Well it’s astonishing to me that the last time I put a post it was before the annual book festival! There has been a lot going on. Our merry band has been joined by Fiona Prior who is second reserve in case we need more hands on deck. She joined us for the festival and comes in every now and then to help out in the shop. She’s a retired school teacher but a very active environmental campaigner.
It’s been a quiet start to the year in Wigtown and we’re aware that everyone has been hit by the cost of living crisis. Thankfully we’ve had enough customers who love buying books to keep us afloat. In the background we’ve had additions to our Toon range of products and now have teatowels featuring our Garlieston, Isle of Whithorn, and Kirkcudbright to join our Wigtown design. They are produced for us by Ettrick Valley in Selkirk. We also have mugs featuring Wigtown, Garlieston and Kirkcudbright that are printed for us by Rainbow Ink of Kilmarnock. The artist Pauline Paterson and I recently took a trip through to Castle Douglas as we’ll be adding this popular town in the Stewartry to our growing collection.
On the publishing side of the business we’ve recently acquired a fabulous picture book by Glasgow born Lorraine Johnston. Lorraine has written four children’s books, many of them benefitting local and Scottish charities. Walter’s Wonky Web was one of these titles that had been published in a limited edition. They’d proved to be popular with customers in Foggie Toddle Books and when the opportunity came to acquire one of the titles we decided to take over the publication of Walter’s Wonky Web and produce it in a new A5 format. It’s now available to buy through this website and will be available to buy or order through book outlets throughout the UK from the end of March.
Lorraine Johnston
It’s a really lovely story of a wee spiderling who wants to be an awesome web designer. He starts to spin his first web but then gets upset as he believes it’s gone wonky. After asking the advice of friends he spins more webs, each of them displaying an unusual style which Walter thinks makes them wonky too! This is a great story to read to wee ones to encourage creativity and to build confidence in their abilities.
We’ll certainly have to post again soon as we have two new exciting publishing projects in the pipeline! Watch this space.
Walter’s Wonky Web