One of the central themes of Kirkcudbright Book Festival is the opportunity which it offers authors to sell some books.
To help with that, the team behind the festival has put out this appeal, which is designed to help authors and also bring in some income to the festival, which takes place between March 5-8:
“Are you an author living within 25 miles of Kirkcudbright? Would you like to sell your books through our stall at our upcoming book festival?
20% commission will be charged to support the event.
If interested, please email your book details to kbtbookfestival@gmail.com marking the email BOOK SALES, for more information.”
One of the great strengths of the Kirkcudbright Book Festival programme is how it takes stories which are known to their audiences and brings them to the attention of those who were perhaps not aware of their full significance.
That is certainly the case with one of the events on the final afternoon of this year’s four-day festival when author Gary West will describe the remarkable renaissance of Scottish folk music during a talk at 2.30 on Sunday March 8 at the Dark Art Distillery, The Johnston, St Mary Street.
Gary, pictured here, who was written widely on the subject, will explain how recent decades have seen pioneering musicians such as Martyn Bennett fuse folk, dance and traditional sounds to create a new form of music. His talk will include references to his acclaimed biography of Martyn Bennett Brave New Music.
You can find out more about the event, and book tickets, at
https://www.kbtbookfestival.org/
Kirkcudbright Book Festival will bring the 2026 event to a close in style. Its closing Party will mark the final event in of more than 20, on Sunday March 8 at 7.00pm: in Kirkcudbright Pipe Band Hall in Daar Road.
You are invited to join musicians Susi Briggs and Adam Blake an event which will be very different from the book-based discussions that have gone before over the four days of the festival, so kick back your shoes, let your hair down, and have a good time.
Susi grew up surrounded by a family who were natural storytellers and they inspired the melody and the love of story that she shares with her audiences today.
Susi has long been an advocate for Scots language literacy and has dedicated most of her career to encouraging children to enjoy reading, writing and performing in Scots.
Adam Blake is a guitarist and singer-songwriter who moved to Scotland in 2019, escaping London after 57 years. He played with Errol Linton’s band for 26 years, played sitar and guitar for Cornershop in the noughties, played bass for Natacha Atlas in the 90s and ran his own band The Hipshakers before that. Another blues devotee, Adam is also a regular busker in Dumfries and Castle Douglas.
Susi and Adam regularly collaborate together musically in a number of forms: and in particular blues and folk, informed by their passion for storytelling and people having a good time.
Enjoy!
You can book your ticket for the celebration at https://www.kbtbookfestival.org/
Here’s a good idea if you have a friend or family member who likes literary events. Why not purchase a Kirkcudbright Book Festival Gift Voucher for them? Available for £10, £20 or £30 and applicable to any of the twenty-plus events, it’s an excellent idea. Kirkcudbright Book Festival Gift Voucher — Kirkcudbright Book Festival
Festival prepares to welcome the return of the light
The team behind Kirkcudbright Book Festival stages the event in the first week of March for several reasons.
One of the main ones is that the annual World Book Day happens on the first Thursday of the month with its commitment to young writers and readers and the festival team runs a series of free events for young people at the town’s library in Daar Road to mark the occasion.
This year, World Book Day falls on Thursday March 5, the first day of the four-day book festival and children’s authors Jayne Baldwin and Alan McClure will deliver free performances (you can find out all the details, including how to book a place for your child, at http://www.kbtbookfestival.org)
Another reason for the choice of date is that it means that the Kirkcudbright festival is the first in the Dumfries and Galloway calendar and avoids competing with our good friends at the Big Lit and Wigtown festivals, which are held later in the year.
However, there is another reason, one which goes deep into the human psyche. As everyone knows, winters are long and dark in this corner of Scotland but as the festival approaches in the first week of March, we begin to see the return of the light. As the days grow slowly longer, something stirs deep inside people and they begin to venture out, ready to return to the world.
And what better way can there be to celebrate the return of the light than with tickets for some of the festival’s events and maybe buying one or two of the books written by authors taking part? A spot of light reading, as it were!
