Cultural highlights of 2014

Clare Bryden. Cultural highlights of 2014: The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland. Third Way Magazine, February 2015. Available on Third Way website.

2014 was a rich year, from the Matisse Cut-Outs exhibition, to hearing Fidelio at Garsington, to finally visiting the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and The Hepworth Wakefield, to putting on my own first humble art exhibition in Exeter. But my highlight was discovering The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland, a cornucopia of quirky delights. It is one of those deceptive spaces that opens up nooks and crannies to entice the unsuspecting shopper into discovering a pair of armchairs by a fireplace, a suspended violin-playing skeleton, a vintage bicycle, or a ladder to a platform. There’s even a cosy-looking mattress. It also sells second-hand books.