Lovely new toys in stock
We took delivery of these lovely new soft toys from Mary Meyer – and they’ve proved very popular already. No surprise really as they are just adorable and also made from recycled materials which is why we were keen to stock them in the shop. There is a dog, bear, elephant, monkey, puddock (frog), lamb and cow to choose from. We also have a range of cute rainbow Highland Coos in stock from Jomanda, along with the return of the foxes, lambs, donkeys and other assorted animals.
Unfortunately a few of the team were hit by the Festival Flu, or bad cold that went round during the annual ten day event. It seems to have knocked us down, one at a time, but thankfully we’re all on the mend again. Many of the businesses in Wigtown close after the festival to recover but we continued to open but with reduced hours for the first week. But as soon as the half term holidays began we were back to being open from 10 to 4 every day apart from Sunday. The holiday season, at this time of year, goes on for several weeks with different parts of Scotland and the rest of the UK taking breaks at different times. Thankfully we have been able to restock the shelves.
On the publishing side we are in talks with Louisa and Sarah to get started on a new adventure for The Highland Cowgirl following the success of the book. This lovely picture book has been our best selling title over the summer and looks set to become a firm favourite. Our book Betty’s New Best Friend continues to sell strongly so we have now commissioned illustrator Caroline Smith of Galloway Arts to illustrate a second title featuring the main characters Betty and Archie. We’re also working on another book featuring the talents of Fran Raw of Raw Art and Gary Martin of New Chapter Books. We’re also hoping to bring out a third book with Catherine Stables, this time Shona the Vet flies to the aid of animals across the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway.
Also, we just want to give a quick mention of the podcast Booktown Blether. It’s available through Podbean but also anywhere that you normally listen to podcasts – like Spotify. The podcasts are put together by Jayne from Foggie Toddle, Lou and Bre from New Chapter Books and Ruth from Well Read Books. We chat about being booksellers in Scotland’s National Booktown and we also invite people on to talk about their work or business in the town. We started the podcast after the town’s post office closed and we wanted to do something proactive to promote Wigtown. We hope you’ll have a listen.