11.00: Kirkcudbright Poetry Group: Hexameter

Venue: Kirkcudbright Parish Hall, 8 St Mary St, Kirkcudbright DG6 4AQ

Robin Leiper, Alexandra Monlaur, John Priestley, Peter Roberts, David Mark Williams and Annie Wright. Hexameter is a collective of six poets whose work reflects the diversity of interests of the individual members. They will be launching their first group anthology.

2.30pm: The Diary of Lies: the New Shona Sandison Mystery

Venue: Kirkcudbright Parish Hall, 8 St Mary St, Kirkcudbright DG6 4AQ

Philip Miller is an ex-journalist turned civil servant whose third novel featuring Edinburgh-based investigative reporter Shona Sandison - The Diary of Lies – delves into an insidious conspiracy within the UK’s most powerful institutions. Philip’s previous best-selling Shona novels are noted for their ‘striking prose and lovable characters’ and relevant contemporary settings.

Philip Miller grew up in Durham and lives in Edinburgh. An award-winning journalist for twenty years, he is now a civil servant. His previous novels include The Blue Horse, All the Galaxies, The Goldenacre and The Hollow Tree and his first poetry collection Blame Yourself. 

5.00pm: How listening to the radio transformed home life

Venue: Kirkcudbright Parish Hall, 8 St Mary St, Kirkcudbright DG6 4AQ

Ex-BBC producer Beaty Rubens’ study of the power of radio in in 20th century Britain is ‘full of fascinating and often poignant detail’ according to The Guardian. In 1928 a “clerk in a provincial city” wrote to the BBC to say “how much wireless means to me and thousands of the same sort. It’s a real magic carpet.” Beaty will remind us why, almost 100 years later, this still matters.

For 35 years Beaty Rubens was an award-winning BBC Radio producer, making arts and documentary programmes and collaborating with great 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, and published a book with the same name.

7.00pm: Capturing the Bard

Venue: Kirkcudbright Parish Hall, 8 St Mary St, Kirkcudbright DG6 4AQ

Robert Burns is a legend: the Scottish Bard celebrated in his homeland, across the world and through the ages. Burns has defined Scotland, its radical traditions, egalitarianism and challenging those in authority. Join award-winning poet and biographer Robert Crawford, author of the acclaimed biography The Bard, as he talks about trying to capture the life of Scotland's national poet.

Robert Crawford is an academic at St Andrews University, writer, poet and authority on culture and history relating to Scotland and further afield. He has published widely including the award-winning Scotland’s Books: The Penguin Guide to Scottish Literature, an analysis of the relationship of Glasgow and Edinburgh and a biography of T.S. Eliot.