Well, if August flew by then I’m not sure what happened to September! Blink of an eye comes to mind. It’s been very different period for booksellers in Wigtown as we normally see a massive rise in visitor numbers due to the annual book festival. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions the festival has been online this year, though there was a Book Kist event during the first weekend to help support the bookshops in the town. It’s not quite the same as having the buzz of visitors, authors and publishers all visiting the shop. However, we did our best to get into the festival spirit and Louise created the most amazing window for the festival featuring the new books from Alan Windram and Frances Hardinge. Alan travelled to Wigtown to do his events and spend some time at the school. He was very impressed with the window which showcased his lovely books One Button Benny, and One Button Benny and the Gigantic Catastrophe. I made my acting debut on film when Alan went looking for the lifesize mascot of the children’s festival – Big Wig. Big Wig was hiding in my shop and when Alan came looking for him I had to pretend I didn’t know where he was. It was great fun. When I was in publishing with Curly Tale Books, Alan, who runs the Little Door imprint was on the same Publishing Scotland course to support small companies. It’s wonderful to see the success of the company and the new books they are bringing out.
This leads me to mention that I am very excited to be returning to children’s book publishing with a new title written by me and featuring glorious illustrations by Galloway artist Caroline Smith. We are all systems go to launch the book at the beginning of November. I’m the author of three books featuring Belted Galloways and people have been asking when they next one would be for some years now. The first book The Belties of Curleywee Farm was published nine years ago by GC Books Ltd with illustrations by Pauline Paterson who went on to write and illustrate her own books. The new book Betty’s New Best Friend also features a Belted Galloway but this time I’m introducing the popular Highland cow breed into the stories. Caroline’s illustrations are bright, colourful and feature all sorts of things for the pre-school age group to spot. The book is available to pre-order now in the website shop with copies expected at the end of October.
With people starting to think about Christmas please remember to support your local independent bookshop wherever you are. We need your help to keep going in these difficult times.
Our best seller in the shop during September was very definitely One Button Benny! Also can I give a quick mention to Nip Nebs and the Last Berry by Susi Briggs and Ruthie Redden, which is a lovely book written in Scots. It’s been shortlisted for the Scots Language Awards 2020 and it is now up to the public who wins. Please take a moment to go to the Scots Language Award website to vote for Nip Nebs. I came across Ruthie’s lovely artwork during an exhibition of children’s illustrations as a part of the Wigtown Book Festival three years ago. In fact the gallery was run by Louise Martin who is now part of the Foggie Toddle team – small world! Ruthie and Susi were planning to crowdfund the publication of the book but I was very keen to publish the book and the rest, as they say, is history.
Going back to the shop for a moment, we are now stocking a range of really lovely bee-related items thanks to the very talented artists and craftspeople who support Foggie Toddle Books. New this month are hand finished Bee linocut prints by Rosie from Fountainstone Gallery, Bee watercolour prints by Dee at Butterfly and Toadstool, really cute crochet keyrings by Crochet by Sammy, hand knitted hats by Fran Raw at Happy Snail crafts, hanging glass bees by KGR Glass and bee mugs by the Draw company. Of course we have bee related books too!
Happy reading,
Jayne x