Countdown to Wigtown Book Festival

The Wigtown Book Festival is upon us later this month (22 Sept to 1 Oct 2017).

This year's programme contains a host of literary goodies - from Andrew O'Hagan, Bella Bathurst, Iain Sinclair and Andrew Greig (all Sat 23 Sept) to the award-winning Kapka Kassabova (Sun 1 Oct), Dame Denise Mina (Sept 30), Chris Brookmyre (25 Sept) and former Guardian foreign editor Charlie English's acclaimed The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu (Sat 30 Sept) .

There are also some brilliant new voices to discover in fiction and nonfiction - including memoirist Miranda Doyle (A Book of Lies, 23 Sept) and novelists Gail Honeyman (Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, 26 Sept), Marie-Elsa Bragg (Towards Mellbreak, 23 Sept) and Ever Dundas (Goblin, 23 Sept)

Festivalgoers will also be among the first in the country to get sight of some new books by feted authors, with sneak previews of the new Graeme Macrae Burnet (28 Sept), Philip Ardagh's long-awaited guide to all things Moomin and the life of Tove Jansson (Sun 1) and historian Rachel Hewitt's first work since her highly-praised biography of the Ordnance Survey (28 Sept).

A day of poetry events, to coincide with the Wigtown Poetry Competitition announcement, takes place on Sat 30 Sept and features Polly Atkin, Claire Askew, Stuart Paterson, Myles Campbell, Matthew Fitt and Ryan van Winkle. 

Familiar names attending including Angus Roxburgh, Martin Bell, Mary Contini, Sir Tom Devine, Alan Johnson and Roy Hattersley (Tickets still available for all of these at time of writing).

General themes include Europe, Revolutions and Scotland's Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology.

For more information, click here