Reeta Chakrabarti and Len Pennie Take Centre Stage in Wigtown’s First Weekend
BBC newsreader Reeta Chakrabarti and Scots poet Len Pennie delighted audiences as Wigtown Book Festival got into full swing this weekend.
Reeta Chakrabarti was discussing her first novel, Finding Belle, which she described as: “A story about growing up, about a little girl who realises that all is not well in her parents’ turbulent marriage.
“As the years go by she uncovers secrets about what happened – it’s a story about mothers and daughters, and about fathers and daughters. It’s about migration and its complexities and it’s about retrospection.
”Len, who came to prominence during Covid for her “Scots word of the day” videos and poems, discussed her love of Scots as “the language of home, of family and of happiness,” calling for it to be celebrated and not sidelined.
She told the packed audience in Wigtown’s County Buildings that while she writes in both English and Scots, sometimes the richness of the Scots vocabulary means it’s by far the best option for communicating particular ideas and feelings. During the event she read from her latest collection poyums annaw which The Bookseller praised as “a blistering collection that confronts patriarchy, gender-based violence and societal injustice with tenderness, a jousting wit and not a little righteous fury.”
Over the coming week there will be an abundance of other well-known names appearing at the annual festival in Scotland’s National Book Town including Nicola Sturgeon, comedian Helen Lederer, former news anchor John Suchet, ex-Nato Secretary General George Robertson, Damian Barr, plus Greg Hemphill and Julie Wilson Nimmo of Still Game and Balamory.
