All roads lead to Wigtown for annual book festival

An annual festival of literature is getting under way in Scotland's national book town.

Comedians, politicians, poets and novelists will be among those hosting events in Wigtown over the next 10 days.

The popular festival will mark Scotland's Year of Food and Drink, with many culinary talks and activities.

The relationship between city and country will also be a central theme in its "most diverse programme yet".

Highlights of Wigtown Book Festival are expected to include talks by authors including Christopher Brookmyre and Val McDermid.

Stand-up Phill Jupitus will discuss books that have inspired him, from the work of Charles Dickens to Alice in Wonderland.

Children's author Mairi Hedderwick, who wrote the Katie Morag books, will also chat about her life and work with Finn McCreath.

Phill Jupitus was a regular panellist on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, alongside comedians including Jack Whitehall and Noel Fielding

Mairi Hedderwick wrote the Katie Morag books which have now been made into a successful children's television series

Marjorie Lofti Gill will read poems written by visitors to the Spring Fling open galleries event in May

Former first minister Alex Salmond and Vince Cable, the Lib Dem business secretary in the coalition UK government, are also on the bill.

Other events included in the line-up include Wigtown's Got Talent, a contest which pits visitors, locals and authors against each other to win a coveted golden pencil.

Poems created by visitors to the Spring Fling open studios weekend in the May will be presented by Marjorie Lofti Gill in The Poetry of Art.

As writer in residence at Spring Fling, she held workshops where members of the public were encouraged to respond to pieces of art on show in a number of studios.

Ms Gill said: "The response was tremendous, we had around 150 submissions, many from the workshops and some from overseas - as far away as the USA and Rajasthan. I will be reading around 20 of these poems, and some of my own works, at Wigtown.

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