People

Adrian Turpin - Artistic Director

Adrian has been involved in the  Wigtown Book Festival since 2006 when he began to help with booking authors as a volunteer. Under his creative leadership, the festival has won a Creative Places Award, Thistle Award and Arts & Business Scotland Award. As well as programming, he is responsible for the strategic development of Wigtown Festival Company and is leading on the Spot-Lit Literary Tourism project. A journalist by training, he formerly worked as an editor and writer for The Independent, The Scotsman and The Sunday Times among others. He has a BA in English Literature from the University of Oxford and diploma in journalism from the City University, London. In 2017, he received an OBE for service to literature and the economy of Wigtownshire.

Anne Barclay - Operational Director

Born and raised in Wigtown, Anne returned to the area after graduating in 2006 and has worked for the company since 2007. Anne is responsible for the day to day operations of the company, as well as fundraising and accounts. Having witnessed the desolation Wigtown experienced in the late 80s and early 90s, Anne thrives on seeing the town flourish, with busy streets and shops brimming with happy customers. She loves working with our army of volunteers and dedicated staff team to help others experience Wigtown's unique charms.

Andy Stewart - Producer (Children and Young People)

Andy joined us in the summer of 2019 to lead our CYPE portfolio into a new and exciting phase. A former media and fine arts student in his home city of Durham, Andy is now studying Business Management at the Open University. Andy is a judge for the Diverse Book Awards and a director at Visible Fictions, an innovative and dynamic creative production house based in Glasgow. Our CYPE portfolio is expansive and Andy is responsible for the production and delivery of Wigtown YA; Hooked - a young writers' weekend; Big Wig - the children's programme at Wigtown Book Festival; Big DoG - Scotland's only stand-alone children's book festival; The Big DoG School's Tour; education & outreach programmes; Wigtownshire Young Writers & Book Bridge - young reader and writer development groups; Book Week Scotland & Live Literature programmes; and youth recruitment, development and accreditation. You can find Andy on Twitter @ThatAndyStewart.

Emma Robinson - Event Coordinator

Born and raised in Wigtownshire, Emma has been involved with Wigtown Festival Company for many years, beginning with introducing children's events, to becoming a founding member of Wigtown YA and most recently joining the team as Event Coordinator. Emma studied French and Education at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, graduating in 2020. For a time, she lived in Chambéry and Dijon, France, where she relished the chance to develop her French speaking skills. She has always been passionate about Wigtown and the surrounding area and loves seeing the community come together. She is thrilled to have such an active part in encouraging the artistic and literary activity in Wigtown.

Rosie Littler-Davis - Admin Assistant

Rosie, born and brought up locally, joined the Book Festival Team in September 2021, shortly after graduating from Dundee University with an Honours degree in Biomedical sciences. Rosie oversees our online bookshop and manages the database, as well as running The Kist; our biannual art fair showcasing local talent. Her role as Administrative Assistant also includes room bookings, answering phones and stock control. Rosie is passionate about animal welfare, sustainability, climate change and books. Her hobbies include music composition and foraging. She thoroughly enjoys the community feel and spirit of Wigtown and is looking forward to developing her role within the Company.

Bee Williams - Marketing Manager

Children’s literature enthusiast and aspiring author, Bee is deeply passionate about good storytelling. She is therefore thrilled to be a part of the Book Festival mission of cultivating the literary culture of the region. As Marketing Manager, Bee oversees marketing strategy, campaigns and content creation, including email marketing, social media administration, asset design, copywriting and market research. Bee also manages the Wigtown Book Festival website and is responsible for ticketing administration. Bee writes in her spare time and has won a number of literary competitions, most recently long-listed for the Mslexia Flash Fiction Award. She has two young children and enjoys writing and performing folk music.

Sandra McDowell - Chair

Born and raised in Wigtownshire, Sandra moved to Wigtown in 1969 where she and husband Allan raised their family, started a business and became embedded in the local community. A Councillor with Dumfries & Galloway Council for 13 years, she has been involved in Book Town since the concept was nothing more than a dream in 1996 and has been a constant champion for the town’s development ever since. She has served on the Board of Wigtown Festival Company since it became a charity in 2007 and is currently the Chair of the charity. She continues to advocate for and in the region and is Chair of Wigtown & District Community Council and Wigtown Community Promotions the organisation responsible for The Wigtown Market, Vice-Chair of the Galloway National Park Association and a Trustee of Crossroads Care and Wigtownshire Women’s Aid. In her spare time Sandra enjoys gardening and spending time with friends and family, particularly her four grandchildren.

Roger Davis - Vice-Chair

Raised in Edinburgh, Roger moved from the Highlands with his young family to the Wigtown area in 1998 and has no intention of leaving. He has a background in professional social work and social work education having recently completed a 20 year career with the Open University as a social work lecturer/senior lecturer and latterly senior academic manager. Roger continues to sit as a panel member on Mental Health Tribunals and locally is a volunteer delivery driver with the Food Train. Roger joined the book festival volunteer team in 2019 and the WFC board of Trustees later that year. At the AGM in February 2021 he was appointed as WFC Vice-Chair. He retains a longstanding interest in the arts generally as well as in a range of outdoor pursuits including digging holes in the garden and on the golf course.