Celebrating local talent
One of the key features of an event like the forthcoming Kirkcudbright Book Festival is the opportunities it affords for audiences to experience local voices. Yes, festivals provide a chance for local readers to hear readings from big name writers (this year those names include political commentator Michael Crick and romantic comedy novelist Fiona Gibson with 1.5 million sales worldwide) but there is plenty of local talent as well, and that is certainly true of Kirkcudbright.
This year, the first local authors to take a bow are children’s writers Jayne Baldwin and Alan McClure, pictured here), who will entertain nursery and primary schoolchildren at the town’s library as part of the free events running to mark World Book Day on Thursday March 7, with its focus on young readers.
Janye will perform at 10am and at 2pm poet, musician and children’s author Alan McClure will explore how nature and landscape can provide inspiration for tales and songs, supported by readings from his Kelpies-Prize shortlisted novel Callum and the Mountain and its sequel, Callum and the Other.
More local voices will be heard on the morning of Friday March 6, when the first anthology will be launched by Kirkcudbright poetry group Hexameter, which comprises poets Robin Leiper, Alexandra Monlaur, John Priestley, Peter Roberts, David Mark Williams and Annie Wright.
Local voices can be heard on the morning of Saturday March 7, day three of the four-day festival, which will see the Three Scribblers appear, chaired by LP Mennock, a crime writer and founder of Moffat Writers. The Three Scribblers include crime writer Ann Bloxwich, who lives in Dumfries and Galloway. She will be accompanied by fantasy writer Sarah Burchett Cook and horror writer Iain Alexander.
Echoes of Galloway sees local writing group Stewartry Writers appearing on the final morning of the festival, Sunday March 8, reading a selection of their recent writings.
Providing yet another local voice is May Rinaldi, an award-winning crime writer from Dumfries, talking about her latest book, Liar Talk, and appearing alongside fellow crime writer Samantha Dooey-Miles, on Sunday afternoon.
Local voices will, appropriately, bring down the curtain on the festival on the last night, Sunday March 8, when musicians Susi Briggs and Adam Blake will perform. Susi was born in Dumfries and will appear alongside Adam, a guitarist and singer-songwriter who moved to Scotland in 2019 from London. He’s a regular busker in Dumfries and Castle Douglas.
You can find out more, including how to book a place, at http://www.kbtbookfestival.org
Stewartry Writers back at festival by popular demand
Every literary festival needs a blend of authors travelling in from outside the area and a healthy offering of home-grown talent.
The team that has put together the forthcoming Kirkcudbright Book Festival know that and among the home-grown talent on the programme are the members of the excellent Stewartry Writers.
Back by popular demand, they will read from a selection of their recent writings that celebrate Galloway.
Their performance will offer what they describe as ‘A journey through time and tides, terrain and travels’ and, having heard them perform before, and also worked with some of the group, I know that the audience is guaranteed acutely-observed and richly-described writing that pays tribute to this magical corner of South West Scotland and will linger long in the memory.
Echoes of Galloway will take place at 11.30am on Sunday March 8, the final day of the four-day festival, at EcoArt, which can be found at 1 Castle Street in Kirkcudbright. You can find out more about the festitival,, including how to book tickets, at www.kbtbookfestival.org n
Celebrating radio
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 20th 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
1.5 million reasons to buy a ticket for this festival event
The organisers of Kirkcudbright Book Festival like to treat their audiences to appearances by some big-name authors and Fiona Gibson certainly fits the bill.
The author of romantic comedy novels will give a talk on the afternoon of Sunday March 8 (the last day of the four-day festival), entitled The Woman Who Turned Her Life Around.
Fiona – ‘the queen of relatable comedies’ – started her writing life while working on teen magazines Jackie and Just Seventeen. As Editor of More! magazine, she invented the infamous ‘Position of the Fortnight’ (it remains a career highlight).
Her romantic comedy novels – 20 published so far – have sold more than 1.5 million copies. Marriage wobbles, maddening teenagers and second-chance love – they’re all there in her hilariously relatable stories
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
Turning the focus on Elon Musk
Discuss the dramatic changes in the world of communication and it will not be long before the name Elon Musk is mentioned. Now, that debate is being taken to the forthcoming Kirkcudbrigh Book Festival, which will host a talk about the controversial American entrepreneur on the event’s final afternoon (Sunday March 8).
