Scottish town Wigtown almost has more books than people in it

The writer (right) with Shaun Bythell, author of 'The Diary Of A Bookseller' and proprietor of the appropriately named The Book Shop, one of more than a dozen bookshops in the little town of Wigtown in south-west Scotland. Photo: JOHAN JAAFAR

I had never heard of Wigtown until I read Jessica A. Fox’s book.

Fox is a film director and used to be a resident storyteller at Nasa in the United States. Her charming book, Three Things You Need To Know About Rockets: A Memoir was first published in 2013. She discovered Wigtown while surfing the Internet and when her curiosity got the best of her, she travelled to the little town in the south-west of Scotland. There she found books and bookshops and love, though not necessarily in that order, and ended up staying for eight years.