Wigtown Book Festival got off to a flying start at the weekend with thousands of visitors thronging the streets, venues, hostelries and cafes.
Top names on the bill included author William Dalrymple, who opened the festival on Friday afternoon with a fascinating talk on his book The Golden Road, which traces how India came to dominate world commerce and culture for many centuries, exporting goods such as silk and spices to the Roman Empire and south-east Asia.
Bladnoch Distillery added its spirit to the programme with three on-site tasting sessions of some of its signature whiskies, along with the story of how from humble beginnings in 1817 it grew to become the famous brand it is today.
Local man, Bladnoch ambassador and storyteller James Logan compered the evenings, which also featured a theatrical performance of how the enterprising McClelland family founded the distillery.
Saturday sell-outs in the festival marquee included former BBC Moscow correspondent Martin Sixsmith, who talked on his new book Putin and the Return of History, giving a compelling account of the increasingly fractious relations between Russia and the West, now terribly exemplified by the catastrophic war in Ukraine.
In another sell-out show, also in the festival marquee, renowned Scottish actor James Cosmo picked out some milestones and tales from his long career,
He told a packed audience: “My biggest highlights were Braveheart and Jack Ryan.
“And as far as performance goes I will never forget Braveheart, because it meant so much to me on so many levels.”
Asked if he been in a film he wished he had turned down, Cosmo said: “I don’t think I have turned down any film – I’m very proud that I have been in some of the worst films ever!”
The larger than life actor, a veteran of many on-screen dramas, then recalled an incredible real-life one of his own.
He had completed Braveheart eight months previously and was starring in a screen adaption of Jane Austen’s Emma along with Gwyneth Paltrow and Ewan McGregor.
Word come through on set that the Braveheart premiere was showing the following day in Stirling – but the producer wouldn’t let him off.
“I phoned my wife Annie and said look, I can’t go up to Stirling for the premiere. She said okay, but I could tell she was really upset,” James said.
“I’m sitting there thinking about it and although I didn’t have much money I decided to hire a plane on Sunday morning, fly up and fly back that night.
“The premiere in the McRobert Centre was fantastic – when the lights came up I looked around and everyone was crying. It was an amazing after party and I was a bit puggled – and I had to fly back to London at 2am.
“We were on the motorway from Stirling in the car when this brick phone rings and the driver says ‘it’s for you’.
“It was Strathclyde Police who said ‘we believe you are heading for London tonight.
“Would you be willing to take a human heart down with you?
“I said ‘yeah!’
“In those days you could only keep a human heart for so long and two minutes later an ambulance came in behind us.
“We shot into Glasgow Airport under police escort straight to where the plane was waiting.
“They put the yellow box between us and at Farnborough they grabbed it and took it away.
“So from that minute of indulgence of wanting to make my wife happy, God had decided that somebody’s life must be saved!”
Meanwhile. round the town bookshops and businesses were doing a roaring trade with Wigtown Bowling Club opening their clubhouse as a pop-up cafe to help cater for the demand.
And at the Old Bank Bookshop, Joyce and Ian Cochrane were exhausted but delighted after record sales on the opening Saturday.
Joyce, who has worked with books for 38 years as a librarian then a bookseller, said: “It’s been our busiest first Saturday of the festival since we opened here 20 years ago – absolutely without a doubt.
“There were 3,000 visitors to the town on Saturday alone and customers were telling me that all the cafes and coffee shopes were sold out.”
Wigtown Book Festival runs until October 6.
For full programme information visit wigtownbookfestival.com/whats-on