The talk about the man behind X, formerly Twitter, and many more innovations, everything from electric cars to space travel, as well as contentious interventions in American politics, will be delivered by Darryl Cunningham, author of Elon Musk: American Oligarch.
Known as a writer/cartoonist on an array of diverse subjects that include mental health, economics, science, and politics, the Yorkshire based author also wrote Putin’s Russia: The Rise of a Dictator.
Full details of the event, including how to book your tickets, can be found on the festival website at www.kbtbookfestival.org
Authors promise a cultural treat
One of the most striking characteristics of the programme for the forthcoming Kirkcudbright Book Festival is the way it explores Scottish culture. Two talks by authors on the third day of the festival,, Saturday March 7, illustrate the point. One follows the other, and they are being held at the same venue, for people who wish to attend both events
The first talk in the Kirkcudbright Pipe Band Hall in Daar Road, at 5pm, will explain the impact on world culture of the bagpipes and be delivered by Richard McLaughlan, an author and piper who has written The Bagpipes – A Cultural History, In the talk, he willinvestigates how a ‘national instrument’ can shift its meaning and identity from inspiring terror on battlefields to enriching cultures worldwide. The author of Serious Minds, and John Campbell’s collaborator on Haldae, both published by Hurst, Richard also co-founded the educational charity Light Up Learning.
His talk will be followed at 7pm by historian Brian Groom, who will tell his audience about the intertwined histories of Scotland and the other nations of Britain and Ireland. Based on his new book, These Isles: A People’s History of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, he reveals a colourful and often-contested story of the Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Normans and others who have occupied these islands, along with their culture, languages and passions. He will explore the role of religion and the British Empire, international diasporas and internal migration, gender relations and war.
Brian is a journalist, author and former editor of the Scotland on Sunday newspaper. His book Northerners: A History, from the Ice Age to the Present Day (2022), became a national bestseller. He is also author of Made in Manchester: A People’s History of the City That Shaped the Modern World (2024) His latest work. These Isles: A People’s History of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales is scheduledto be published by HarperNorth in February 2026
Full details of both festival events, including how to book your tickets, can be found on the festival website at www.kbtbookfestival.org
It’s coming home!
Football holds a special place in the hearts of millions of people across the world, but it’s fair to say that not every fan realises the important place that Dumfries and Galloway holds in the history of the game.
No one who attends a special event being held at the forthcoming Kirkcudbright Book Festival will be left in any doubt. Appropriately, the event will be staged on a Saturday afternoon (March 7), the third day of the four-day festival, and will explain how the area was put on the world map with the recent revelation that what became the modern game was invented in the 16th Century at the settlement of Amwoth.
The story will be recounted by Ged O’Brien, the founder of the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden Park and author of Played in Glasgow, who is currently working on and researching The Scottish Game: How Scotland Invented Modern World Football, along with poet, author, performer and workshop facilitator Julie McNeill, who will explain Kircudbright Fringe’s collaboration with St Cuthbert Wanderers and launch a publication of stories and reflections on the club and game.
It’s a terrific project and more details, including how to book your tickets, can be found at www.kbtbookfestival.org
Poets prepare to launch anthology at festival
Any self-respecting literary festival needs a dash of poetry and the occasional book launch and the forthcoming Kirkcudbright Book Festival has ticked both boxes in the same event to be held on the morning of Friday March 6, 2026, the second day of the festival
The event in question will feature poets Robin Leiper, Alexandra Monlaur, John Priestley, Peter Roberts, David Mark Williams and Annie Wright, who together make up Kirkcudbright-based Hexameter, a collective whose work reflects the diversity of interests of the individual members.
They will be launching their first group anthology at the event. More information, plus how to buy tickets, can be found at www.kbtbookfestival.org, where there are also details of more than 20 very different events for readers of all ages that make up this year’s festival.
