It’s a surprise today to find a small rural town with a bookshop. It’s an even bigger surprise to find that the town has not one but 13 bookshops as well as a good library ! But this is no ordinary town – this is Wigtown, Scotland’s National Book Town, home to around one thousand people and more than 250,000 books.
The biggest of Wigtown’s booksellers is called simply The Bookshop – it doesn’t look like much , but this is in fact Scotland’s largest bookshop. Walking through the dark green door is like entering Aladdin’s cave. Books of every size, shape, colour and content are arranged like treasure on shelves, in boxes, piled up on the floor, stacked in every corner. It’s like a junk shop , museum and book rescue charity combined.
PLACES TO READ On the other side of the main street, down a narrow lane and almost hidden by vegetation, Byre Books is a smaller, more intimate space. Being a Book Town also means providing somewhere for people to read. So there is no shortage of coffee houses and tearooms and many bookshops have their own café. For those in need of something stronger, a visit to nearby Bladnoch Distillery is recommended.
COSMOPOLITAN Wigtown officially became Scotland’s National Book Town in 1998. Each year since, at the end of September, the town has celebrated its annual book festival, with a smaller spring festival in early May. As the marquees go up and the crowds of book lovers arrive, Wigtown is transformed into a vibrant carnival of books.
Wigtown is popular with artists and writers as well as nature lovers. For a small town it is also surprisingly cosmopolitan, home to people from France, Austria, Norway and other parts of the world. Life in Wigtown moves at a different pace . Time seems to pass more slowly. And while there has been much speculation about the survival of books in the modern world, if one place proves their popularity beyond all doubt, it is surely here.
If you go... Situated on the Machars Peninsula in the southwest corner of Scotland, Wigtown is actually nearer to Belfast in Northern Ireland than to the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. A short distance to the south lie the mountains of the English Lake District. Wigtown Bay is a protected nature reserve packed with rare wildlife . The beautiful natural surroundings offer walking, cycling, birdwatching and much more. Wigtown is located off the A75, 140 km south of Glasgow Airport. Don’t miss the annual book festival: www.wigtownbookfestival.com
For further information go to:www.wigtown-booktown.co.uk
(PLAY THE AUDIO) INTERVIEW: A PARADISE FOR BOOK LOVERS Wigtown is a small rural town in Scotland that was officially honoured with the title of National Book Town in 1998. Home to an annual book festival in early autumn, Wigtown caters to book lovers all year round with its impressive range of book-related businesses. Carl Davis is the owner of the Glaisnock café, guest house and bookshop. Born in Birmingham, a big city in the English Midlands, Carl moved to Wigtown eight years ago in search of the quiet life, and to start a business – a decision that he has never regretted . As he told Speak Up , life in Wigtown is anything but dull :
Carl Davis (Birmingham accent): For a small town of around one thousand people it’s [a] very cosmopolitan feeling with people from all over the world who have moved here. We have neighbours that are French, Austrian, Norwegian – it’s [an] absolutely fabulous mix of people for such a small town. With the Book Town status and the book festival, we get more than our fair share of culture and cultural events. We’ve had everything from Masai warriors to groups of journalists from Iceland who were here to look at creating a book town where they were from. So it really does put us on the map in certain areas of the world that you’d never expect to find people sort of walking down your high street !
SLOW LIVING So what sort of person decides to move to rural Scotland?
Carl Davis: We do attract a lot of artistic type people and people looking to spend a bit more time on themselves rather than in the rat race . I’m sure in the 70s people would use the word ‘hippie’ but I think it’s completely different. There’s a lot of educated individuals that moved here who can now work from home because of the joys of the internet. We have great artist communities, we have great vibrant yoga groups, tai chi groups. I think the slower pace and the natural beauty lets you step back and take that in and makes you realise there’s a bit more to the world than being stuck in traffic jams every morning.
ECLECTIC MIX And what sort of bookshops do you find in Wigtown?
Carl Davis: There’s quite an eclectic mix throughout the bookshops. I’m proud that Wigtown still has an Association of Booksellers, which is rare in the modern world. I’m lucky enough to chair that at the current moment. We actively promote Wigtown, the bookshops, and we do work together. There is obviously an overlap in the product that we sell, but I do feel that each shop individually has its own charm, its own beauty. And most of it, because they are owned and run by the owners, I think their personality comes through in the business.
THE PERSONAL TOUCH And, Carl confirms, people still seem to be attached to conventional books in the age of tablets and e-readers:
Carl Davis: Indeed . Indeed. I think there’s something you can’t replace with books, you know? The feel, the hold, the smell... the joy of rummaging through a bookshop. I do believe that book sales are now rising again compared to sort of downloads, which is wonderful. I think there is a magic, a charm, a personal feel with books that I don’t think will ever go away. When you buy a book, you’re not just buying the book, you’re actually buying the belief that you’re gonna have the time to read and enjoy that book and I think that’s something that you can never compare against downloading something from the internet. So I truly believe that bookshops and book towns will carry on.