Online orders: 2
Books found: 2
Nicky arrived ten minutes late, gloating over the referendum result.
Twigger emailed: ‘Hey Shaun you colossal ginger bastard – insult a few writers for me will you!
Love to all my friends in WIGTOWN, Rob.’
This year is the first year in a long time that Twigger won’t be at the festival – he is off exploring somewhere in the Himalayas for his next book, which is, I think, going to be a sort of topographical biography, similar to his last book, Red Nile.
As I was unloading some boxes from the van, Carol Carr, a local sheep farmer, was passing. We exchanged pleasantries and she asked how I was, so I told her that I was fine, apart from my back. She looked surprised and told me that Rob, her husband, has a bad back, as do most farmers. It had not occurred to her that book dealers spend a good deal of time lifting boxes of books in and out of vehicles and off the floor in uncomfortable, awkward spaces. I calculated that I lift about fifteen tons of books every year, and those fifteen tons will be moved a minimum of three times.
Six days until the festival begins.
Till total £193.50
17 customers
MONDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER
Online orders: 5
Books found: 5
Nicky and Bethan in. Nicky brought in a cake that was made to look like a giant caterpillar. It had been reduced to 49p in Morrisons and she picked it up at the weekend. It looks absolutely revolting, covered in the most hideous icing.
The festival begins on Friday, just four days away, so most of this week will be spent in frantic last-minute preparation.
Bethan spent the day pricing up and shelving the Penguins that Bev brought in earlier today.
Zoe and Darren arrived. They are actors with whom Anna is going to be doing some performance art during the festival. Rehearsals start tomorrow. They are going to be re-enacting scenes that are set in bookshops from famous films – The Big Sleep, Notting Hill, The NeverEnding Story.
Checked the status of the delivery of FBA boxes to Amazon in Dunfermline – the boxes that UPS picked up have not arrived there yet.
Today brought some very sad news. Alastair Reid died yesterday. I will write to Leslie, his widow, tomorrow. Finn telephoned to let me know at lunchtime.
Till total £145
22 customers
TUESDAY, 23 SEPTEMBER
Online orders: 4
Books found: 4
Nicky and Bethan in. As the festival is looming, they spent the day making sure the shelves are full and tidy. Three days until it begins.
After several whiskies I wrote to Leslie, Alastair Reid’s widow. Springtime will lose some of its lustre now that I know that it will no longer be marked – along with the bluebells and the swallows – by his arrival.
Till total £372.96
21 customers
WEDNESDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER
Online orders: 2
Books found: 1
Bethan in today, but no Nicky.
I moved the furniture from the big room and set it up for the Writers’ Retreat. Davy Brown, the friend and artist who holds art classes upstairs, arrived and hung his paintings there. They will be there for the duration of the festival. The Writers’ Retreat began in the relative infancy of the festival’s history, when Finn was director of the Festival Company. He had invited – among others – Magnus Magnusson to speak one year. His talk was at 8 p.m. At 6 p.m. he decided to find something to eat. In those early years, when the audiences were relatively small, most of the cafés, pubs and restaurants stopped serving food at 6 p.m. and, unable to find a meal anywhere, Finn called me in desperation and asked if they could come here for something to eat, so I quickly made some soup and a plate of leftovers, and the three of us sat down and had a meal in the house. Afterwards, Finn asked if I would consider keeping a supply of cheese, oatcakes and soup at the ready for the rest of the festival in case such an emergency reoccurred. It did. Several times. After a few years this had grown to the point at which we required a caterer to come in and manage it, and we had official opening hours. Nowadays, we feed up to seventy people on busy days, and at the weekends we treat them to fresh local lobster.
The marquee went up in the town’s central gardens today. More lorries arrived with chairs, flooring, heating and sound equipment, and another marquee. Just two days until the festival starts.
I spent an hour on the phone to UPS and Amazon in an effort to track down the missing six boxes of books we sent up to Amazon’s Dunfermline warehouse as part of our FBA shipment, but without any success. I appear to have entered a hellish world of corporate three letter acronyms.
One of the festival volunteers borrowed the van to pick up Astrid’s plywood cut-outs for the festival from her studio in Edinburgh and bring them down here. (Astrid is one of the artists in residence this year.)
This afternoon I made a stage from plywood and timber for Allison’s play. She wanted parquet flooring, so I’ve found some stick-on vinyl and ordered it.
Made a determined effort to plough through And the Ass Saw the Angel and finish it before the festival begins. Just thirty pages to go.
Till total £146.49
9 customers
THURSDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER
Online orders: 3
Books found: 3
Nicky and Bethan were both in today.
The actors (Zoe and Darren) rehearsing in the shop caused even more consternation among the customers, particularly now that they have found props and costumes.
Amazon telephoned to say that they have tracked down the missing shipment, and it is now listed and available online.
The actors, Anna and I went round to the house that Eliot has rented for the festival, and he cooked supper for us and the interns, Cheyney and Beth. When we got home, Nicky offered me the last bit of the chocolate caterpillar cake that she had bought for 49p. All that was left was its face; she had eaten the rest of it.
Carol-Ann arrived. Stuart Kelly arrived too, so the house is fairly full. The two Italians who are staying in the festival bed should arrive some time tomorrow, so I went into Newton Stewart to have spare keys cut so that guests can come and go as they please.
After work I spent a frantic hour or two putting an audio piece together for Stuart McLean for ‘The Dark Outside’ event, which starts at noon on Saturday.
The festival begins tomorrow.
Till total £227.49
15 customers
FRIDAY, 26 SEPTEMBER
Online orders: 4
Books found: 3
I finished And the Ass Saw the Angel before the shop opened. Nicky and Bethan were both in again today.
Maria, who is catering for the Writers’ Retreat this year, came to set up the kitchen. This seemed mainly to involve the pair of us moving fridges around.
Nicky and I spent the morning organising things for the festival, such as making sure we have enough loo roll and washing-up liquid and that sort of thing, as well as putting up signs directing people to venues and finding seating for events. The parquet tiles arrived for Allison’s stage. Laurie, Nicky and I had our annual argument about where the apostrophe belongs on the sign for the Writers’ Retreat.
Anna was uptight today, as the performances she has been rehearsing with the actors begin tomorrow. Apparently this is ‘immersive theatre’.
Received an email from the Italians who were supposed to be in the festival bed to say that they can’t make it. I suppose the silver lining is that it is now available for any friends who need a bed for the night.
The festival was launched (as always) with fireworks at 8 p.m. Nicky brought some home brew in with her and had a couple of pints of it before we headed down. Nobody else dared to touch the stuff. She was dancing away to the Creetown pipe band as though it was hardcore 1980s acid house.