Sunset Over Wigtown
I can never resist a sunset and this shot is looking west from the gardens in the middle of the town. Foggie Toddle Books is just over on your right – you can see the yellow shop sign on the white building. In the foreground there is the old merkat cross and in the centre of the sky you can see the new(er) merkat cross.
It’s been very quiet in the town since New Year, something that all businesses have been experiencing throughout Scotland. But behind the scenes of the bookshop we’re busy on a number of different projects. We have two picture books in production that should be ready for a spring release. The first is Wheesht written by Susi Briggs who is a celebrated storyteller, Scots language advocate and poet. Foggie Toddle was awarded a grant from the Scottish Government through the Scottish Book Trust last year and we’ve been waiting for the artist William Gorman to finish another commission before starting work on the illustrations. He’s now working on the story which is about a dog who loves to sing, something that his family don’t appreciate! We’re hoping to launch the book at the Big DoG festival in Dumfries in early April, and we know from the early sketches that the book is going to look great. William has been working as an artist for ten years and specialises in dog portraits so he was the ideal choice for a picture book featuring a singing dog.
The second picture book features a song that’s a favourite of Susi Briggs – The Wee Kirkcudbright Centipede. The song remains a favourite of the Scottish folk scene though it was written more than forty years ago by the late Matt McGinn. I was lucky enough to get permission from Shonagh McGinn, the daughter of Matt, to turn the song into a book in 2020. Unfortunately the first illustrator attached to the project had to withdraw due to personal reasons and it was a while before I came across another artist who I felt suited the style of illustration I had in mind. Luckily a friend Fran Raw started producing a new series of cards featuring mushroom and toadstools using linocut and I realised we could use this style to create something really different. Fran has just started work producing a series of linocuts that we’ll then put together to create the images to go with the very charming and popular song.
In my ongoing collaboration with artist Pauline Paterson, we have been out doing field work to gather images for further Galloway Toons. Pauline has now created her distinctive, colourful and quirky paintings of Portpatrick and Kirkcudbright – popular spots with summer visitors – and she’s about to work on Gatehouse and Creetown. We hope to have our range of products featuring these towns ready for Easter.
But first we have to do our annual stock take! Wish us luck.