When a woman tires of lockdown, try Ayrshire

However, there is a certain amount of trepidation – would you go to a concert, a cinema or gym where there would be a lot of other people?

There’s no doubt things will change. Only recently I was in the audience for a comedy gig – I wasn’t too sure about these online events, but didn’t want to be churlish. But it actually worked and although I am not sure how the comedians to interact with the audience and we could heckle if we saw fit. The only thing that seemed to go wrong was when my image suddenly went upside down. Plenty of gags about that.

So I have thought about making the best of things. Do you know about the Boswell Book Festival? It’s not in St Boswells but in Ayrshire, close to where James Boswell’s family had an impressive pile of stones they called home. Boswell is seen as the father of modern biography – this May will see the 230th anniversary of his book about Samuel Johnson which, in all this time, has never been out of print.

And so this unique festival (the only one in the world dedicated to biography and memoir) gathers together the most fascinating group of people who have either written about their own life or about that of someone else. I have been in the past as luckily I have a friend who lives close by, but this year I’ll be going to as many of the events as possible whilst not moving from my kitchen table. Well, there’s a chance I may watch whilst lying on the sofa or, if the sun is shining, in the garden. It’s from 10th June so there is a chance of that yellow thing appearing at some point.

The programme will be great – if you don’t believe me then keep an eye on www.boswellbookfestival.co.uk. I won’t see you there but perhaps there’s a chance that we’ll be at the same events.

Could this be the new normal?

When a woman tires of lockdown, try Ayrshire - Fiona Duff

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