I’m heading two doors down to see Doon Mackichan - Fiona Duff

Boswell Book Festival, Dumfries House, Ayrshire

It doesn’t matter if it is Tom Cruise, a badly behaved footballer or her down the road at number 12, there’s a fascination in what other people are getting up to in their lives.

All of a sudden there seem to be estate agent signs outside so many properties in my neighbourhood.

As I walk the dog in the local park, everyone is chatting about who is moving and why; of course the matter of new people joining our community is also of interest.

Doon Mackichan

The thing is that real lives are, so often, more interesting than anything in fiction.

I might believe that I am just mucking about doing not very much, but there will be a curtain twitching somewhere.

They might want to know if I am wearing the same clothes as the day before (guilty as charged m’lud on so many occasions) or checking that I have picked up my spaniel’s deposit from the pavement (innocent, I promise).

Anyway, in May there is only one place to be if you want to find out about other people.

You have to jump in your car and head to the glorious Dumfries House in Ayrshire where, from 10-12 May, all the talk will be about biographies and memoirs.

In fact, the Boswell Book Festival is the only festival in the world that is dedicated to this genre of tome.

From Doon Mackichan (Kathy from Two Doors Down) talking about My Lady Parts; Errollyn Wallen, who is an internationally acclaimed composer/singer; and Olga Henderson and her memories of a childhood spent in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, to royal expert Robert Hardman and his biography of King Charles lll; and Ariane Bankes’ biography of her mother and aunt, who took 1930s London society by storm.

It really is a weekend packed with so many writers with fascinating tales to tell.

So the neighbours won’t be seeing me weekend after next, although wondering where I have gone might keep them happy for a while.