13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Boswell Book Festival draws in the crowds with another successful year
Dumfries House hosted the Boswell Book Festival, the world's only festival dedicated to biography and memoir, at the weekend.
Crowds flocked to the Boswell Book Festival as the world's only festival dedicated to biography and memoir was held at the weekend.
Audiences were treated to a star-studded line up with the likes of Chloe Dalton, Helen Lederer, John Suchet and Wayne Sleep taking to the stage at Dumfries House near Cumnock.
Sold-out events featured Rupert Everett in conversation with Fiona Armstrong about his book, The American No, and Pam Ayres - one of the UK's best-selling poets - with her book Doggedly Onward.
A rare opportunity for tours of Auchinleck House, the family home of James Boswell, were also snapped up.
Dom Joly took audiences on a tour of conspiracy theories around the globe including the funny and the quirky but also attempting to understand what makes people so drawn them.
Ayrshire was at the heart of the festival - named after Auchinleck's James Boswell, the father of modern biography.
Kilwinning author Andrew O'Hagan brought the house down in a riotous keynote that celebrated the dialect and humour of Scotland.
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Rob Close and Gillian Hope gave an insight into the lives of soldiers from Ayrshire and Sanquhar on the front lines during World War 1 on the weekend that the 80th anniversary of VE Day was commemorated.
The history of witchcraft and the persecution of 'witches' in Scotland was highlighted by Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi alongside their book, How to Kill a Witch: A Guide for the Patriarchy.
Events for all ages were a plenty on the Saturday and Sunday with Alison Galbraith, Alan Dapré and Vivian French entertaining as part of the Boswell Children's Festival.
