BEST-SELLING author Shaun Bythell and musician Ben Please are marking the Wigtown Book Festival with a special tour.

As part of the festival’s 25th anniversary, the Bookshops and Back Stories walk highlights Wigtown’s bookshops and history while allowing visitors to discover the hidden gems and history from a fresh perspective.

The two artists tell their own memories of the Galloway community while explaining the story of the Wigtown Martyrs and their famous graves, giving people an insight into the Dumfries and Galloway’s town past. It now welcomes around 13,000 people to its book festival each year.The National: Ben Please (left) and Shuan Bythell (right)Ben Please (left) and Shuan Bythell (right) (Image: Colin Hattersley Photography)

Shaun Bythell is one of the town’s booksellers and runs Scotland’s largest second-hand bookshop – The Bookshop.

Bythell is the internationally best-selling author of the Diary of a Bookseller, Confessions of a Bookseller and Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops.

Ben Please was Oscar-nominated for his soundtrack to the Aardman musical Robin, Robin, along with Beth Porter.

The two musicians are part of the group The Bookshop Band and are known across Europe and America for their tours of independent bookshops performing songs inspired by literature.

During this year’s festival, they will be appearing alongside Kate Mosse to perform the song The Ghost Ship which she commissioned from them to accompany the launch of her latest novel – of the same name.

Wigtown Book Festival runs from Friday, September 22 to Sunday, October 1.

To learn more about the festival, visit https://www.wigtownbookfestival.com.