John Dean – Crime Writer

I am a huge fan of books and radio but, sometimes, I find myself fearing for the future of both of them in our world of endless social media (he says writing this for use on his Facebook site!) limitless view-on-demand television and streaming movies beyond counting).

So, I was delighted when I saw that only does the programme for the forthcoming Kirkcudbright Book Week feature lots of books (perhaps not a total surprise!) but that Beaty Rubens has also been signed up to appear.

Beaty, who was an award-winning BBC radio producer, will give a talk starting at 5pm on Friday March 6, the second day of the festival, in which she will explore the power of radio and how it transformed 20^th Century home life.

She is the ideal person to deliver the talk because few people know more about the medium than Beaty, who worked as a producer, making arts and documentary programmes and collaborating with big name cultural figures such as Lyse Doucet, Michael Morpurgo, Mary Beard and James Naughtie.

In 2025, she curated a major exhibition for the Bodleian Library in Oxford, called Listen In: How Radio Changed the Home, which was also the name of her book.

According to The Guardian, Beaty’s study of the power of radio in in 20th Century Britain is ‘full of fascinating and often poignant detail’. An excellent talk awaits her festival audience!

Full details of this and more than 20 other events, including how to book your tickets, can be found on the festival website at http://www.kbtbookfestival.org