Gerry Hassan

Gerry Hassan is Professor of Social Change at Glasgow Caledonian University. He has written and edited over two dozen books on Scottish, UK politics and social change including The Strange Death of Labour Scotland (2012), Caledonian Dreaming: The Quest for a Different Scotland (2014), and The People’s Flag and Union Jack: An Alternative History of Britain and the Labour Party (2019). Several of his books have been regularly used as key texts in universities, schools, as exam texts and have appeared as core texts on the French National Curriculum.

Gerry has a track record of events organisation – as producer of Changin Scotland from 2002-15, to co-director of Scotland’s Festival of Ideas (2014-16), and co-founder of Govanhill Book Festival (2019-21). He has worked in futures thinking and led Scotland 2020 and Glasgow 2020 – leading to the much cited publications: Scotland 2020: Hopeful Stories for a Northern Nation (2005) and The Dreaming City: Glasgow 2020 and the Power of Mass Imagination (2007). Gerry lives in Kirkcudbright and is Book Editor of Bella Caledonia and his writing and research can be found at: www.gerryhassan.com

Cathy Agnew

Cathy’s professional career has always been involved with the arts – initially working for the BBC in London and New York before becoming a freelance documentary television film researcher and producer.

Since moving to south-west Scotland 35 years ago, she has continued to pursue a working life in the arts, mainly focussing on rural cultural development and regeneration. She set up the South West Scotland Screen Commission; the CatStrand Arts and Community Centre in New Galloway; and was Project Director for the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust in Dumfries – a project to create a National Centre for Children’s Literature in the very place that inspired JM Barrie’s Peter Pan.

Cathy was the founding Chairman of DGUnlimited, a charitable organisation that seeks to bring together and promote a network for Dumfries and Galloway’s artists and creative sector. A former Chairman of LEADER, Cathy is also a Trustee of the Crawick Multiverse in Sanquhar, an extraordinary land art park in a former coal-mine, created by Charles Jencks.

Beth Cochrane

A writer and poet based in Edinburgh, Beth first became involved with the Wigtown Book Festival in 2015 as an Events Assistant, before joining its Board as a Young(ish) Trustee in 2017. She provides support in areas such as working with young people and has specialist knowledge in contemporary Scottish poetry. She has worked with the Scottish Poetry Library as Events & Volunteers Manager and is currently the Events and Learning Coordinator at the National Library of Scotland, as well as Commissioning Editor for independent poetry press, Stewed Rhubarb. Her writing has appeared with publishers such as 404 Ink, Gutter, SPAM, Speculative Books and Riggwelter. Beth is a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Awardee (2018) and a Cove Park Emerging Writer in Residence (2021).

Philippa Cochrane

Head of Reading Communities at Scottish Book Trust, Philippa has 25 years’ experience of working in the arts. She currently leads the delivery of Book Week Scotland and all of Scottish Book Trust's programmes for adults and the organisations Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory group. She is passionate about the impact that reading and writing for pleasure can have in learning, mental health and wellbeing, and in supporting people's creativity and sense of connection across communities. Philippa brings her experience in literature programming, schools, adult and community learning, programme design and delivery, and large-scale event management to her role as a Wigtown Board Member. She is also always willing to talk greyhounds and cookbooks with anyone!

Sarah Nyland - Treasurer

When Sarah returned to the UK after nearly 25 years away, she relocated to Wigtown, with her small but notable dog Narco. She had spent nearly 30 years working for Colgate-Palmolive, mainly as a Corporate Management Accountant, and latterly as a Trainer. Her roles took her all over the world, including living in New York, Paris, Poland and Switzerland, and many other interesting places. She officially joined the Wigtown Festival Company Board as their Treasurer in February 2020. Sarah also serves as a Finance Consultant to the Autumn Voices group. Her interests include her dogs, walking, cooking and of course reading. Sarah works part time as a personal/finance mentor.  

Nicholas Walker

Nick grew up in New Zealand but has lived in Scotland for three decades, working as an NHS psychiatrist. He has always had an interest in community projects and the Arts. He has been involved in various community groups, from developing a community garden in Renfrewshire to setting up Wigtown & Bladnoch Community Initiative, and overseeing its purchase of the former Bank of Scotland in the town and its conversion into affordable tenancies and a small bunkhouse hotel.  Since moving to Wigtown in 2010, he has become a Community Councillor and published a book by local historians about Wigtown's WW1 Victoria Cross winner. He has been a volunteer for the Wigtown Book Festival but is now too busy as he is part of the Beltie Books & Café team contributing directly to Scotland's National Book Town. He became a Trustee of Wigtown Festival Company in February 2020.