Wigtown’s world famous bookshop Airbnb has welcomed its 250th guest as the town prepares for its 25thannual book festival.
Author, inventor and entrepreneur Patricia Nolan-Brown, from near Boston in the USA, was attracted to The Open Book because she loved the idea of spending time running her own bookshop in Scotland’s National Book Town.
An avid reader she also enjoyed spending time in its comfortable apartment with books by two authors detailing how they had discovered Wigtown and ended up living there – Kathleen Hart’s best-seller Devorgilla Days and Jessica Fox’s Three Things You Need To Know About Rockets, which is being developed as a movie.
Patricia, who has just returned home, said: “I was drawn here by my love of literature and loved the idea of spending time in Scotland’s National Book Town.
“It’s a great place with such wonderful geography, and beautiful places to walk, like down to the old harbour. It’s such a comfortable and hospitable town, everyone has been so welcoming.”
The author of Idea to Invention: What You Need to Know to Cash In on Your Inspiration, a handbook for inventors wanting to take ideas to market, she is the holder of four patents – including for a mirror that allows drivers to safely keep an eye on babies placed in rear-facing seats in the back of the car.
Open Book was set up seven years ago when it was realised how many people dreamed about running their own bookshop.
Visitors love being able to open and close whenever they like, chat to people who come in to browse, look round the other book shops and get to know a beautiful area of rural southern Scotland, with its fabulous land and seascapes.
The Open Book is run as a charity with funds going to support the Wigtown Book Festival.
This year is an especially important one as it’s the 25th anniversary of Book Town status, something that has helped regenerate an area that was facing severe economic decline.
And from 22 September to 1 October there will be the 25th annual Wigtown Book Festival, one of the most popular events of its kind in the country.
Anne Barclay, Operations Director of Wigtown Festival Company (which organises the event), said:“The Open Book has been hugely popular. There are so many people who just love the idea of a bookshop holiday.
“It’s great that they can have that while helping raise funds for an event that means so much to other book lovers.
“The Open Book attracts guests from all over the world to stay and lots of them – like Patricia – turn out to have fascinating stories of their own.
“And once they’ve discovered Wigtown, they’re often eager to come back to the town time and again.”