Celebrating The Bard
If you are running a book festival, it helps if you can feature a big name or two – and, if your event is in Scotland, they don’t come much bigger than a certain Robert Burns!
The celebrated writer had strong connections with Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway and this year’s Kirkcudbright Book Festival will include a talk about him by poet and biographer Robert Crawford, pictured here, author of The Bard, the book which tells the writer’s remarkable story.
The talk will be held at 7pm on Friday March 6, day two of the four day Festival in the Dumfries and Galloway town, and, given Burns’ enduring popularity, it might make sense to book your tickets early. You can find out all the details and purchase your tickets via the festival website at http://www.kbtbookfestival.org
Young readers are never far from the minds of the team that puts together the annual Kirkcudbright Book Festival, which opens this year with World Book Day on Thursday March 5, 2026. The international celebration of books and reading always features prominently during the festival in the Dumfries and Galloway town and, this year, will be marked by free performances for local nursery age and primary school children at the town’s library in Daar Road by popular children’s authors Jayne Baldwin and Alan McClure.
You can find out more, including how to book a place, at http://www.kbtbookfestival.org
Award-winning journalist to examine the nature of leadership
Tickets are already being snapped up for the eagerly-waited appearance at Kirkcudbright Book Festival of one of the UK’s most experienced and ground-breaking political journalists.
The annual festival has been developing a reputation for attracting political big-hitters to the small town in South West Scotland and the appearance of Michael Crick on the evening of Thursday March 5, 2026, the first day of the four-day festival, will be no exception.
Few are better qualified to examine the nature of leadership, the theme of his talk, than Michael, who spent almost 40 years in television, as a political reporter with Channel 4 News, Newsnight and Panorama. He won four RTS awards and was twice RTS specialist reporter of the year. He also won the Charles Wheeler award for outstanding broadcast journalism and has written biographies of Arthur Scargill, Michael Heseltine, Alex Ferguson and Nigel Farage, and will soon publish a short book on Edward Heath. It is recommended that you buy your tickets for his talk quickly before the event sells out and you can do so at
January 6 2026
Festival tells a story of despair and treachery
Mary, Queen of Scots has long held a place of fascination in Scotland’s history and the annual book festival in Kirkcudbright is proving to be an excellent stage on which to recount different aspects of her story.
Last year, one of the festival’s most popular events was a presentation of poetry and prose written by local group Stewartry Writers and Friends, inspired by an exhibition of the silver casket of letters by Mary, Queen of Scots at Kirkcudbright Galleries, which also staged the group’s performance.
This year, Kirkcudbright Book Festival, which is held at various venues in the town in South West Scotland, will return to the theme with an appearance by writer and historian Rosemary Goring.
She will deliver a talk entitled Treachery, Deceit, Hope and Despair: The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots at 2.30pm on Saturday March 7. Kirkcudbright Galleries in St Mary Street is again the venue.
Rosemary’s books about Mary, Queen of Scots – Homecoming: The Scottish Years of Mary, Queen of Scots and Exile: The Captive Years of Mary, Queen of Scots, explore different periods of her life, with Homecoming focusing on her time in Scotland and Exile detailing her lengthy imprisonment in England after fleeing her homeland. Rosemary’s other books include the best-selling Scotland: An Autobiography and, two historical novels, After Flodden and Dacre’s War.
A columnist and reviewer with The Herald, she is also a regular abridger of books for BBC Radio.
Stewartry Writers to return by popular demand
In case you are wondering if the Stewartry Writers will be back this year, among the 20-plus events taking place at the festival between March 5-8, yes, they will, on Sunday March 8 at 11.30am with Echoes of Galloway, a presentation of readings at EcoArt, 1 Castle St, Kirkcudbright DG6 4JA
Come and join the Stewartry Writers and Friends, returning by popular demand, as they read from a selection of their recent writings celebrating glorious Galloway, near and far, past and present, promising a journey through time and tides, terrain and travels.
