5 Questions with Anne Dunford

Tell us about your connection to Wigtown and the Book Festival

The first time I became aware of the Book Festival was the day we moved up here - just before the last weekend in September 2002. We had booked into the Glaisnock for B&B the day before we were due to get the keys for our house and start to move in. We'd been told that we were lucky - they had a vacancy that night, but were fully booked after that because of the festival. We had no idea what that meant!

From 2003 onwards, I've volunteered- taking tickets and helping in the box office. Going along to as many events as possible throughout the week and being surrounded by authors and book lovers; for a bookaholic, it's like being let loose in a brewery of words.

Around ten years ago, I also helped with children's events and ran some Making Books workshops for 5-11 year olds and that was great fun.

Now, we're hoping to find a house nearer to Wigtown - then I won't have a 20 mile round trip each day!

 

Sum up your festival experience in 5 words

Unmissable, unforgettable, inspiring, hectic, brilliant

 

What's your favourite festival memory?

Impossible to single out one favourite, possibly the very first time I took part and thought WOW - how fantastic.

 

Who would be your dream author to appear at the Festival?

If I could bring them back to life - Samuel Beckett or Seamus Heaney, but I'd love to see the poet Michael Longley, Vikram Seth, Kazuo Ishiguro, Judith Kerr or my gardening guru Monty Don (who has been once but I didn't get to speak to him) ...is that too many dreams? I could go on ...Homer, Shakespeare, Chaucer  ...

 

Give our visitors one recommendation or top tip for Wigtown, the Festival or D&G

Make sure you've been to all the bookshops in Wigtown as they're all very different and well worth exploring then, if you have the time, get out and discover Whithorn and the Isle of Whithorn too.