Don't Cha Wish Your....

Literary Festival was hot like this?

What? You missed it again? Fear not, the Wigtown Book Festival runs until Sunday, the 3rd of October. Meanwhile, some pictures of the opening Saturday.

Here's Pam at the noon launch of I Remember, I Remember by the Crichton Writers. The venue was The Old Bank Bookshop, which I highly recommend. It is a maze of delight. The reading was a daze of delight; the voices as diverse as the books on the shelves.

Two writers had to rush from that reading to their joint launch at 1.30pm in The Ink Pot, which was not an ink pot but a yurt. Important task to be done before the reading. See below.

Me with the sandwich, Vivien Jones with the carrot cake. The reading went very well; Vivien and I complement each other. I tend to the sledgehammer-between-the-eyes school of emotional engagement during my readings, whilst Vivien's poetry is far slyer - she will sneak up behind you in the queue and then do that thing when you knee someone in the back of their knee. It's intelligent poetry, finely observed and frequently very funny.

Here's an extract from 'Verses For The 79 Bus (Carlisle To Dumfries)' , a four-part poem of incidents on a journey.

II

What now?

Why is George (autistic)

Rolling his head back

howling with delight?

Seen a rainbow,

Whole one,

Whole bloody one,

One foot in New Abbey,

The other in Ruthwell.

Dan (Downs Syndrome)

Sees it too,

smiles.

We (normal) look away

Don't meet his eye,

whatever you do.

You might have to admit

rainbows make you smile too.

(learning difficulties - me?)

You can read more in Vivien's new poetry collection, About Time, Too, published by Indigo Dreams Publishing here: http://www.indigodreams.co.uk/

And after the reading we had the signing and selling, which was good too. Facilitating husband had given prior permission for me to hang about and go to The Prospect Magazine Discussion - What's the Big Idea - with Anatole Kaletsky, Ian Macwhirter, Richard Holloway and David Goodhart. From the programme blurb - 'Our panel of thinkers suggests where new inspiration - economic, political and cultural - will come from.'

Well, head said 'Go to it' but good old heart and the banknotes now in my purse whispered somewhat more insistently 'Browse, buy and bugger about'. So I did the latter. Take a walk with me.

Brilliant sunshine on The County Buildings. All day

The Ink PotCarolyn Yates, the Dumfries and Galloway Literature Development Officer. Smiley. And that's Ken, who helps her but not in any official capacity. You guessed it! Another facilitating husband!

The Wigtown Beach is always popular

As is the Book Doctor. Step inside the VW van for help on what to read next, or feedback on your writing.

Amongst the books, there was bowling all day

And the Saturday Market. Didn't buy the horse

Didn't order a cake. The lovely cake lady gave me her card so I could mention her name, but I can't find it! Fifteen different Coffee Club cards, all with only one stamp on, but no cake lady card. Cake lady, if you do drop in, leave your name and details in the comments, and I'll add them here.

Hooray! The Cake Lady came! She's Kirsty, of Kirstycakes at http://www.kirstycakes.co.uk/

But I did buy the big brown plant with the red flower in the bottom picture. It is allegedly Canadian, and loves really cold winters. Steven? Kat? Recognise it?

Wigtown becomes a Tent-town during the Festival

Tea break. Jam and chutney in the bag, plus two Dandy annuals.

Inspiration for window boxes?Or window boxes for inspiration?And guess whose handwriting this is?

JK herself, with some deleted pages from Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets. On display at the ReadingLasses bookshop

Which also has a lovely poster in the toilet. And, weirdly, a bath

After all that delight, it was back to the grind on Monday (work and university) and Tuesday, when by chance I happened to be in Stranraer for a meeting. Well, it wasn't a chance meeting. Driving home on the A75 I was passed by a silver Bentley Continental, and this had to be some author or celebrity or politician leaving the Festival after his or her reading.

If I won the Lottery I would not purchase a Bentley. A Bentley is not a car you could thrash, and I need a car that I can thrash. And there is such a car, that looks just like a Bentley if you drive it fast enough (I would! I would!) and I have lusted after it for several years now. It is the Chrysler 300C, black please with the tinted windows. Like this.

Now it's obviously been a fantasy, but troublesomely there was a Hot Holy Shit moment in my life today whilst putting diesel (diesel!) in my grey bus. My thrashed grey bus. On the forecourt of Border Cars, looking straight at me, was the car above. £8,995. With 156,000 miles on the clock (yes, I asked). I only need £8,990 to buy it, which somehow seems terribly achievable.

Does anyone know the going rate for a kidney in China?