Scotland's Town of Towns.

So I went to Wigtown for the first time today. I have been aware of Scotland's "Natural Book Time" and mocked it for its random title. Yeah, it was decided by a committee. I am kinda curious about the towns that failed to get the title.

I went to see Hannah Witton who I like enough as a YouTuber, so I thought why not go see what this place is actually like and check out them. The events were poorly planed but they are literally planned by teenagers. Maybe they should be more guidance. Talk about periods was 16+ so that some nonsense sexism, nine-year-olds deal with periods and should know about these things. For a book festival, the young adult side of the festival was mostly YouTubers who just happened to have books, more than authors that wrote for that age group.

There was no signing after the first event which was odd and would have been frustrating if I wasn't going to a straight event. I like to have signed books by writers that I have met in real life, no matter how awkward I am. I ended bumping into Hannah a few times and I said nothing to her because I am Selective Mute awkward mess.

Funfact, the events were sponsored by the same charity that paid for my driving lessons and shoes once. Fun.

The Book Town is obvious a grab for tourist, for a place a bit too far out the way for there to be any reason to go to. The architecture is the same as other towns nearby that are on the way to things that are interesting. The bookshops are cool I guess, but also I was too tired to temp to go to more than two. I went to the new kid one and the one claiming to be the biggest bookshop in Scotland. I was tempted to test that because I can't imagine that's true and you do find a lot of false of claims in Dumfries and Galloway. The sign says The BookShop, "the Largest in Scotland", the internet says used Bookshop in Scotland. Sure, probably most used bookshops couldn't get away with having a whole house dedicated to them. How does it survive? I bet it gets grants and cheap rent.

Selling point, the festival actually is set up with a bowling lawn in the centre. No one really was playing on it, but you could sit around on benches and I think about how the hell does one playing this type of bowling.

In conclusion, sure it would be cool if you lived there but even for me as someone in the same county, it's too far for just wander. I think I would only go again if someone I really loved was going there and hell if I ever got published I would offer to go just for petrol costs (I imagine the petrol will only rise in cost). I'm curious about how the festival is actually run, in terms of choosing who they pay to come. Is the U26 really just teenagers unchecked? If so that would make a good YA plot.