You can find out more about the festival, including how to purchase tickets, at https://kbtbookfestival.org/
January 5 20126
This event at the forthcoming Kirkcudbright Book Festival sounds excellent:
Upland: Exploring Mountains, Hills and Time
Venue: Council Chambers, Kirkcudbright Library, Daar Road, Kirkcudbright DG6 4JG 4.30pm Thursday March 5
Journey through Britain’s high places with Ian Crofton in a celebration of mountains and those who defined them. From ancient workers to modern wanderers, Upland blends history, nature and personal discovery – revealing landscapes full of life and memories. This event reflects on our enduring connection to upland worlds and our place.
Ian Crofton‘s books exploring the interplay of landscape, nature and history include Walking the Border: A Journey between Scotland and England, rated by both The Guardian and Trailmagazine as ‘excellent’. His Fringed with Mud and Pearls: An English Island Odyssey was described by the BBC’s Countryfile as ‘really engaging’, and by Coast magazine as ‘a fascinating study about what it means to exist on the fringes’.
Upland: A Journey Through Time and the Hills was published in May 2025.
You can check out the website to purchase your tickets
January 1, 2026
Festival programme is announced
This is one of the most exciting days of the year, not just because it ushers in the New Year with all that hope for the twelve months to come, but because today the team behind Kirkcudbright’s annual book festival has announced the programme for the 2026 event. And what a programme it is – more than twenty events, taking in a wide range of subjects and genres.
Kirkcudbright Book Festival runs between Thursday March 5 and Sunday March 8 and for me, the highlights include, on the Thursday, the World Book Day events for younger readers, featuring children’s authors Jayne Baldwin and Alan McClure, pictured here, the talk by respected political journalist Michael Crick (always guaranteed to be thought-provoking) and, as a crime writer myself, the appearance of Philip Miller, LP Mennock, Ann Bloxwich, Samantha Dooey-Miles and May Rinaldi, pictured here, the winner of the Black Spring Press New Crime Writer Award, as well as the darkly Gothic Iain Alexander.
You can find the full programme at the festival website at https://kbtbookfestival.org
The website also has details of the festival’s excellent new gift voucher scheme, which allows you to buy tickets for festival events for friends and family.
December 29 2025
Venues confirmed
The venues have been announced for the Kirkcudbright Book Festival, which will take place between March 5-8, 2026. You can check them out ahead of the announcement of the programme on New Year’s Day, by going to the festival’s Facebook page – search for Kirkcudbright Book Festival.
The website is https://kbtbookfestival.org
Festival team is announced
The team behind the 2026 Kirkcudbright Book Festival has been announced and the seven-strong committee, led by chair Naomi Johnson, pictured here, brings an impressive range of skills and experience to the task.
Supporting them is a team of experienced and enthusiastic volunteers, who will play a key role in delivering the work that needs to be done, much of which the general public does not see.
To find out more about the people behind the festival, which is due to happen between March 5-8 with the programme to be announced on January 1, you can visit their website at https://kbtbookfestival.org
Book Festival build-up gathers pace
Preparations for Kirkcudbright Book Festival 2026 are well under way with the new website having gone live ahead of publication of the programme and the recent launch of a new gift voucher scheme.
The 2026 festival will take place between March 5-8 in the Dumfries and Galloway town and will build on the success of the annual Kirkcudbright Book Week, which was founded in 2019.
The festival will take place annually over four days at the beginning of March, starting with World Book Day on the Thursday, and the eagerly-awaited programme will be revealed on January 1.
The festival team say that the programme will celebrate local and national voices, local history, Scottish culture, children’s authors, crime fiction, nature and the environment and much more, and will include talks, workshops and activities for readers of all ages.
The website also includes details of the new Gift Voucher scheme, which will allow people to buy tickets for their family and friends and will be valid for any of the 2026 Book Festival events. The website can be found at https://kbtbookfestival.org
Your chance to volunteer your support for Book Festival
Excited by the information emerging about the 2026 Kirkcudbright Book Festival, whose programme will be announced on January 1?
So excited, indeed, that you fancy being involved in the run up to the festival and during the event itself, when it is staged between March 5-8?
Well, that’s a happy coincidence because the organisers are looking for volunteers – you can get in touch with them by using the contact details on their new website at https://kbtbookfestival.org
John Dean - Crime Writer 