ever-patient husband and two lively teenage sons to keep me company. I bake to relax  - think lemon drizzle cake or red velvet muffins - not exactly to Bake Off standard but good enough for my family to appreciate. Then, to work off those calories, I walk and cycle the farm roads and dirt tracks, which crisscross the surrounding fields...perhaps not quite so often as I should!   

And so, in joining the wonderfully talented Novel Points of View team, I feel I’m travelling to an exciting new land, with lots to discover and enjoy – here’s to friendships, old and new, in 2016!